According to the lawsuit, Morton-Maxson had a family history of bladder cancer and doctors noted the growth was “likely cancer.” But UW “lost the surgically removed tumor prior to conducting the requisite pathological review and left plaintiff without a clear diagnostic or care plan,” the complaint stated.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/articles/1808991?e_id=e4cf434f-bdad-44b4-85d2-994f5bf03cea&utm_source=engagement-alerts&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=similar_articles?copied=1

The post Hospital Settles Missing Tumor Suit After Admitting It Can’t Find It appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

The Eighth Circuit agreed with a Missouri federal judge that an insurer need not cover a $2.5 million judgment awarded to the victim of a bar shooting, finding that an assault-and-battery exclusion clearly applied to relieve the carrier of its obligations.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1706295?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-08-03&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=6?copied=1

The post Insurance Coverage appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

In a 49-page opinion comparing the saga to both a traditional opera and a TV soap opera, Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Judge Philip J. Ignelzi said that while rival doctors Jonathan D’Cunha and Lara Schaheen may have surreptitiously recorded Dr. James Luketich as he discussed his suboxone prescription with his doctor in a surgical observation room in February 2018, he could not have expected the conversation to be secret and protected from disclosure under Pennsylvania’s law against wiretapping. Suboxone is a combination of a narcotic pain medication with an opioid blocker and is used to treat opiate addiction.

“As established by additional circumstantial evidence and inference, the backdoor to room G212 was open to some degree during the entirety of the conversation,” Judge Ignelzi said in his opinion. Finding that Luketich did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy, Judge Ignelzi concluded that “there was no violation of the Pennsylvania Wiretap Act.”

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1698827?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-07-13&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=14?copied=1

The post Surgeon’s Recorded OR Conversation About His Suboxone Prescription Is Admissible appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

… although acute medical care presents myriad risks to patient safety, there is no category for devices designed to preserve that safety.

Why We Need a New Category for Safety Devices

The post Why We Need A New Category For Medical Safety Devices appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

Ohio Supreme Court: Patients can pursue legal claim against doctor who fled country

I had a similar and horrific case involving a small child killed in an office setting during laser removal of a port wine stain lesion. The dentist performing anesthesia overdosed the child and the surgeon had no oxygen or other life saving treatments available in his office. The dentist fled Florida immediately after and we had to chase him to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, where he was sleeping in his car on an Indian Reservation.

In that case, we not only conquered that obstacle but also insurance companies for the treatment that denied the claim initially. It took years to obtain a declaratory judgment of coverage after which our client was entitled to all the costs and fees associated with the extraordinary lengths we took to obtain justice for our client.

Choose your lawyer carefully.

The post The cutoff date to file a medical malpractice lawsuit is extended if a medical practitioner flees the state within the four-year lawsuit deadline, the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled recently. appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

A jury validly found an Abingdon pain-relief physician not liable in the death of a patient whom she had injected with a contaminated steroid, because the medicine itself was an intervening and superseding cause of the fatal illness, Maryland’s second-highest court has ruled.

The link to the Maryland story is here.

The post Joint Tortfeasors appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

I have personally investigated everything from car explosions and fires to rollover accidents caused by tire blowout. I have been on the scene for traumatic motorcycle and pedestrian death investigations. I have been present for automobile reconstructions that last for days in the sweltering heat of salvage yards.

Here is a link to my firm page detailing how I handle auto cases:

My Experience Handling Serious Auto Injury Cases

The post To My Referral Partners: Thank You and a Link to Our Automobile Negligence Page appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

The patient was supposed to get Versed, a sedative intended to calm her before being scanned in a large, MRI-like machine. But Vaught accidentally grabbed vecuronium, a powerful paralyzer, which stopped the patient’s breathing and left her brain-dead before the error was discovered.

That was in a prestigious Tennessee hospital. The link is here.

I had a very similar case of an overworked nurse grabbing the wrong medicine under pressure causing a fatal overdose. I posted about my case in a three-part series titled Overdose: Overdose (No. 1); Overdose (No. 2); and, Overdose (No. 3).

These posts explore the consequences of a hospital overdose. These are “iatrogenic” deaths, meaning they are directly caused by health care providers. These medical errors should lead to prompt “sentinel event” reporting to licensing agencies, professional licensing reporting, and internal hospital peer review reporting. Families rarely get the opportunity to learn what happens in these opaque proceedings. In some cases (like the one I handled), the hospital is not honest with the family about what they know or learn in the aftermath.

In the series of Overdose posts, I lay out my experience litigating the information and discovery – some of which has to be forced or court-ordered – in these situations for the family to learn the true facts.

The post Hospital Medication Errors Can Be Fatal (And Concealed) appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

Ultimately, the family of the patient must make this tough decision. Many people have religious and moral views about autopsies and choose not to have them performed. Further, many people tell their family that they do not want an autopsy in the event of their death and family members follow that that request. However, a lack of autopsy may preclude the filing of a meritorious case.

I’ve even attended my client’s autopsies. But that’s a story for another day.

The post I’ve been giving the same advice about autopsies for twenty-five years … appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

 A former Virginia doctor has been sentenced to three years in prison for writing prescriptions that mixed powerful painkillers into narcotic cocktails that killed at least four of her patients, officials said,

I am working on cases involving opioid use disorder (OUD) and the misdiagnosis and treatment of conditions that flow from that condition. A lot of attention is paid (rightly) to the marketing of these drugs but it should not be forgotten that prescription abuse by physicians and pharmacies played a large role in the pernicious spread of OUD throughout our country. After getting our fellow citizens hooked, the medical community often treated recovering addicts like disposable garbage unworthy of standard of care treatment. This is unacceptable. If you or a family member have concerns related to OUD treatment and rehabilitation, please call me.

The post Opioid Use Disorder (OUD): Big Pharma and Medicine Made Off Like Bandits but what is the Human Cost? appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.