Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

The newborn twins of movie star Dennis Quaid are recovering from a massive overdose of a blood-thinning drug that they received while at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.

The two-week old twins, Zoe Grace and Thomas Boone, and another child were accidentally given 10,000 units of Heparin, instead of the 10 units that babies are supposed to receive.

TMZ.com reports that the babies started “bleeding out” after they were given the overdose.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is one of the top hospitals in the United States. On Wednesday, the hospital apologized for the mistake, which it called a “preventable error.”

Heparin is an anticoagulant that is used to prevent blood clots and clean IV tubes. According to Dr. Michael Langberg, Cedars-Sinai chief medical officer, the three babies are recovering and were treated with a drug that reverses Heparin’s effects.

A patient who is injured because he or she was given too much or not enough medication could have grounds to file a medical malpractice case against the doctor and/or hospital that made the medical error.

Last year, three premature babies died at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis when they were given 1000 times the strength of Heparin than they should have received. The mistake happened because a pharmacy technician had put vials with the stronger dose of Heparin in the wrong cabinet and no one noticed the mistake.

The label for the correct dose should have said “Hep-lock” instead of “Heparin,” and the medication was dark blue in color, instead of baby blue. Three other babies, who were also given too much Heparin, survived.

Approximately 1.5 million people a year are injured because of medication errors that occur in hospitals, nursing homes, and doctors’ offices. A 1999 study showed that some 7,000 deaths occur because of drug errors. Many errors are preventable.

Poor handwriting on prescriptions, pharmacy error, mix-ups at hospitals, and prescribing the wrong drug because its name is similar to the correct drug are some common causes of drug errors.

Medical malpractice cases involving drug errors are complex cases to prove. This is why you need an experienced medical malpractice attorney who is experienced in handling cases involving medical errors and drug errors.

Dennis Quaid twins recovering from medical overdose, Reuters, November 22, 2007
Drug errors injure more than 1.5 million a year, MSNBC.com/AP, July 20, 2006
How drug mix-up that killed 3 babies happened, MSNBC.com, September 22, 2006

Related Web Resources:

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Heparin: Overdose and Contraindications, Rxlist.com
Families upset over new Heparin overdose cases, MSNBC.com, November 22, 2007 Continue reading

A preliminary autopsy by the Los Angeles County coroner reveals that rapper Kanye West’s mother may have died because of cosmetic surgery or anesthesia related to the surgery.

Donda West, 58, received cosmetic surgery from Dr. Jan Adams, a well-known Brentwood, California plastic surgeon who has been seen on TV shows, including “Extra” and “Oprah.” He hosts his own show about plastic surgery on the Discovery Health Channel. His show was pulled after West’s death.

After her surgery, West was sent home to recover. Paramedics rushed her to a Marina del Rey hospital the following day. She died at the hospital.

Dr. Jan Adams has settled at least two major medical malpractice lawsuits in the past. He also has multiple criminal convictions for alcohol-related offenses. Earlier this year, the Medical Board of California and the state attorney general’s office served Dr. Adams a complaint seeking to suspend or revoke his medical license.

The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery says that nearly 11.5 million cosmetic nonsurgical and surgical procedures took place in the U.S. last year. Botox injections and liposuction being are two of the most popular cosmetic procedures.

Cosmetic Surgery Malpractice
Every kind of surgery carries a certain risk-especially if errors or complications occur during the procedure. In plastic surgery, errors by a plastic surgeon can lead to injuries, including scarring, disfigurement, tissue malfunction, and death.

Common mistakes that can lead to grounds for a plastic surgery malpractice claim or lawsuit include:

• Surgeon inexperience or carelessness • Poor surgical training • Anesthesia errors • Disfigurement • Prolonged sedation • Under correction • Over correction • Nerve damage • Scarring • Post-operative mismanagement • Wrong implant size • Assymetry • Excessive facelift • Lidocaine overdose • Burning from chemical peels • Allergy to medication • Sex abuse by surgeon, nurse, or another medical worker
Surgery or anesthesia cited in death of rapper’s mother, Los Angeles Times, November 14
Donda West’s surgeon faced malpractice suits, records show, CNN.com, November 13, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Read the Medical Board of California’s Complaint Against Dr. Adams (PDF)

Dr. Jan Adams

Cosmetic Surgery: What to Know Beforehand, MayoClinic.com Continue reading

Dr. Jose Veizaga-Mendez, a doctor under investigation for his possible role in 10 fatalities at the VA hospital in Illinois was also accused of medical malpractice when he practice medicine in Massachusetts. His license was revoked in this state following the death of two of his patients. His medical license has now been indefinitely been suspended in Illinois.

In Massachusetts, one patient, Jeronimo Coronado, 58, died of complications from a surgery that Dr. Veizaga-Mendez had performed on him in 2000. The operation was to treat the patient’s heartburn. He died from respiratory failure, infection, and sepsis after the surgery. Massachusetts’ medical board cited surgical error by Veizaga-Mendez. Coronado’s family filed a lawsuit against Veizaga Mendez and settled out of court.

The other patient in Massachusetts was 74-year-old male, who died after undergoing surgery to remove a tumor in his lung in 2002. Dr. Veizaga-Mendez was accused of failing to diagnose that the man was experiencing postoperative bleeding. The patient was not taken to the operating room until the next day. He passed away two days later.

Surgeons, like all other medical providers, are required to provide patients with a certain standard of care. When a surgeon makes a mistake on the job and causes a patient to become more ill or die, the patient or the loved ones of the deceased can sue the surgeon for surgical malpractice or wrongful death.

Examples of Surgical Malpractice:

• Performing the wrong surgery • Performing the right surgery on the wrong body part • Delay in performing a necessary surgery • Failure to properly monitor patient after surgery • Accidentally leaving forceps, a scissor, a towel, or another surgical tool or item in the surgical patient’s body • Birthing errors • Anesthesia errors
Common reasons for surgical mistakes include exhaustion, inexperience, negligence, and operating under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Surgical errors are serious mistakes that can cause a patient great pain and suffering. Infections, brain injuries, organ damage, and death are some of the catastrophic consequences that can occur. A person may have to undergo more surgeries and take longer to recover because of a surgeon’s mistake.

Surgeon’s work questioned in Massachusetts, WQAD, October 12, 2007
Former VA surgeon loses Illinois medical license, Boston.com, October 17, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Surgical Malpractice, Wrong Diagnosis

Medical Malpractice in Massachusetts, Wrong Diagnosis Continue reading

A Suffolk County, Massachusetts jury has awarded the family of 10-year-old Jose Bejarano Jr. $26 .5 Million because birthing errors caused him to have cerebral palsy.

His family say that they will use the money to give them the resources they need to care for their son at home. Jose, Jr. eats through a feeding tube, is wheelchair-bound, only communicates through his eyes, and will never be able to take care of himself.

Jose, Jr. will never speak or walk and requires 24-hour-care because of his birth injuries. The damages are being sought from two Brigham and Women’s Hospital physicians, who are accused of not recognizing that Jose, Jr. was in fetal distress during his March 14, 1997 delivery and neglecting to perform a Caesarian operation in time.

Notre Dame Football Coach Charlie Weis told a jury in Suffolk Superior Court on Wednesday that it is difficult for him to stand on his feet all day and he is unable to walk properly. He is suing the surgeons who performed his gastric bypass procedure for medical malpractice.

Weis, the former New England Patriots offensive coordinator, claims that Doctors Charles Ferguson and Richard Hodin acted negligently when they let him bleed internally for 30 hours following his surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2002.

This is the second trial related to Weis’s medical malpractice lawsuit. The first one ended in a mistrial last February after a juror collapsed and the two doctor defendants rushed forward to assist him.

Officials in Massachusetts have ordered Dr. Joseph Z. Zolot, a Boston area doctor, to stop practicing medicine. They claim that he provided poor treatment to at least 30 patients. Three of his patients died within days of their appointments with Dr. Zolot. During these appointments, he prescribed drugs, including OxCotin and methadone. Five other patients also died, most of them from drug overdoses.

Dr. Zolot specializes in nonsurgical orthopedics. He has been licensed to practice medicine in Massachusetts since 1993. The state’s Board of Registration in Medicine has ordered the immediate suspension of his license. Federal and state law enforcement officials continue to investigate Dr. Zolot. They seized patient records during a search warrant raid of his office last May.

In a medical board document, officials are accusing Zolot of providing substandard care, medical malpractice, and medical misconduct. He is accused of prescribing powerful painkillers to patients who, based on their diagnosis, did not need them. He is also accused of not being fully informed about his patient’s medical history, giving too many joint injections, and not taking action against patients when he found out that they did not follow their proper prescription dosage.