Columbus, Ohio Medical Malpractice Blog

This blog has discussed several different birth injuries in the previous four posts as part of a five-part series on birth injuries. The previous posts discussed excessive jaundice in newborns, brachial plexus injuries, brachial palsy, shoulder dystocia, Erb's palsy and gestational diabetes. The final post in this series will discuss cerebral palsy and cerebral hypoxia.

Cerebral palsy is not one disorder, but a group of disorders affecting the brain and nervous system. Symptoms can range in type and can also range from mild to severe. There is no cure for cerebral palsy and it can result in debilitating disabilities a patient and his or her caregivers will cope with for life. Treatments are intensive and aim to help a patient develop as much independence as possible.

This blog will discuss several birth injuries in five posts in order to shed some light on these conditions. The first post discussed excessive jaundice and kernicterus in newborns. The second and third post discussed brachial plexus injuries, brachial palsy, Erb's palsy and shoulder dystocia. This post will discuss gestational diabetes and the birth injuries that can result if the condition is misdiagnosed or mismanaged.

Gestational diabetes is diabetes that begins or is first diagnosed when a woman is pregnant. High blood sugar can result if pregnancy hormones block insulin from breaking down glucose. Certain risk factors can be present to increase a women's risk for gestational diabetes and her obstetrician should recognize these risk factors.

The previous post began to discuss brachial plexus birth injuries, Erb's palsy and other nerve injuries as part of a five-part series on birth injuries on this blog. The first post in the series discussed excessive jaundice and kernicterus in newborns.

Brachial palsy can result from shoulder dystocia, which occurs when the shoulder of the baby gets stuck in the birth canal after the baby's head has emerged. If there are risk factors for a difficult delivery, a C-section is often done, but sometimes these risk factors are not recognized and a preventable birth injury results.

If a mother is diabetic, it could lead to a larger than average newborn, which could result in shoulder dystocia and brachial palsy. A breech birth is also a risk factor for brachial palsy.

This blog will discuss several different birth injuries in five posts in order to explain what is involved in these conditions. In the previous post, excessive newborn jaundice was discussed. The second and third post in the series will discuss brachial palsy, Erb's Palsy, brachial plexus injuries and shoulder dystocia.

If the bundles of nerves called the brachial plexus are injured during birth, an infant may suffer brachial palsy. This condition results in a weakness or loss of movement in the newborn's arm. This injury can result from a few different possible causes during a difficult delivery.

The injuries are not always caused by medical malpractice, but in certain cases an obstetrician may not have done enough to prevent a difficult delivery and subsequent birth injury by recognizing certain risk factors or the obstetrician may have put too much pressure on the baby's nerves during delivery.

This blog will discuss several different birth injuries in the next five posts in order to shed some light on these conditions. The first condition to be discussed is excessive newborn jaundice.

Some conditions in newborns are common, but if a physician fails to spot and treat a common ailment it could lead to permanent disabilities for a baby, and could mean that the physician was negligent or committed medical malpractice.

Jaundice is common in newborns and causes the yellowing of an infant's skin and eyes. This occurs when a baby is not able to break down something in the blood called bilirubin, which occurs when the body recycles red blood cells.

Ohio's Department of Insurance releases a report annually which details the "closed claims" paid out by insurance companies on behalf of their medical professional liability customers - in other words, the payments made by insurance companies for doctors accused of medical malpractice. The report offers an interesting look at medical malpractice cases in Ohio.

In 2009, a number of people reported mysterious ring-pattern hair loss on their heads. Although these cases baffled doctors at first, investigators soon discovered the culprit: overdoses of radiation that patients had received during CT scans of their brains. In all, nearly 400 people are confirmed to have been affected. The scans, called brain perfusion scans, were often administered to help determine whether the patient had suffered a stroke. Beyond the telltale hair loss, the overdoses may turn out to be very serious, putting the patients at greatly increased risk of cancer and brain damage.

Since late 2009, the FDA has been studying patient radiation exposure from CT scans. Incidences of radiation overdoses date as far back as 2008, and the FDA reports that the problem continued until at least October of 2010.

Two recent studies point to the importance of communication between patients, doctors, nurses and pharmacists. While it seems like a simple concept, the execution is somewhat more difficult.

In one study, Doctor Jeffrey L. Schnipper's team randomly assigned 322 patients from two hospitals to have their medications entered into a computer program at admission that was designed to reconcile those medications with the ones they were taking when they left the hospital.

In addition, the researchers tried having doctors, nurses and pharmacists take the patient's medication history and keep track of all the medications they were taking.

His study resulted in a 28 percent reduction in medication errors; only 43 patients in his group suffered errors, compared to 55 outside his study.

Medical malpractice lawsuits are responsible for less than 2.5 percent of the total cost of U.S. health care, according to a new study. The Harvard School of Health study was published in the September issue of Health Affairs.

Doctors, hospitals and insurance companies have long argued that medical malpractice lawsuits are responsible for the soaring costs of health care. They also contend that physicians afraid of medical malpractice suits practice what is known as defensive medicine, ordering unneeded medical tests as a precaution against being sued.

Yet Harvard researchers found that the cost of medical malpractice suits, combined with the costs of defensive medicine, come to 2.4 percent of the total cost of U.S. health care.

In 2007, actor Dennis Quaid's newborn twins were nearly killed by a preventable medical error at a hospital. The boy and girl were given an overdose of a blood thinner to treat an infection.

Reuters reports that Thomas and Zoe Quaid almost died after they were given 10,000 units of Heparin rather than the prescribed 10 units of Hep-Lock, made by the same pharmaceutical company, Baxter. Quaid says the company should have recalled the 10,000-unit vials because they were similar to the 10-unit vials and that the two had been mistaken for each other previously.