The death of three infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, PA is being linked to contaminated equipment used in measuring donor breast milk. In total, eight infants were affected. Of the five who survived, one was discharged and four remain, two of whom are still receiving treatment for infection. As a result of the fatalities, families are taking legal action against the medical facility.

Dentists can make mistakes just like any other doctor. This is called dental malpractice, which falls under the greater category of medical malpractice. Unlike regular medical malpractice, though, dental malpractice is harder to make a case for. When it comes to dental malpractice, a victim must prove that an injury was not only caused by the dentist failing to meet the medical standard of care, but also from mistakes caused by negligence.

In order to prove dental malpractice, a victim needs to establish duty, breach, causation, and damages in their case. Dental standards of care are regulated by the FDA, as stated in a Department of Health & Human Services report, which are considered a dentist’s duty. If the dentist or hygienist breaks those standards, they are considered to have breached their duty.

Causation is one of the most important factors in backing your case, which is proving the dentist or hygienist caused your injury, or damages. And any damages must be worse than just temporary pain and discomfort. Your injuries need to be on the more serious end in order to have a strong dental malpractice case. Because of these regulations, there aren’t as many instances of dental malpractice as you might think.

Social media and influencers have put plastic surgery procedures more into the mainstream over the last couple years even though they have been common for a long time. According to Health Research Funding (HRF), 14.6 million cosmetic surgeries are completed in the United States each year.

With that many procedures happening annually, it only makes sense that some of them go wrong. In fact, about 1% of all plastic surgeries result in complications. That might sound small, but that averages out to about 150,000 patients a year with complications. When a cosmetic procedure goes terribly wrong, you may have legal options depending on the outcome of the procedure and to the effect it has affected you.

Around the 50^th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk and nearly seven years since his unexpected passing, information regarding the circumstances of his death and the legal actions that followed have surfaced. The New York Times received records from an anonymous source that detailed the complications that Armstrong faced and the legal settlement that was made after his death between the hospital and his family. This new information brings about questions regarding how harmful secrecy can be when medical malpractice is involved in a patient’s death.

When you’re dealing with a medical problem and don’t know how to take care of it, you expect your doctor to examine you, assess your symptoms, provide a diagnosis, and give you treatment options. Unfortunately, not all doctors practice medicine according to the required standard of care. When a negligent physician delays your diagnosis and you sustain permanent injuries, you can hold them accountable and seek compensation in order to live as high a quality of life as possible.

Learning your condition could have been diagnosed sooner to prevent injuries can be devastating, especially when the harm is irreversible. When negligence is attached to the delayed diagnosis, medical malpractice can be proven. In order to start building a strong claim against the physician who wronged you, you’ll want to understand what a delayed diagnosis is, what the possible consequences are, and how a lawyer can help you.

Knowing you’ll be going into surgery can be overwhelming. It’s likely you have many thoughts running through your head about how the procedure will go and what recovery will be like. If you’re worried about the risks, possible outcomes, or medical errors, there are things you can do to maximize your chances of having a successful surgical outcome. Overall, it’s important to remember that you are the one undergoing surgery, which means you should feel as prepared as possible before the operation.

On December 26, 2017, an unidentified patient was accidentally injected with a paralyzing anesthetic at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The hospital is under investigation for not being upfront with the Davison County Medical Examiner about the deadly medication error.

The patient was being treated at Vanderbilt for a subdural hematoma, also known as bleeding in the brain, and was suffering from headaches and vision loss. Even with those symptoms, the patient was awake, alert, and improving.

It can be a frightening and overwhelming experience to learn your baby is ill or has been diagnosed with a medical condition. There are likely to be doctor’s visits, tests, and treatments, and it’s normal to have questions regarding how the illness or condition arose. New babies can suffer from two different types of medical problems: birth injuries and birth defects. While those terms are sometimes used interchangeably, it’s crucial to understand the difference between the two.

Understanding Birth Defects

A birth defect is a disease or medical condition that develops while a child is still growing in the womb. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), birth defects are common. Every four and a half minutes, a baby is born with a birth defect in the United States. That means that nearly 120,000, or one in 33, babies are affected by this issue every year.

These conditions are structural changes that can affect how any part of the body looks, works, or both. The severity depends greatly on the defect. In some cases, quality of life or lifespan can be impacted. Most birth defects are found within the first year of life or before birth. While some may be easy to see, like a physical deformity, special tests are needed to detect heart defects or hearing loss, for example.

Most birth defects form in the first three months of pregnancy; however, some can occur in the latter six months. In many cases, a birth defect is completely outside you or your doctor’s control.

Over the years, we have discussed many health care related issues on our blog, including those involving medical malpractice. We have also written many posts discussing proposed rules and legislative changes in the healthcare industry that harm patients, their rights, and their safety. Recently, a new proposed rule change that would put an end to public reporting of certain infections acquired in hospitals has been making headlines, and is being criticized for its potential impact on public safety.

The newly proposed rule change is part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) plan. Under the proposed legislation, federal regulators would no longer report on hospital infections, including serious infections and other accidents and injuries, including:

• The “super bug” MRSA
• Post-operative sepsis
• Surgical site infections
• Patient injuries / infections ranging from bedsores to respiratory failure post-surgery
• Never events (preventable medical errors that should never happen)

If the proposed rule is approved and finalized, the CMS website won’t disclose data on infections or safety measures. That’s because doing so would require that data to be part of a program the current Presidential administration states hospitals should no longer use to report safety issues.

Birth injuries are never an easy experience, especially when those injuries result from preventable acts of negligence committed by the medical professionals in whom you placed your trust during such an important time. While families are tasked with rebuilding their lives and finding ways to manage life-altering repercussions, it is also important to understand they have legal rights when birth injuries are preventable – rights that can not only provide them with a sense of justice, but also the compensation and resources they need to navigate their futures.

At Shrager & Sachs, our Philadelphia birth injury lawyers are passionate about serving as the advocates and support system families need during difficult times. Backed by decades of combined experience and a reputation for handling challenging medical malpractice cases, we understand the vital role we play in guiding birth injury victims through their personal and legal journeys, and why it becomes so critical for families to assert their rights as a means to seek the justice and compensation to which they are entitled.