Recently in Medical Malpractice Category

This story happened in New Philadelphia, but it could have easily happened in our old Philadelphia. A New Philadelphia, Ohio man won a $275,000 settlement in a medical malpractice lawsuit against the federal government for having towels left in body after surgery at a veterans hospital.

Robert Sanner, 47, had surgery at the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center in Cleveland to have a cancerous kidney removed, reports The Times-Reporter. But something didn’t feel right, and Sanner returned twice to the hospital complaining that he felt sick.

A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals that too many doctors are overtesting for cervical cancer in the wrong women or by using the wrong test. The government study indicates that doctors are not following medical industry guidelines when they perform checks for the cervical cancer-causing HPV virus. By not following these guidelines, the Associated Press reports that too many women are getting unnecessary tests.

According to the AP, 60 percent of doctors are wrongly administering a routine Pap-plus-HPV test to detect cervical cancer. Industry guidelines say that this test combination should only be given to women 30 years of age or older; however, 60 percent of the doctors polled by the CDC are giving this test combination to women much younger.

West Philadelphia jazz singer S. Denise King has filed an injury lawsuit in Common Pleas Court, claiming a jolt during an MRI exam prevents her from learning any new songs. According to the Philadelphia Daily News, the suit seeks in excess of $50,000 and says King's "ability to perform new music has been impaired to her professional detriment, embarrassment, and financial loss."

Denise King said she experienced "shocking sensations" while going through a magnetic resonance imaging procedure at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in November 2008.  The procedure was stopped around the beginning of the MRI when King felt "the sensation of strong electric shocks." She claims the experience left her with an inability to learn new music.

Even though the risk is still minute, a recent study revealed that exposure to three or more X-rays in childhood could potentially double the odds that youngster could develop a form of leukemia. According to Bloomberg.com, the study does not confirm that X-rays do directly increase the risk of leukemia, but researchers are suggesting that medical physicians not order X-rays if they aren't necessary.

Each year nearly 3,317 children from birth up until the age of 14 have leukemia, which is a type of cancer that affects bone marrow and blood. Leukemia can generally be treated, but has a larger potential to be fatal.

The Ohio woman that filed a lawsuit against a Bridgewater plastic surgeon in Pittsburgh federal court officially ended the dispute last week, where Pennsylvania personal injury attorneys were finally able to come to a settlement.

The Beaver County Times reports that the details of the settlement were unavailable but that the plaintiff had been seeking in excess of $300,000 once she was informed that she allegedly received a different type of breast implants than the ones she had requested.

A Pennsylvania woman is now suing the city of Mt. Lebanon after an incident in which she claims paramedics and police officers in the city failed to properly treat her while she was having an epileptic seizure.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 23-year-old Jessica Yochum had a seizure last February at a restaurant where she worked. Emergency medical workers arrived to treat her and were informed that she was having a seizure. But according to the complaint, the emergency medical workers did not act with proper care and did not let the seizure run its course.

Just about every ER doctor in Pennsylvania probably fears the idea of a medical malpractice lawsuit. And because of his this fear, Associated Press reports that there's the trend in emergency rooms to overtest patients when they have harmless chest pains, head bumps or non-threatening stomachaches.

The problem with this trend is that testing for an unlikely illness or providing treatment for an illness that is not necessarily needed can end up being very costly for the patient. When visiting the ER, the doctor will perform tests that aren't necessary and even surgeries that may not be necessary just so the physician can avoid a potential lawsuit.

Are Pennsylvania personal injury attorneys finding a lighter caseload in the medical malpractice arena?

According to a report released last week  by Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, it would certainly appear so. This is certainly a contrast from the numbers in the early part of the decade, according to the study.

Why is medical malpractice such a hot topic among Pennsylvania personal injury lawyers? The popularity of the topic has much to do with the fact that Philadelphia is notorious for awarding extremely generous verdicts in medical malpractice cases. As a result, the number of Philadelphia medical malpractice attorneys has risen and medical malpractice lawsuits are hardly uncommon for Pa personal injury lawyers.

A PA personal injury attorney filed suit in Bridgewater on behalf of an Ohio client for breast implants gone wrong.

To be more precise, the doctor allegedly placed the wrong implants in the patient. The patient, Brittany Daly of Stebenville, Ohio, claimed that she received implants of the wrong material, as she was under anesthesia.  These implants were not the implants that she had initially anticipated, as per the discussions she had with her plastic surgeon, Dr. Beverly Carl of Bridgewater, PA. 

Apparently, Daly alleges that the wrong implants were delivered to Dr. Carl's office. As a result, Dr. Carl allegedly placed the wrong implants in Daly, without her consent. While the patient was under anesthesia, her fiance was told about the mistake. According to Ms. Daly, her fiance told the doctor to go ahead with the implants, despite the fact that they were not the ones that Ms. Daly and Dr. Carl had originally agreed to.