Long Island, Manhattan Accident Attorney Blog

New York Medical Malpractice & Infection

New York Deaths and Medical Errors

Should You Consider a New York Medical Malpractice Attorney?

Jury Awards Willowbrook Woman $3.5M in Breast Surgery Suit

What To Do If You Have Been Misdiagnosed With Breast Cancer in New York

Are You Sure You’ve Been Prescribed the Right Medicine?

Commonly Misdiagnosed Diseases You Need To Be Aware Of

Common New York Medication Mistakes

Misdiagnosed Hydrocephalus is a Type of Medical Malpractice

Doctors Could be Making the Wrong Decisions About Medications

Delayed Colorectal Cancer Diagnosis

Signs That You May Have Been the Victim of Medical Malpractice

Undiagnosed Diabetes Caused by Medical Malpractice

Diabetes affects millions of people in the United States.  When properly treated, complications associated with this medical condition can be avoided. However, diabetes often goes undiagnosed, which can lead to health problems.  If you have suffered from undiagnosed diabetes, you need to understand how it may have happened.

The symptoms of diabetes are usually vague and doctors frequently misdiagnose the overall medical condition and simply treat the symptoms.  Undiagnosed diabetes is also common due to the fact that symptoms do not always surface in the early stages.

Undiagnosed diabetes can be serious.  People have been known to suffer from heart disease, loss of sight, stroke and have even been forced to amputate a limb, all because their diabetes was either misdiagnosed or undiagnosed.

Medical providers are sometimes to blame for undiagnosed diabetes cases.  Doctors are supposed to follow a certain procedure when diagnosing a patient’s condition and when they deviate from this process or are negligent in some way, they can be held liable for their actions.  As an injured patient, you may be able to obtain compensation for your injuries.

Contact an experienced New York medical malpractice lawyer at Rappaport, Glass, Greene and Levine at 800-734-9445 for a legal consultation.

New Limits on Medicaid

A recent article in the November issue of "The Suffolk Lawyer", discusses the important issue of Medicaid liens. In it, it states that "the Second Department has limited the right of a Social Services Department to recover from a personal injury settlement the monies expended by Medicaid in the care and treatment of a person with Down’s Syndrome to the period after the creation of a supplemental needs trust (SNT) and not from the date Medicaid first established the recipient’s eligibility for benefits. In doing so the court harmonized several provisions of state and federal law respecting the creation of SNTs in light of the requirements that an SNT contain repayment language and in consideration of the recent United States Supreme Court decision in Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services v. Ahlborn (547 US 268). "

The article further discusses the case, Matter of Ruben N. v. Elizabeth T., 2008 Slip Op 06997, decided September 16, 2008, which involved a person with Down’s Syndrome, wherein Medicaid paid his medical bills. Ultimately, the malpractice action settled on August 23, 2002 for $1,600,000.00, with DSS agreeing to accept $102,423.56, in compromise of the 104-b Medicaid lien, attaching against the proceeds of the personal injury action.

By effecting this resolution with DSS, the balance of the settlement proceeds were placed in a supplemental needs trust, which permitted those funds to be disregarded in any calculation of eligibility for Medicaid benefits. The supplemental needs trust in compliance with both federal, state and Social Services law normally contains language, that upon the death of the beneficiary, "the state would receive the remaining trust corpus to the total value of ‘all medical assistance’ provided by Medicaid to the beneficiary."

The party to the case died in 2003. At that time DSS demanded payment, "for all Medicaid disbursements for Ruben’s medical care during his entire lifetime, both before and after the spinal surgery resulting in the paralysis, in the amount of $632,714.22".

It was ultimately decided by the Appellate Division Second Department, to limit the monies received by DSS to the period of time after the creation of a supplemental needs trust, and not the date that Medicaid first established the recipient’s eligibility for benefits.

Kugel Mesh Hernia Patch Recall

The popular Bard Composix Kugel Mesh Hernia Patch has been linked to serious, life-threatening side effects and has been voluntarily recalled by its manufacturer and in association with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

On January 8, 2008, a Federal Court judge expanded the scope of current hernia patch lawsuits to include all Davol/Bard Marlex/Teflon patches, with or without "memory recoil rings."

As early as August 2001, Davol began receiving reports of complications and failures of its hernia mesh patch. These reports advise of bowel obstructions, adhesions, constipation, and fistula resulting from implantation of Composix Kugel® Mesh Patches. The reports also contain descriptions of problems other then memory recoil ring breakage including, "buckled mesh," "patch shriveling" and "edges curled up," as well as descriptions of the mesh as being "crumpled," "wrinkled," "rolled up," "delaminated" and "folded."

What is the Kugel Patch?

The Kugel patch is used to repair Inguinal, Ventral and Laparoscopic hernias. In the more common Ventral or Incisional hernia, the patch is placed behind the hernia defect through a small incision. The patch is then held open by a "memory recoil ring" that allows the patch to be folded for insertion and later spring open and lay flat once it is in place.

Timeline - Why was the Kugel Patch Recalled?

In three (3) separate product recalls, Davol Inc. and its subsidiary C.R. Bard Inc. in association with the FDA initiated a voluntary recall of the Kugel patch. The dates for the specific recalls are as follows:

December 22, 2005

March 31, 2006

January 24, 2007

The recall of the hernia patch was initiated because the "memory recoil ring" that opens the Kugel patch can break under the stress of placement of the large sized products in the intra-abdominal space.

What are the Side Effects?

The memory recoil ring defect in the hernia patch can lead to serious, life-threatening side effects. The side effects of a defective patch are as follows:

bowel perforation;

bowel obstruction;

chronic intestinal fistulae (abnormal connections or passageways between the intestines and other organs);

serious infection; and/or

death.

Signs of a Problem

What Grade Did Your Medical Insurance Company Get?

The American Medical Association has released a report card which rates medical insurance companies based on their efficiency in paying what they owe to doctors.  

You can bet that if your insurance company isn't regularly paying their doctors for what they owe you, then they probably wont be very much help when you need them.

For more information, follow the link below.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/PracticeManagement/tb/9876

RGG&L secures $1.2 million settlement for woman whose breast cancer diagnosis was delayed due to misread mammograms

    Breast cancer could well be considered an epidemic in America: One out of nine woman is diagnosed with the disease during her lifetime. And although many women now know more about-and do more about-detecting breast cancer early, sometimes that is not always enough.

    RGG&L partner Michael Glass recently secured a $1.2 million settlement for a 46-year old woman who took every reasonable step to monitor for breast cancer, including self-exams and annual mammograms. Unfortunately, for two years in a row, her radiologist completely missed a suspicious breast lesion when he interpreted her mammograms, permitting that cancer to grow and invade several of her lymph nodes. Fortunately, with aggressive treatment, the woman has beeen cancer-free for a number of years, but the mistake placed her at a significantly increased risk of recurrence and the need for highly invasive measures to arrest the further development of the cancer. 

Re-inventing the Malpractice "Crisis"

From a recent issue of The New York Sun:

"A cash-strapped Brooklyn hospital will stop delivering babies, aiming to regain its financial footing and reduce its escalating medical malpractice costs.

Long Island College Hospital, in the Cobble Hill neighborhood, plans to shutter its obstetrics department pending approval from the state's Department of Health, hospital officials said yesterday. Last year, the hospital delivered 2,800 babies, and it is on track to deliver about 2,200 this year."

The premise here is that mean old lawyers are keeping people from even being born because all they do is sue people.

In the first place, it has been our experience that the only thing that causes insurance rates to rise are the insurance companies themselves. And considering that so few medical malpractice cases even make it to trial, it seems absurd that lawsuits are the cause of rising insurance rates. We reccomend a good solid look at the profit margins of the insurance companies lately. They have taken a beating just like everyone else. The last time they lost money was in 2003 when the bond market tanked, and within two weeks they jacked their rates and blamed the lawyers.

Don't be fooled.

Highway Construction Worker Gets $4.77-Million Settlement After Being Hit and Permanently Injured by Out-of-Control Car

A spate of accidents in New York City this past summer demonstrated something that we all know intuitively to be true: Construction work is dangerous.

And within this sphere, highway construction is among the most dangerous type, with workers having to contend not only with the hazards of machines and heavy equipment, but also with drivers speeding through the construction zone.

Recently, RGG&L partner Michael Glass represented a highway construction worker who sustained permanent injuries on the job, securing a $4.77-million settlement for the man just as jury selection was about to begin. This worker had been replacing the center median of Sunrise Highway on Long Island when a teenage driver lost control of her car and fishtailed over several lanes of traffic, skidding into the construction zone and into the worker. He was thrown 40 feet, suffering multiple fractures and serious, permanently disabling head injuries. The suit was against the driver for driving carelessly and against the general contractor for failing to provide appropriate safeguards from the speeding traffic for the workers at the site.

The money from the settlement will be used to fund the injured worker's substantial ongoing medical bills and to compensate his devoted wife, who has become his primary caretaker.  "The lesson for us all," said Glass, "is to slow down and stay alert when driving through a construction zone.  It is possible to come upon work being done just a few feet, or even inches, from the moving lane of traffic."

Hospital-Acquired Illness Creates 12% Of Liability: Study

A new study from http://www.businessinsurance.com came out recently with startling numbers. More than 12 % of hospital liability costs arose from hospital-acquired infections, hospital-acquired injuries, objects left in the body after surgery and pressure ulcers. As a result, Baltimore-based Centers for Medicare and Medicaid will no longer reimburse providers for certain categories of hospital-acquired conditions and medical errors.

There is concern by risk managers that the lack of a rebursement by these social programs will trigger an increase in hospital professional liability claims. Several insurers have announced they will cease reimbursing such errors, including Chicago-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois.

The study was conducted to give health care managers a clearer understanding of their cost of risk compared to an industry benchmark. This was the first year the study included data on hospital-acquired illnesses. The hope is to use the new data to establish a benchmark against which future liability costs for such ailments could be compared.