Tag: medical malpractice

Vacuum-Assisted Delivery And Birth Injury

Posted on by YostLaw

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

Posted on by YostLaw

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.

 

Group B Strep Infection Causing Birth Injury

Posted on by YostLaw

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

Posted on by YostLaw

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.

Injury During Cardiac Catheterization

Posted on by YostLaw

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.

 

Ataxic Cerebral Palsy

Posted on by YostLaw

Cerebral palsy (CP) occurs in nearly 1 in every 500 births, making it is the most prevalent cause of motor function impairment. A disorder of movement, muscle tone or posture, CP is a neurological condition caused by brain damage which is usually suffered before, during or soon after a baby is born. CP may also cause seizure disorder (epilepsy), swallowing, speech and eye movement problems, and can cause intellectual disabilities.  Premature birth significantly increases an infant’s risk of CP.  There are several different types of CP, with each type classified according to the type of body movement and posture problem present. Ataxic cerebral palsy is the rarest type of cerebral palsy and involves the entire body.

Ataxic CP causes problems with:

  • Balance
  • Precise Movements (may reach too far or too close to touch objects)
  • Coordination (may walk with feet unusually far apart)
  • Hand control (may have trouble buttoning clothing, writing or using scissors)

If there is birth trauma during labor and delivery, it is possible for the baby to suffer from a brain injury due to hypoxia, or lack of oxygen. Medical staff is expected to monitor the baby’s heart rate and the mother’s contraction rate to ensure the safety of the baby and avoid birth injury. Medical negligence in this area could be the reason why you child suffers from cerebral palsy.

Motor functioning impairment greatly affects quality of life. Additionally, the cost of care for a child with brain damage is high. If your child’s brain injury was caused by a medical mistake at birth, or caused by an extremely premature birth which healthcare providers negligently failed to prevent (such as a failure to diagnose and treat preeclampsia), the experienced Birth Injury lawyers at The Yost Legal Group are here to help.

Call The Yost Legal Group today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (967-8529) for a FREE, confidential, no-obligation consultation. When you call, you will speak with a Baltimore Birth Injury attorney with real experience absolutely free. At The Yost Legal Group, there is no fee or expense unless you recover.

 

Hypoxic Brain Injury- Intubation

Posted on by YostLaw

Tracheal intubation (TI), usually simply referred to as intubation, is a procedure performed by medical professionals in the setting of respiratory failure and shock. This procedure involves inserting a flexible plastic tube into the patient’s trachea (windpipe) to maintain an open airway, assist with breathing and can also serve as a channel through which to administer certain drugs.

Although intubation is a life-saving intervention, life-threatening complications may arise if this complex procedure is not done correctly. Negligent placement of the endotracheal tube into the esophagus, instead of the trachea, is a major cause of cardiac arrest and brain damage associated with intubation.  If this mistake is not immediately recognized and the tubing withdrawn from the patient’s esophagus, the patient’s airway remains blocked and hypoxic brain injury or anoxic brain injury can result from the asphyxiation caused by negligent intubation.

Patients must have a continuous supply of oxygen to the brain in order to survive. If the oxygen supply is interrupted, even for a short amount of time, the functioning of the brain is disturbed immediately and irreversible damage can quickly follow. Despite intubation guidelines and years of training in airway management, medical mistakes continue to be made, causing catastrophic complications to arise.

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.

 

Sepsis Following Weight Loss Surgery

Posted on by YostLaw

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

Posted on by YostLaw

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.

Cardiac Arrest During Spinal Block

Posted on by YostLaw

While general anesthesia is used for many surgical procedures, and local anesthetics are usually given by injection into a very specific part of the body that needs to be numbed, an injection of numbing medication into a patient’s back allows a whole region of the lower body to be pain-free without putting the patient to sleep during some abdominal surgeries, leg and feet surgeries or other lower body procedures, such as urinary tract procedures. Spinal block is also the preferred method of controlling pain during labor and delivery.

Spinal anesthesia is performed by an anesthesiologist (a doctor who specializes in administering all types of anesthesia to patients) who injects the medication just outside or just inside the membrane surrounding the spinal cord.  If the numbing medication is injected just outside of the membrane that holds the spinal fluid, it is known as an epidural injection.  If the anesthetic is injected directly into the spinal fluid it is known as a spinal injection. Epidural injection is placed using a small, soft tube (catheter) and can be injected into the patient’s back at either the upper (cervical), middle (thoracic) or lower (lumbar) region.  Spinal injection uses a needle to enter the spinal fluid and can only be inserted in the lower (lumbar) spine to avoid puncturing the spinal cord with the sharp needle.

Epidural and spinal anesthesia work fast to numb the abdomen, legs and feet by blocking nerve signals. A patient will begin to feel the effects of an epidural or spinal injection within just a few minutes and will typically experience complete lower body numbness, and no pain, within twenty minutes.

Handled properly, epidural and spinal blocks offer anesthesia quickly and efficiently. However, if the injection is given in the wrong place (wrong site) or if too much medication is injected (an overdose) respiratory and cardiac arrest can occur. For example, if the anesthesia spreads above or below the intended spinal level, it can block nerves responsible for signaling the heart to beat and cause a dangerous slowing of the heartbeat (arrhythmia or bradycardia), a severe drop in blood pressure (hypotension) or a cardiac arrest.  Similarly, if the medication is incorrectly injected into a blood vessel it enters the bloodstream, travels throughout the body (systemic toxicity) and can interfere with the patient’s heart rate, breathing and blood pressure. This may cause heart damage, a brain injury or even death, by significantly affect the following:

  • Heart
  • Breathing
  • Brain function

Because of the risks of life-threatening complications during epidural and spinal anesthesia, equipment for emergency care (such as a defibrillator and injections of vasopressor medications) must be readily available and the attending healthcare providers must be prepared to immediately recognize and treat these complications. If you have been injured as a result of an epidural or spinal block the attorneys at Yost Legal Group are 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, you will never pay an attorney’s fee unless we achieve a recovery for you. We don’t get paid until you do.

Contact Form

DO I HAVE A CASE?

Contact us at the Yost Legal Group for a free initial consultation. We can help to provide information about ongoing litigation or discuss the circumstances of your individual case. There is no fee or expense unless you recover.