There are three things that an injured patient must prove in order to be entitled to receive compensation:
1. What is the standard of care?
2. Did the defendant fail to meet the standard of care?
Winnipeg police have announced they have created a “special team” to conduct a criminal investigation into the death of Brian Sinclair.
Medical Malpractice Claim Filed After Hospital Waiting Room Death
Mr. Sinclair died in the Emergency Department of a Manitoba hospital after waiting 34 hours to be seen by a doctor.
The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia just released its decision in Langille v. Dzierzanowski .
Elderly Plaintiff
The plaintiff, Walter Murray Langille, is 91 years old. He filed a medical malpractice claim against the defendants alleging they removed part of his colon because they mistakenly diagnosed him with colon cancer.
Medical malpractice can happen in a variety of ways. Often there are simple steps that can be taken to reduce or eliminate the chance that patients may suffer an injury (or worse) due to malpractice.
Reduces Errors
I have posted before about how using surgical checklists helps reduce medical errors and prevents deaths due to surgical errors.
Each year millions of North Americans take medication that is supposed to help increase their bone strength. More than 20 million prescriptions of Bisphosphonates are written by doctors every year for the treatment of post menopausal osteoporosis (brittle bones). The common brand names of the drugs are Fosamax, Actonel, and Boniva.
May Hurt Instead of Help
The irony is that while these drugs are promoted and prescribed to help increase bone strength, new medical evidence indicates that long term use of the medication may actually cause bone loss.
X-Ray Errors
Central Newfoundland Regional Health Authority has suspended a radiologist for the second time since 2007. Dr. John Ozoh was removed from his duties after a review of 2,500 of Ozoh’s radiology reports. 20% of the reports required “edits” and 120 of the errors were:
“…potentially clinically significant,”
according to the Health Authority.
Does “Clinically Significant” Mean Dangerous?
There’s an interesting article in today’s issue of the Wall Street Journal about how medical malpractice lawsuits help provide better medical care.
According to the article:
“Medical professionals are finding lessons in these and other past malpractice cases. By analyzing the breakdowns in care that led to missed, delayed or incorrect diagnoses, insurers and health-care providers are developing programs to avert mistakes. . . . Diagnostic errors are the leading cause of malpractice suits, accounting for as many as 40% of cases and costing insurers an average of $300,000 per case to settle, studies of resolved claims show. Peter Pronovost, a patient-safety researcher at Johns Hopkins University, estimates that diagnostic errors kill 40,000 to 80,000 hospitalized patients annually, based on autopsy studies over the past four decades.”
Many Calls but Few Claims
I get hundreds of calls each year from people who think they have been the victim of medical malpractice.
Often the patient has very serious residual injuries or long term disability.
I am currently investigating a medical malpractice claim where my client suffered catastrophic injuries after developing pre-eclampsia so this story caught my eye.
CTV News has reported that an international team of doctors claim to have discovered 14 telltale metabolites that appear in the blood in early pregnancy that signal an increased risk for pre-eclampsia.
The researchers hope the discovery could one day mean a simple, cheap blood test for the life-threatening condition.
Man Dies In Hospital Waiting Room
The family of an aboriginal man found dead after spending 34 hours in an emergency department says it will sue a Winnipeg hospital, medical staff, the regional health authority and the Manitoba government.
Brian Sinclair, a 45-year-old double amputee with a speech problem, was found dead in his wheelchair in the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre’s E. R. after spending 34 hours in the hospital’s waiting room.
Death Could Have Been Prevented
