Medical Malpractice is NOT the Cause of High Healthcare Cost

There is a common misconception that medical malpractice lawsuits are responsible for the rise in health insurance.  Healthcare Finance, the leading news source for developments in the healthcare finance industry,  reports, "Malpractice not cause of healthcare cost. Analysis finds malpractice payments at historic low."

795,000 Americans Suffer Serious Harms From Diagnostic Errors Annually

A July 2023 report of a study by a team from the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute Center for Diagnostic Excellence and partners from the Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions estimates that 795,000 Americans suffer serious harms from diagnostic error annually.

Medical error—the third leading cause of death in the US in 2016

 An earlier 2016 Johns Hopkins Study shows that Medical Errors are the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States, surpassing ALL causes of death other than  heart disease and cancer.

Some of the Cases we have Successfully Handled:

• Failure to diagnose blood clot in superior mesenteric artery, resulting in mesenteric ischemia, small bowel ischemia, short gut syndrome, and TPN dependence.

• Discharge from an emergency room without diagnosing a basilar skull fracture, resulting in death of a 17 year-old college freshman.

• Failure to timely treat a 12 year-old child with a ruptured popliteal artery, resulting in amputation of the lower leg.

• Operating on the wrong knee of a 16 year-old following a bicycle accident.

• Administering a blood transfusion of the wrong blood type following surgery, resulting in death of a patient.

• Negligent overdose of a patient with chemotherapy, resulting in death due to inadequate drug labeling.

• Negligent overdose of a patient with chemotherapy, resulting from erroneous order of a physician causing severe injuries.

• Failure of a radiologist to communicate to the referring physician the presence of a mass on chest x-ray, resulting in a 6-month delay of surgery to remove a cancerous tumor.

• Failure to diagnose and treat gestational diabetes, resulting in death of a newborn.

• Failure to diagnose and treat an incompetent cervix, resulting in loss of a viable fetus.

• Failure to diagnose and treat respiratory distress, resulting in death of a 20 year-old.

• Failure to perform timely surgery on tracheostomy dependent patient, resulting in death of a 37 year-old.

• Failure to diagnose and treat MRSA infection of knee and septic shock, resulting in permanent injury of the knee of a 12 year-old.

• Failure to diagnose and treat a patient with overwhelming post-splenectomy infection (OPSI), resulting in amputation of portions of both feet.

• Failure to diagnose and treat dehydration and intestinal problems in an infant, resulting in death.

• Failure to diagnose and treat meningitis and meningococcemia in a six-year-old, resulting in quadruple amputations caused by disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC).

• Failure to diagnose and treat meningitis in a baby, resulting in severe neurological injuries including brain injury.

• Failure to diagnose and treat Stage I breast cancer when suspicious mass was revealed by mammography, resulting in death.

• Failure to diagnose and treat sepsis and septic shock following hernia surgery, resulting in death.

• Negligently cutting through the S-1 nerve root during surgery to remove a benign mass, resulting in severe, permanent injuries, including foot-drop and permanent pain and numbness.

• Failure to timely diagnose and treat endophthalmitis (post-cataract surgery infection), resulting in loss of vision in the affected eye.

• Negligently leaving a large operating room towel inside patient's abdomen during surgery, resulting in wound dehiscence, permanent incisional hernia and other permanent injuries.

• Negligent placement of IV line causing extravasation of IV fluids into patient's tissues, resulting in severe injuries, including scarring and disfigurement and need for multiple surgeries.

• Negligent failure to timely diagnose and treat vitamin B12 deficiency, resulting in permanent neurological injuries.

• Leaving bed pan underneath a patient for 24 hours, resulting in full thickness bilateral decubitus injuries to buttocks, multiple surgeries and permanent disfigurement.

• Failure to diagnose and treat an impending myocardial infarction (MI), resulting in death.

• Failure to diagnose and provide prophylactic treatment to a patient with signs and symptoms of pulmonary embolism, resulting in death.

• Failure to diagnose and treat breast cancer when clinical symptoms indicated further diagnostic studies were necessary, resulting in death.

• Failure to diagnose and treat testicular torsion, resulting in loss of testicle and emotional distress.

• Failure of hospital personnel to find a tick that was embedded in a patient's abdomen, resulting in death caused by delay in diagnosis of the tick-borne disease ehrlichiosis. Please click on the link below to learn more about ticks, tick bites, tick removal, and tick diseases from the CDC.

• Failure of hospital to implement fall prevention protocol, resulting in patient's fall, fractured hip, sepsis, and death.

• Premature extubation and fentanyl overdose by a CRNA and a PACU nurse, resulting in negative pressure pulmonary edema and death of a nineteen-year-old.

• Negligent forced injection of a hydrogen peroxide solution into a facial puncture wound caused by a dog bite of a two-year-old, resulting in extravasation and cellulitis requiring emergent hospitalization, surgery, and intensive care.

• Failure to medically clear a sixteen-year-old high school football player, who had suffered a concussion, before allowing him to return to play two days later, resulting in Second Impact Syndrome and death.