Your loved one died unexpectedly while in the hospital, and you're in absolute shock. You hate to outright accuse the hospital staff of doing something wrong or making a mistake, but you're seriously questioning whether your loved one's death was the result of medical neglect.
Do you need an autopsy to gather evidence of medical malpractice or prove what happened to your loved one? Probably. But you may not get one unless you ask for it.
If you have had surgery, it can be quite a stressful experience to know that you will have anesthesia and a doctor operate on you. While a surgical procedure is not always something to look forward to, it is often necessary for a person's health. You trusted that your doctor would provide the care you need and perform the procedure well.
Unfortunately for some patients, surgical errors do happen. Mistakes in the operating room are "never events," meaning they should never happen. These types of missteps can result in serious complications and irreversible harm to the patient, specifically wrong-site, wrong-procedure and wrong-patient surgeries. Certain procedures and mechanisms can reduce the chance of these types of events from ever happening.
The parents of a teenager are suing over the October, 2019, wrongful death of their son in what has been described as a hazing incident st Cornell University's Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house.
While there are eight individual defendants in addition to the school and fraternity, Cornell and Phi Kappa Psi are being sued under New York's premises liability law for their negligence.
Something is going wrong in America when it comes to the health care services provided to pregnant women and new mothers -- and many people think that racism is partially at fault.
Maternal mortality rates have been dropping all over the world -- except in the United States. Here, they've been steadily increasing -- particularly among women of color.
There are different causes of a stroke, but the result is the same: The brain's blood and oxygen supply is partially or totally cut off for at least some time. Brain damage is inevitable. It's the fifth leading cause of death in this country -- but quick treatment can often lessen the brain damage that a victim suffers.
Unfortunately, not all emergency rooms are well-staffed, and not all doctors are properly trained. They may overlook the warning signs of a stroke, including:
An ignition interlock device (IID), which is essentially a small Breathalyzer-type device wired directly into a vehicle's hardware, stops the car from starting unless the driver blows "clean." Various studies have found that states that mandate the use of an IID after a drunk driving conviction reduce drinking-related fatalities by as much as 15%.
However, these devices are also causing wrecks. That's because they are not only designed to prevent a car from starting when an inebriated person gets behind the wheel, but also to stop the car if the driver has been drinking on the road. To do that, the device will flash the driver a signal that it's time for a "rolling retest."
Fatal car accidents are on the decline. In 2018, almost 36,600 people died in a car accident, but that rate is 2.4% lower than the rate in 2017. Advancements in technology, coupled with public awareness campaigns about intoxicated driving, speeding and other risky driver behavior, have all contributed to the reduction.
However, that is only part of the picture. The rate of fatal pedestrian accidents went up in 2018 by 3.4%, and that number was the highest it had been since 1990. Fatalities for cyclists jumped by 6.3%. If you're wondering how to keep your family safe here in New York or elsewhere, experts have ways to explain why this increase occurred and how to prevent it from going higher.
The district attorneys of different boroughs of New York City -- the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens -- have now released the names of police officers that they consider problematic to call on in court. All of the officers on the so-called "no-call" lists are deemed to have "credibility problems" that make their testimony about arrests and evidence questionable.
What are those credibility problems? Some of them have been exposed for lying about an incident or have been subjected to civil lawsuits over their tactics. Others have been accused of crimes themselves or have committed acts of misconduct that aren't very defensible in court. The latest list, which was released due to a request by multiple news agencies under the Freedom of Information Law, came from Queens and included 65 names.
Something went wrong with the treatment for your medical condition. The doctor says that the problem was just unexpected. The hospital says that nothing could have been done any differently. You aren't so sure -- but how do you know if your suspicions are correct? Do you need an attorney?
Maybe. Medical malpractice incidents are far too common in American society today. Surgical mistakes are the third-most-common cause of death in our country. The number of those who are injured but survive is even higher. In fact, between 2009 and 2018, New York residents were paid about $7 billion in compensation for their malpractice suits.
In today's world of scientific breakthroughs and medical advances, it seems like medical malpractice should be a rare (and getting rarer) event.
It's not. In fact, medical malpractice -- specifically from surgical mistakes -- is the third leading cause of death in the United States today.
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