Tag: Maryland medical malpractice attorneys

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.

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.

 

Sepsis Following Weight Loss Surgery

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The Centers for Disease Control reports that more than one-third (36.5%) of U.S. adults suffer from obesity. High blood pressure (hypertension), heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and stroke are all life threatening conditions linked to obesity and are some of the leading causes of preventable death.

There are various surgical procedures that doctors perform in order for patients to achieve desired weight loss and avoid obesity-related complications. These procedures are referred to as bariatric surgery and include a variety of surgical approaches, including gastric banding, Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and gastric sleeve surgery. All bariatric surgeries shrink the size of the patient’s stomach in order to limit the amount of food that can be consumed. During banding procedures, (laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding, or LAGB), a flexible band is placed around the upper portion of the patient’s stomach wall and tightened, to restrict the size of the stomach. During gastric bypass surgery, part of the stomach may be removed (gastrectomy) and the surgeon will also re-route, or bypass, part of the digestive system so that a much smaller amount of nutrients from food are absorbed by the intestinal tract.

Unfortunately, sometimes bariatric surgery brings with it consequences in the form of medical mistakes. There have been many instances where patients have suffered from an anastomotic leak (AL) during gastric bypass surgery, when fluid from within the gastrointestinal tract leaks into the sterile abdominal cavity. As a result, these patients suffer from severe peritonitis (a deadly infection in the abdomen) and sepsis. Early diagnosis of an AL is crucial for the prevention of life-threatening complications. In countless instances, medical providers have failed to diagnose this complication at the time of surgery.

Symptoms of sepsis include:
• Fever
• Hypothermia (lower than normal body temperature)
• Heart rate >90 beats per minute (bpm)
• Fast respiratory rate
• Altered mental status (confusion/coma)
• Edema (swelling)
• High blood glucose without diabetes

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.

Perforation of Small Intestine During Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy

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Laparoscopic cholecystectomy, commonly referred to as a “lap choly,” is a procedure that involves removing the gallbladder. A patient may need removal if the gallbladder is full of gallstones (cholelithiasis), inflamed, or infected (cholecystitis). When a lap choly is needed, laparoscopic techniques are used to perform this minimally invasive surgery with the assistance of a video camera and several thin instruments.

The laparoscopic incisions, each one about ½” in size, limit the surgeon’s view of the patient’s abdomen. This limited view during surgical dissection and electrocautery can be associated with serious complications. Several factors may play a role in causing these injuries, such as the complexity of the case and the experience of the surgeon.

Although injury to the common bile duct (the tube that carries bile from the gallbladder to the small intestine) is one of the most serious complications of gall bladder surgery, injury to the small bowel (small intestine) can occur as a result of a medical provider’s incorrect use of surgical tools during laparoscopic cholecystectomy.  Perforation or laceration of the small intestine during lap choly can occur when the nearby wall of the small intestine is cut by a surgical tool or burned during electrocautery.  If left undetected and not quickly repaired, a hole in the small intestine can cause bile to leak into the abdomen and can lead to life-threatening infection (abscess, peritonitis and sepsis). The duodenum (upper section of the small intestine) or jejunum (the middle portion of the small intestine) are the two most likely sections of the small intestine to be negligently damaged during laparoscopic gall bladder surgery.

Before laparoscopy is performed on a patient, the patient must be properly evaluated, including a full clinical history and thorough clinical examination. If you would like to discuss your potential claim arising from an intestinal injury during laparoscopy, the attorneys at Yost Legal Group are experienced professionals ready to investigate your claim with compassion and determination.

Call The Yost Legal Group today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (967-8529) for a FREE, confidential, no-obligation consultation. At The Yost Legal Group, there is no fee or expense unless you recover.

PREVENTABLE MEDICAL MISTAKES IN HOSPITALS

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Hospital-acquired conditions, also known as “never events”, are particularly awful medical mistakes that should not ever occur. Some examples of these preventable errors include:

  • Operating on the wrong place on the patient’s body
  • Discharging a newborn to the wrong parents
  • Leaving a foreign object, such as a scalpel or sponge, inside the body
  • Mismatched blood transfusion
  • Causing an air embolism during treatment of a patient

Unfortunately, not all medical mistakes are avoidable at all times. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) reported medical errors account for as many as 98,000 deaths per year. A more recent study specific to surgical errors conducted in 2013, found that more than 4,000 surgical “never events” occur annually in the United States.

Due to the fact that these events are preventable, health care organizations are attempting to get rid of them completely and health insurance providers, including Medicare and Medicaid, are no longer paying for costs related to hospital-acquired conditions (HACs). Also, many of these “never events” are being openly reported by the public. All of these strategies aim to inspire hospitals and medical professionals to accelerate the progress of patient safety.

Never events within hospitals can point to a major safety problem within an organization. It has been reported these error rates are much higher in the U.S. than in other developed countries such as United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Some states, such as Minnesota (the first state to pass a statute that required obligatory reporting), have enacted legislation requiring reporting of hospital-acquired conditions but not all states are required to do so. It has been up for debate whether or not required reporting of HACs has affected how frequently they occur.

As the term “never events” indicates, these events should under no circumstance be occurring however, they continue to 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, we will investigate every detail of your situation at no cost to you, and fight hard to ensure that your rights are protected.

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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