‘Hot Coffee,’ An Expose Of The Myth Of Frivolous Lawsuits, Airs On HBO June 27

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Posted on 2nd June 2011 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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The award-winning documentary “Hot Coffee,” about how corporate America has conned this country into thinking that frivolous lawsuits are rampant, will air on HBO June 27.

Here’s hoping that this gripping film will convince people that it is their right to seek justice — and not be made a public laughingstock for doing it.

http://hotcoffeethemovie.com/

The documentary spends time delving into the famous case that became the poster child for so-called “frivolous” lawsuits, and gave the film its name.    

Stella Liebeck became the butt of jokes from comedians such as Jerry Seinfeld when she was awarded $2.9 million for injuries she sustained when hot coffee spilled on her at a McDonald’s. The scenario may sound silly on its face, but 81-year-old Liebeck as scalded so badly that doctors thought she would die. 

In the film’s man-on-the-street interviews, the initial reaction to Liebeck’s case is skepticism. But when these people are shown photos of the elderly woman’s horrific burns, they grimace in shock. And they change their opinion about her case.  

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBKRjxeQnT4&nofeather=True

One of the experts interviewed says, “To go to court and to sue you have to go through a lot of trouble to do it. It affects your life. You’re going to be attacked in all kinds of ways. Going to court to gain justice is heroic.”    

Don’t let the corporate spinmeisters ever make you think differently.

New York Senator Lobbies To Get Rid Of Caps On Lawyer Malpractice Fees

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Posted on 27th March 2011 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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The hot-potato topic of medical malpractice is stirring up controversy in New York State.

In this instance, the brouhaha is over an alleged conflict of interest on the part of state Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, who is chairman of the Finance Committee as well as serving “of counsel” for a medical-malpractice law firm, DeFrancisco & Falgiatano, according to the New York Post,   

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/lawyer_pol_bids_for_higher_malpractice_0uP9h1C93p5NNF6H9wXe7O

DeFrancisco has been supporting a bill that would abolish a cap on legal fees in medical malpractice cases, the Post reported.

Some watchdog groups claim that putting an end to limits on attorney contingency fees will cause malpractice-insurance premiums to skyrocket and will mean smaller payouts to patients. I think this is a kneejerk reaction.

New York Gov. Cuomo is advocating that there be  $250,000 cap on “pain and suffering awards,” which he claims will reduce malpractice costs by $700 million. Right now New York lawyers have caps on how much of their clients’ award they can keep.

Currently attorneys can get up to 30 percent of judgments below $250,000, the Post reported, but not any more than 10 percent of awards that are larger than $1.25 million. The bill that DeFrancisco supports would throw out those limits.    

It’s Time To Address ‘Alarm Fatigue’ At Our Hospitals

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Posted on 19th March 2011 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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So-called “alarm fatigue,” the phenomenon where nurse are so inundated with various alarms that they tune them out, has allegedly led to brain damage and death for some hospital patients. It is a growing, and frightening, trend.

The ECRI Institute, a nonprofit health care research group, teamed up with The Boston Globe for an investigation into alarm fatigue. The story, “Patient Alarms Often Unheard, Unheeded,” was published in February by The Globe, and it did an analysis based on Food and Drug Administration data. It attributed 200 hospital-patient deaths to problems with alarms that monitor the heart and breathing.     

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/02/13/patient_alarms_often_unheard_unheeded/

Simply put, the problem is that there are so many alarms that nurses are supposed to be paying attention to in hospitals that they become desensitized to them, tuning them out.

Therefore, patients who have flatlined or are suffering some other fatal malady are left to die, even as their monitors beep and signal the nurses’ station. 

In one case the family of Richard Chamoun is suing. He sustained serious brain damage, and died a month later, while he was in the hospital recovering from a quadruple heart bypass. He had been taken off a cardiac monitor for a half hour while nurses bathed him, and they did not realize he was in ventricular fibrillation, according to the American Association for Justice.   

http://www.justice.org/cps/rde/xchg/justice/hs.xsl/14739.htm

The ECRI Institute put out its own press release in March about “alarm issues,” citing The Globe story, that have “resulted in patient harm and death.” The release called alarm fatigue “a pervasive problem at most hospitals,” and the institute is apparently suggesting some ways to solve the problem.   

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clinical-alarm-issues-inhibit-the-delivery-of-safe-healthcare-117517308.html

Let’s not wait too long to address this issue.

 

West Virginia Hospital Overradiated CT Brain Scan Patients, Report Says

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Posted on 13th March 2011 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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It appears that a hospital screwed up doing CT brain scans, even after federal regulators put out warnings telling medical facilities to be more careful performing that very procedure. 

Cabell Huntington Hospital in West Virginia is the facility that overradiated patients during CT scans for more than a year after the Food and Drug Administration had already issued an alert after uncovering similar incidents regarding that particular scan, according to The New York Times. 

 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/health/06radiation.html?scp=1&sq=overradiated%20brain%20scans&st=cse

 The Times dug up records that disclosed that the West Virginia hospital had allegedly been overdosing patients with radiation until the end of November.

At least 20 of the patients, who were overradiated as they were checked for strokes, have retained a lawyer. These patients got a letter from the hospital saying that they had been given too much radiation.

The procedure in question is a CT brain perfusion scan, and issues with it first came to light in summer 2009 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to The Times. The FDA launched a study on why some patients were getting too much radiation during the procedure.

The FDA issued its report on the matter last November, finding that manufacturers needed to better train medical staff to use the complex equipment used in the CT scans. The report also recommended that the CT machines have a better sysem to tell technicians when the radiation they are dispensing is at too high a level.

In one case in West Virginia cited by The Times, Marcie Iseli, 36, lost sections of her hair after having a CT procedure in November. She went for the CT because she had been feeling numbness on one side of her face. According to The Times, Iseli had been given 10 times too much radiation, and felt nauseated after her CT.

The manufacturer who made the CT equipment is G.E. Medical Systems. And it’s doubtful this is the last time we’ll be hearing that name.

Boy Without Cerebellum Forges On, Stymieing Doctors

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Posted on 13th February 2011 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Chase Britton had a premature birth, and was legally blind. When he turned one year old, doctors performed an MRI on him to confirm their suspicions: That he had cerebral palsy.

Instead, physicians were rather astounded by their findings. Chase is missing two crucial parts of his brain, a saga that is described in a recent AOL story headlined “Boy Without A Cerebellum Baffles Doctors.”

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/12/chase-britton-boy-without-a-cerebellum-baffles-doctors/?ncid=webmail

As it turns out, Chase not only doesn’t have a cerebellum, the portion of the brain that governs motor skills, balance and emotion. He is also missing the pons, the part of the brain that governs breathing and sleeping.

Chase’s case has especially stymied doctors because there are ultrasound pictures of his brain when he was still in the womb, and those pictures show that at one point he had a cerebellum, according to AOL. Yet there is no evidence that Chase suffered a brain bleed or hemorrhage that would have lead to the cerebellum’s disappearance. 

Despite his abnormal brain, Chase found a way to balance and sit up on his own, and to crawl. He is onto his next step, learning to walk. He even plays with an iPad, according to AOL.

Chase is now three years old, and his parents Heather and David Britton feel blessed to have him. And doctors still haven’t figured out how is able to do what he is doing. 

 

Doctor Lawmaker Pushing Malpractice Caps Paid Toward $500,000 Settlement

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Posted on 9th February 2011 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Is it a potential conflict of interest for a lawmaker, a retired doctor, to push for legislation limiting malpractice awards when he himself was involved in the settlement of such a case for $500,000? Maybe not technically, but it doesn’t seem quite kosher.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/health/09malpractice.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

The New York Times Wednesday did a story about Rep. Phil Gingrey of Georgia, a retired obstetrician, who has introducd a number of versions of a malpractice reform bill. 

As it turns out, according to The Times, Gingrey was one of  several doctors named in a lawsuit filed by a pregnant woman. The suit alleged that  Gingrey and two fellow doctors failed to realise that the woman had appendicitis. When her appendix burst the woman not only lost her fetus but also suffered a stroke.

The malpractice suit, which had been reinstated after being dismissed at a trial. was settled in 2007.

Gingrey’s office gave The Times a prepared statement about the settlement, saying that the parties in the case agreed to settle because they want to deal with the cost, time, commitment and stress of a second trial.          

The bill that Gingrey is backing would collar damages for pain and suffering in malpractice cases at $250,000. It would also limit the fees that attorneys could collect for handling a patient’s case and it would offer alternatives to litigation to resolve malpractice suits.

In his statement Gingrey defended the malpractice legislation, saying that it will stop third-parties, such as attorneys,  from from collecting big fees at the expense of patients who are suing.

It seems to me that capping malpractice awards and attorneys’ fee will discourage talented lawyers from representing patients in such  cases. And then it follows that these patients won’t be getting the benefit of the best counsel around .

Judge Declares Suit By Nursing Home Residents With Cerebral Palsy A Class Action Case

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Posted on 4th February 2011 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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A federal judge in Maine has granted class-action status to a lawsuit involving nursing home residents with cerebral palsy, epilepsy and other ailments that want to live outside those facilities, according to the Associated Press.  

http://www.necn.com/02/03/11/Maine-federal-judge-lets-class-action-in/landing_politics.html?&blockID=3&apID=44b9b713d7c84c4cafdef101f51e7593

Earlier this week U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock gave the class-action designation to a suit lodged by three men with cerebral palsy who want to live on their own but still receive services from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

That lawsuit, filed in December 2009, claims that Maine was  in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Nursing Home Reform Act for not letting the three men reside outside nursing homes.

Judge Woodcock ruled that 40 nursing home residents with cerebral palsy and other conditions can join in the 2009 lawsuit. 

 

Woman Burned By Cappuccino Machine Wins $1.2 Million From Jury

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Posted on 30th January 2011 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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A Georgia woman who was burned when 190-degree water squirted out of a cappucino machine at a Quik Trip convenience store has been awarded $1.2 million. 

http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=46&articleid=20110127_46_0_Ajuryh497438&rss_lnk=5

Cynthia Nance, 54, of Buford, Ga., was awarded the sum by a jury for the injury she sustained Halloween night in 2007 at the QuikTrip. The case was then settled, with the terms confidential, after the jury’s verdict.

Nance scalded her hand and arm when she put a cup up to the cappucino machine. Her lawyer said that she may have to get a electronic implant to fix the nerve damage caused by her burns.    

Study Claims Excessive Gaming Leads To Depression, Anxiety And Addiction In Kids

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Posted on 24th January 2011 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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If your kids are constantly playing video games, they are at risk of suffering from depression and even addiction to the games, according to a new study. 

The recent research, just released, found that excessive gaming can also cause anxiety, social fears and bad performance in school by children.

http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/01/17/too-much-gaming-may-lead-to-depression-anxiety-study-finds/

The somewhat controversial study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, claimed that children who play video games too much may actually get addicted to them, an addiction that requires treatment.

The research was co-authored by Professor Douglas Gentile of Iowa State University, and involved 3,034 elementary school children in Singapore during a two-year period. Nine percent of the children would be considered “pathological” gamers.

Children who were categorized as excessive gamers averaged 31 hours a week playing video games, according to the study. And kids who were impulsive and had poor social skills were more prone to become addicted to video games.

The study brought a quick response, and denial, from the faming industry. And even some academics who study gaming questioned whether excessive gaming reaches the level of addiction.   

   

New Pinpoint Radiation Treatment Leads To Brain Injury Across The Nation

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Posted on 31st December 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

The New York Times Wednesday did a powerful, and frightening, Page One story about state-of-the-art radiation treatment gone awry.

The story begins by talking about Marci Faber, who went to Evanston Hospital in Illinois in 2009 to receive high-density, pinpoint radiation to alleviate pain that was coming from a nerve at the base of her brain. Faber is now in a nursing home, “nearly comatose, unable to speak, eat or walk, leaving her husband to care for their three young daughters,” according to The Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/29/health/29radiation.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

And Faber wasn’t the only patient to suffer such damage after undergoing stereotactic radiosurgery, known as SRS. This technology is meant to treat tumors and other problems in the brain and spinal cord, since it is highly targeted and therefore doesn’t damage healthy tissue.

In Evanston problems calibrating the machine that administers SRS — a linear accelerator redesigned so it could do the new type of radiation treatment — led to tragic circumstances for Faber and two other patients. And there have been similar cases around the country. This accelerator is made by Varian Medical Systems.

Linear accelerators have been retrofitted with a cylindrical device, called a cone, which focuses radiation for SRS. But in some cases, operator error has led to patients getting radiation overdoses. In Evanston, hospital officials said that their staff had precisely followed Varian’s instructions, expecting patients to be safe. Obviously, they weren’t.

The Times explains in much detail the saga of problems with the retrofitted Varian linear accelerator. But the bottom lines seems to be this: The Food and Drug Administration should reconsider the hasty approval it granted for the retrofitted accelerator and mistakes involving the complex equipment should be reported in a central database.

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