Year: 2017

Smith & Nephew BHR Recall

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New information shows greater insight into the negligent behavior of global medical technology company Smith & Nephew concerning its defective hip replacement products. After the recall of the Birmingham Hip Resurfacing device (BHR) in June 2015, evidence shows that the company failed to accurately inform both physicians and patients of the proper measures to take regarding these defective products. Smith & Nephew neglected to warn the public of the dangerous side effects and long-term consequences of the BHR. Due to this lack of action, more patients were harmed by these faulty products and doctors were not given essential information that could have prevented lasting pain and suffering.

Smith & Nephew falsely assured patients and the medical community of the safety and effectiveness of the BHR device. It posted misleading information on product labels and advertising platforms while having sales agents and employees repeat and spread unsupported security in the product. These efforts by the company to convince the public of the safety of the product directly influenced both patients’ and doctors’ decisions to use the implant. Smith & Nephew did this despite knowing the failure and complication rates of the BHR device.

Under federal law, Smith & Nephew was required to “describe serious adverse reactions and potential safety hazards” related to the BHR. The company’s failure to do so was an act of negligent behavior. The actions of Smith & Nephew were not unintentional, they were deliberate. The company even went as far as funding and publishing biased and misleading studies regarding the BHR implant. It used high profile athletes and celebrities to promote the safety of the faulty device, using money to push its agenda and grow sales. Smith & Nephew used all the resources in its power to downplay the dangers of their product. These actions have put thousands of hip replacement patients, who trusted the information given to them, in physical and economic disarray.

Our experienced lawyers fight for individuals who have been harmed by defective products. If you or a loved one has been injured or required revision surgery following a Smith & Nephew or other defective hip device, the attorneys at the Yost Legal Group will investigate your potential claim and lawsuit. For a free consultation, please call us at 1-800-YOSTLAW.

Have a Happy Halloween from The Yost Legal Group

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Halloween is right around the corner, and children and families throughout Maryland are preparing their costumes and decorating their homes for a frightful, fun night.

Even though Halloween is a fun holiday for kids and families to enjoy, there are important safety tips that you should discuss with your children. At The Yost Legal Group we want everyone to have a fun filled, and safe Halloween.

Whether you plan to trick or treat throughout your neighborhood, attend a costume party with your friends, or stay at home to hand out treats here are some important safety tips to remember.

Pedestrian Accidents

Halloween is one of the most dangerous nights of the year for pedestrian accidents.

  • Make sure an adult accompanies younger children while trick or treating
  • Remind your kids to always look both ways before crossing the street
  • Do not jay walk, cross at cross streets
  • Be careful of costumes that are long and dragging on the ground. These could cause a child to fall
  • Stay Visible – it is important to always remain visible on Halloween. If your child is wearing a dark costume and walking after dark, make sure to bring a flashlight or wear a reflective vest/tape in order to help alert motorists.
  • Use the Sidewalk – pedestrians should use the sidewalk as much as possible and avoid walking in the street.
  • Due to the high volume of people as well as motorists on the road using the sidewalk can greatly reduce the risk of being hit by a car.
  • Use the Buddy System – while trick-or-treating it is important to always use the buddy system and travel in groups; there is safety in numbers!
  • A parent or responsible adult should always accompany young children on the neighborhood rounds
  • Agree on a specific time when children should return home

Drunk Driving Accidents

NEVER Drink& Drive – Lots of people have Halloween parties to celebrate with friends and family. Regardless of how much you may drink at a party, never get behind the wheel of a vehicle.

  • Always have a designated driver
  • Or use a car service if you have been drinking
  • Or just stay put and sleep over
  • Never get behind the wheel after you have been drinking

Abductions

With many children and young adults out for treat or treat, there may be predators lurking. Remind your kids, that no matter what, a stranger is someone they do not know. And if someone tries to talk to them, or calls them to come over to a vehicle, no matter what, if they do not know the person, just ignore them and walk in the opposite direction.

Candy Safety

A few simple rules with candy safety.

  • Teach your children to never enter a stranger’s home
  • Throw away any opened candy, any wrap that does not look secure, just throw out
  • Any unwrapped candy throw out

At The Yost Legal Group we want to wish everyone a Safe and Happy Halloween!

Remember to travel in groups, use the sidewalk and NEVER drink and drive!

 

Vacuum-Assisted Delivery And Birth Injury

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Sometimes, during the labor and delivery process, the baby needs a little help getting through the birth canal. Approximately 1 out of 20 vaginal deliveries in the United States result in some form of assistance being required. Prolonged labor can be dangerous to the baby as well as extremely painful and exhausting to the mother. Two common forms of assisted delivery, used by medical providers to when labor is stalled, are vacuum extraction and forceps delivery.

Vacuum extraction involves placing a small round cup on the baby’s head, which attaches to a vacuum pump creating suction to help guide the baby out of the birth canal. If performed incorrectly, suction during vacuum extraction can cause permanent and even life-threatening injuries, including: massive bleeding (hemorrhage and hypovolemic shock) beneath the scalp or within the brain (intracranial hemorrhage and encephalopathy); brain damage; skull fracture; and, retinal hemorrhage. Forceps delivery (another assisted delivery method), can also cause skull fractures, skull bleeding, and bruising on the baby’s head and face. These injuries have been known to cause permanent brain damage, neurological injuries and more specifically, cerebral palsy (CP).

In the hands of an inexperienced or untrained physician, a vacuum-assisted or forceps-assisted delivery can cause you and your child serious and permanent injuries. The cost of care for a child with cerebral palsy, or any birth injury, is very high. If your child’s birth injury was caused by a complication during vacuum-assisted or forceps-assisted delivery, contact The Yost Legal Group today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (800-403-7259). When you call, you will speak with an experienced Baltimore Medical Malpractice attorney absolutely FREE.

We handle all cases on a contingency fee basis. This means you will never pay an attorney’s fee up front, and you owe us nothing unless we win your case. The attorneys at Yost Legal Group are experienced, caring professionals ready to investigate your claim with compassion and determination. Call us today to receive a free, confidential consultation about your possible case. A The Yost Legal Group, there is no fee or expense unless you recover.

 

Paralysis Caused By Spinal Surgery

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An ideal outcome in spinal surgery is dependent of the coordination of efforts by the surgeon, anesthesiologist, and neurophysiologist. Because patients are under general anesthesia during surgery, techniques for examining the nervous system for potential injuries can be somewhat limited. Intraoperative spinal cord monitoring (IOM) allows the surgeon to record the electrical signals transferred along the spinal cord and use this recording to prevent neural irritation or spinal cord injury during surgery.

Electrodes are placed on the patient’s body to monitor and record nerve signal responses throughout the spinal surgical procedure. The most common forms of spinal cord monitoring during surgery are EMG (electromyography), SEP (somatosensory evoked potentials) and MEP (motor evoked potentials). Ideally, this is done in an efficient manner without interrupting the flow of the operation and producing unnecessary interruptions.

The monitoring personnel must be able to detect and understand the source of any variables in spinal cord signals in order to deal with them appropriately. An intra-operative disruption or complete loss of spinal cord electrical signals in the appropriate monitoring channels (either SEP sensors, MEP sensors, or both) is clearly an indication of significant disturbance of spinal cord function. If this is not recognized and sensation is not restored during the spinal surgery, severe spinal cord and/or spinal nerve root injury, up to and including partial or total paralysis, may occur.

If you or a loved one has suffered permanent neurological injury and/or paralysis due to a complication during spinal surgery, contact The Yost Legal Group today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (800-403-7259). When you call, you will speak with an experienced Baltimore Medical Malpractice attorney absolutely FREE.

The attorneys at Yost Legal Group are experienced, caring professionals ready to investigate your claim with compassion and determination. Call us today to receive a free, confidential consultation about your possible case. At The Yost Legal Group, there is no fee or expense unless you recover.

 

Mismatched Blood Transfusion And Transfusion Reaction

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A blood transfusion is a common medical procedure in which donated blood is provided to a patient through a narrow tube (IV catheter) placed within a vein in the arm. Blood transfusions become medically necessary for many reasons, including a need to replace blood in patients who suffer significant bleeding as the result of a major surgery or accidental injury. Blood transfusions are also needed by patients with blood disorders which interfere with their body’s ability to manufacture blood and/or blood components, such as blood platelets.

The four major blood groups (A, B, AB, and O) are determined by the presence or absence of specific antigens (on the surface of red blood cells) and specific antibodies (in the blood plasma). Every person has an ABO blood type, and is either blood type A, B, AB or O. In addition, all blood is designated by its Rh factor, depending on whether or not it contains another blood cell surface antigen, called the Rh factor. Blood is either Rh-positive (if the Rh factor antigen is part of the surface of its red blood cells) or Rh-negative (if its red blood cells do not include Rh factor antigens). There are very precise ways in which blood types must be matched for a safe transfusion. The blood donor and the recipient must have their blood types checked and cross-matched to ensure that the recipient’s immune system will not attack the donor blood.

If incompatible blood is given during a transfusion (donor and recipient blood types do not match), the donor cells are treated as if they were foreign invaders, and the patient’s immune system attacks them accordingly. This creates life threatening complications for the patient. If a transfusion reaction occurs, it renders the blood transfusion useless and can cause a potentially overwhelming activation of the transfused patient’s immune system and blood clotting system. This may result in the patient going into shock, kidney failure, circulatory collapse, and death.

The safe and effective administration of blood transfusion procedures involves the coordinated care of a variety of professional groups including nurses, doctors, laboratory scientists and blood banks. With that being said, there is absolutely no excuse for a patient receiving an incompatible blood transfusion. This preventable, careless medical mistake is often referred to as a “never event” – a patient treatment error that should under no circumstances occur.

If you or a loved one feel you are the victim of a medical mistake, contact The Yost Legal Group today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (800-403-7259). When you call, you will speak with an experienced Baltimore Medical Malpractice attorney absolutely FREE.

The attorneys at Yost Legal Group are experienced, caring professionals ready to investigate your claim with compassion and determination. Call us today to receive a free, confidential consultation about your possible case. At The Yost Legal Group, there is no fee or expense unless you recover.

Group B Strep Infection Causing Birth Injury

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Group B streptococcus (GBS), is a bacterium that can cause serious infections in newborn babies. It is one of many types of streptococcal bacteria, commonly referred to as “strep.” Approximately one in three to four pregnant women in the US carries GBS. It is found in the lower part of the digestive system (colon) and/or in the vagina.

GBS is not harmful to healthy adults but is extremely dangerous for newborn infants when found in pregnant women. Signs and symptoms of neonatal GBS are often very difficult to detect. Newborns who are infected with GBS can develop pneumonia (lung infection), sepsis and septic shock (systemic infection, with or without organ failure), meningitis (infection of the lining of the brain and spinal cord), and septicemia (blood infection).

Complications associated with neonatal GBS can be prevented by giving an intravenous antibiotic during labor to any woman whose baby is at risk of GBS infection. These women can be identified by bacteriological screening, involving taking swabs from the vagina and rectum, or by risk-factor-based screening. All pregnant women should be screened for GBS.

Your newborn baby is at risk of GBS infection if, during your pregnancy:

  • You have a urine culture during your current pregnancy showing GBS
  • You have a vaginal and rectal swab culture during your current pregnancy showing GBS
  • You had a prior pregnancy during which you or your baby had GBS

Therefore, it is important that your medical provider tests for this type of infection to avoid an otherwise preventable birth injury. If GBS is diagnosed and not treated during pregnancy, it is medical negligence.

If you or a loved one feel you are the victim of a medical mistake contact The Yost Legal Group today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (800-403-7259). When you call, you will speak with an experienced Baltimore Medical Malpractice attorney absolutely FREE.

We handle all cases on a contingency fee basis. This means you will never pay an attorney’s fee up front, and you owe us nothing unless we win your case.

Foreign Objects Left In Surgical Patients

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Leaving foreign objects (including sponges, needles and instruments) in patients during surgical procedures is a widely recognized medical error classified as a “Never Event”. The term “Never Event” refers to a hospital-acquired condition that should not, under any circumstances, occur. A surgical tool, such a sponge or forceps, placed inside a patient during surgery but not removed at the end of the surgical procedure, can result in serious complications including infection, vascular injury, organ damage, uncontrolled bleeding or other, life-threatening, injuries.

With more than 4,000 surgical “never events” occurring annually in the United States (as reported by a 2013 study of surgical errors), it is important to be aware of the circumstances and consequences surrounding retained surgical instruments (RSI) following a surgical procedure.

A surgical sponge is the most commonly reported RSI following surgery. However, instruments such as scalpels, needles, scissors, tweezers, forceps, clamps and tubing have also been documented. Once inside the patient’s body, an RSI can cause various complications depending on the type and location of the object left behind. Complications include: bacteria collection around the foreign object, producing infection; intestinal perforation; and, internal bleeding. The most common symptom is excruciating, unexplained pain in the patient – days, weeks or even months after a surgery. Additional surgery (frequently more extensive than the patient’s original, scheduled, procedure) is usually required to remove the item, once diagnosed.

Proper patient care and safety should always be the top priority in any medical setting.  In the operating room, standard procedure includes performing needle, sponge and instrument counts at the end of each surgical procedure but these counts are not always accurate. Medical negligence has occurred whenever a surgical instrument is left in a patient.

If you or a loved one feel you are the victim of a medical mistake contact The Yost Legal Group today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (800-403-7259). When you call, you will speak with an experienced Baltimore Medical Malpractice attorney absolutely FREE.

We handle all cases on a contingency fee basis. This means you will never pay an attorney’s fee up front, and you owe us nothing unless we win your case.

Kernicterus

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Despite advances in neonatal care, preventable injuries to newborns are still prevalent in the United States. Jaundice, a common medical condition in infants, is characterized by yellow tinting of a newborn’s skin and the whites of the eyes (conjunctiva). This yellowing is a sign that there is too much bilirubin (a substance formed by the breakdown of red blood cells) in the baby’s blood. Although most jaundice resolves without causing any harm, it is important that bilirubin levels are carefully monitored in all babies with jaundice because bilirubin is a toxic substance that can rise to dangerous levels in infants.

If severe jaundice (hyperbilirubinemia) is not treated, it can lead to serious lifelong problems such as kernicterus. Kernicterus is a type of permanent brain damage that occurs in a newborn when bilirubin builds up to very high levels and spreads to the baby’s brain, where it infiltrates brain tissue and causes damaging swelling of the brain (encephalopathy). Kernicterus, also called acute bilirubin encephalopathy, causes permanent brain damage that could have otherwise been prevented.

Symptoms of kernicterus can include:

  • Extreme sleepiness and lethargy (the baby may have difficulty waking up or can’t be kept awake, does not respond to touching or does not startle from sudden movements).
  • A very abnormal, high-pitched cry.
  • Poor muscle tone – the baby may seem “floppy” and weak.
  • A fever that occurs along with any of these other symptoms.

Approximately 60% of term, and 80% of pre-term, babies develop jaundice in the first week of life and about 10% of breastfed babies are still jaundiced at 1 month of age. Therefore, it is imperative that jaundice is properly recognized, monitored (a simple blood test identifies the baby’s bilirubin level) and treated as soon as possible (typically with phototherapy and, if necessary, blood transfusions), before it develops into kernicterus. If the symptoms of hyperbilirubinemia or kernicterus are not recognized and treated by medical staff, it is medical negligence.

Our experienced attorneys fight for individuals who have been negatively impacted by the negligence of others.  If you would like to discuss your child’s potential claim arising from a brain injury, the attorneys at Yost Legal Group are experienced professionals ready to investigate your claim with compassion and determination.  For a free consultation, please call us at 1-800-YOSTLAW.

We Are Excited to Announce the Winner of the 2017 Yost Legal Group College Scholarship Essay Program!

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At the Yost Legal Group, Attorneys at Law, we are thrilled to be able to help students and members of the community succeed by offering programs like the Yost Legal Group College Scholarship Essay Program.

The program awards a $1,000 scholarship each year for the recipient to put towards tuition to pursue any field of study from an accredited college.

This year’s essay topic was on how adversity has affected your life. The essay program was open to all prospective or current undergraduate students attending an accredited college or university.

The 2017 winner of the $1,000 The Yost Legal Group College Scholarship Essay Program is Edward, a freshman at Virginia Tech.

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Edward chose to write his essay on the experiences he went through as a young boy. He described the obstacles he had to go through, most of the time alone, and how these obstacles shaped him into the young man he is today.

He also touched on how he now has a great appreciation for his struggles and for his mother, who worked hard to provide for him. He reflected on how the key to overcoming adversity throughout his childhood was finding his inner happiness.

Edward is a determined and bright young man who has grown to understand that his difficult experiences led him to where he is today. His reflections have also harvested a new love for his mother and for all she did for him.  Most importantly, he has learned that self-acceptance can help you figure out exactly where you belong in this world.

Thank you to all students who submitted an essay this year! Each and every one was eye-opening and all of you have such bright futures. We look forward to seeing what next year will bring!

Congratulations, Edward, from everyone at The Yost Legal Group

Injury During Cardiac Catheterization

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Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number one cause of death globally. Because more people die annually from heart disease than from any other cause, it is important to take preventative measures to examine how well your heart is working. Diagnostic procedures and medical tests are commonly performed by medical professionals to monitor the heart and keep people from suffering fatal heart attacks.

Cardiac catheterization, a procedure used to diagnose and treat cardiovascular conditions, involves inserting a flexible wire into an artery or vein in your neck or groin, threading this wire through your blood vessels to your heart and, finally, guiding a long, thin tube, called a catheter, over the wire and into coronary arteries, veins or even a chamber of the heart.

Complications of this procedure can include:

  • Creation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel (thrombus), triggering a stroke, heart attack, or other serious problems.
  • Dislodgment of atherosclerotic plaque (plaque rupture) from the interior wall of a blood vessel, triggering a stroke, heart attack, or other serious problems in patients with atherosclerosis (a condition commonly known as “hardening of the arteries”)
  • Damage to blood vessels (the wire or catheter may cut, scrape or puncture a blood vessel as they are threaded to the heart), causing severe bleeding (hemorrhage or hematoma).
  • Accidental placement of the catheter into the wrong artery, vessel, heart chamber or, rarely, into a lobe of the lung.

The use of ultrasound imaging to guide catheter placement and the degree of technical experience greatly influence the incidence of vascular complications. If ultrasound imaging is not used to provide visual guidance during the procedure, or if the doctor performing the catheterization is careless or inexperienced, risks of complication skyrocket. These complications may all fall into the category of medical malpractice. An injury during cardiac catheterization can cause permanent damage or even result in death.

If you or a loved one feel you are the victim of a medical mistake contact The Yost Legal Group today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (800-403-7259). When you call, you will speak with an experienced Baltimore Medical Malpractice attorney absolutely FREE.

We handle all cases on a contingency fee basis. This means you will never pay an attorney’s fee up front, and you owe us nothing unless we win your case.

 

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