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Archive for the ‘Tennessee Medical Malpractice’ Category

Today’s 300th Consecutive Daily Blog Posting For MedicalMalpracticeLawyers.com

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

Today, MedicalMalpracticeLawyers.com is proud to celebrate its 300th consecutive daily blog posting. Over the course of 299 postings, we have explored numerous medical malpractice topics, including states’ medical malpractice laws, states’ statistics regarding medical malpractice claims, results of medical malpractice jury verdicts in various states, and relevant and timely medical information useful to our readers.

Our medical malpractice research over the last 10 months has revealed the constant assault on the rights of medical malpractice victims to receive fair and adequate compensation for their losses that has drastically, unfairly, and indiscriminately reduced the compensation received by them for their permanent, painful, and debilitating injuries and losses.

Our blog has examined the well-financed and highly-organized efforts of the health care industry promoting “tort reform” legislation drafted on its behalf by politically-connected, highly-paid lobbyists who employ public fear tactics (for example, telling patients that their doctors will need to give up their medical practices due to too high medical malpractice insurance premiums or preaching the often-recited but rarely-supported mantra about “frivolous” medical malpractice lawsuits) to wage a war that they inappropriately call ”tort reform” (“reform” implies that something was wrong to begin with). Their high-powered tactics are intended to elevate the financial interests of the very few doctors, hospitals, and other medical care providers who fail to provide the medical care that their peers have established as the bare minimum required level of medical care that should have been provided under the circumstances, over the long-established legal and moral rights of the innocent victims of negligence to be fairly and adequately compensated for their injuries and losses caused solely by the wrongdoing of others.

We have tried to bring to light the processes of certain federal agencies, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), that affect the health of our citizens, such as the federal drug-approval process that can be influenced by political considerations and the financial power held by massive drug manufacturers. We have discussed the objective findings of studies undertaken by independent federal government organizations such as the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that were relevant to medical malpractice issues, to help our readers determine for themselves the unbiased, honest information that will help them form their own opinions on medical malpractice issues relevant to their lives.

While our name, MedicalMalpracticeLawyers.com, and our website  are dedicated to helping the innocent victims of medical malpractice be connected with medical malpractice lawyers in their local area throughout the United States who may be able and willing to investigate their possible medical malpractice claims for them and represent them in their medical malpractice case, if appropriate, we have always provided the source of our information and the link to our source in our blogs so that our readers can read for themselves the original source information.

MedicalMalpracticeLawyers.com will continue to seek out and explore interesting and useful medical malpractice information for our future blogs. If you have information or a request for information regarding medical malpractice issues important to you, please contact us with your information or your request so that we can provide the information to our blog readers.

We wish all of you the best of health, happiness, and enjoyment of life for the New Year!

Please visit our website  or call us toll free (800-295-3959) if we can assist you.

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Tennessee Medical Malpractice Claim For Discarded Newborn

Monday, December 26th, 2011

In June, 2009, an obstetrician (OB) in Tennessee delivered a baby with an irregular heart rate who was gasping for breath but moving his extremities immediately after birth. The OB decided without consulting with anyone that the newborn would not survive and thereafter deposited the newborn’s body into a plastic container until the family could decide what to do with his body.

More than four hours later, a nurse walking by the container heard the newborn baby gasping for breath. Resuscitation efforts were started and the newborn was transferred to another hospital where he stayed for three months of intensive medical treatment.

A medical malpractice case has been filed against the delivering doctor for his alleged failure to call in a pediatrician to begin immediate resuscitation of the newborn and his alleged failure to transfer the newborn to a neonatal intensive care unit. The newborn (who is now a toddler) sustained brain damage and other serious injuries as a result of the alleged medical malpractice.

Source

There is no doubt that anyone reading about this horrific situation would cringe at the thought of a living newborn’s body being disposed of in the manner alleged, without heroic medical efforts having been made to save the newborn’s life. While medical professionals receive years of advanced training and have the benefit of years of practical experience when treating their patients, the factual allegations in this Tennessee medical malpractice case serve as an example of when the professional opinions of treating medical providers may be (almost) dead wrong.

While the mistake of a waiter in a restaurant who brings you the wrong meal may be a mistake that is an annoyance or inconvenience, that mistake will probably not cause you serious or permanent injuries or result in your death. However, when a medical professional makes a mistake in treating (or failing to treat) you, the consequences can be dire and permanent. Because a negligent medical provider’s inadequate actions or omissions can foreseeably be expected to result in catastrophic injuries or death, when medical malpractice does occur, there should not be an artifical ceiling on the amount that the innocent injured victim may receive as compensation for his/her injuries; such caps (limits) on recoverable compensation serve only as a “free pass” to those who could have and should have been more careful and who were solely in control of the negligent situation that caused the injuries.

We at MedicalMalpracticeLawyers.com are passionate about our mission to try to assist innocent victims of medical malpractice. If you or a loved one were injured because of the medical negligence of a medical provider, you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries and losses.

Visit our website  or call us toll free at 800-295-3959 to be connected with local medical malpractice lawyers who may be able to assist you with your medical malpractice claim.

Turn to us when you don’t know where to turn.

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Tennessee Medical Malpractice Verdict For Deadly Delayed Breast Cancer Diagnosis

Saturday, December 24th, 2011

In August, 2003, a 25-year-old Tennessee woman was examined by her OB/GYN who found a pea-sized lump in her left breast that the OB/GYN advised the woman was probably a cyst or fatty deposit. No further investigation or testing was done at that time.

About eighteen months later, during the woman’s pregnancy, she noticed that her left breast had become swollen and was more painful. Another OB/GYN then found a cystic/solid mass in her left breast. A mammogram and biopsy were ordered that revealed breast cancer and it was later determined that the breast cancer was Stage IV and had spread to her liver.

The medical malpractice lawsuit filed in 2006 alleged that had the original OB/GYN done appropriate testing in August, 2003, the cancer would have been discovered eighteen months earlier and at a much earlier stage before it had time to spread, and that the cancer would have been treatable at that time with likely survival. As a result of the alleged medical malpractice and the resulting delay in diagnosis, the woman had to undergo extensive and painful medical treatments and has suffered from severe pain and mental anguish. Her long-term survival from Stage IV breast cancer was unlikely.

After a two-week trial before a jury made up of both men and women that ended in July, 2009, the Tennessee medical malpractice jury returned a verdict in favor of the woman in the amount of $23.6 million, one of the largest jury verdicts in Tennessee history.

Source

$23.6 million may sound like a too-large jury verdict until you realize the extent and duration of the pain and suffering that the young mother had to endure due to the alleged medical negligence of her OB/GYN and you consider that the woman will not survive her cancer and therefore will not be alive to experience the milestones of her baby daughter’s first day of  school, first school dance, first boyfriend, first prom, graduation from high school, first day of college, graduation from college, planning for her daughter’s wedding, her daughter’s wedding day, and the joy of being with her grandchildren. The young woman will also lose out on the long-term enjoyment of her marriage to a supportive husband who will be left to raise their young child on his own. A simple, non-evasive mammogram followed by a minimally evasive biopsy could have avoided this tragedy that will leave an unfillable void in the lives of the young woman, her husband, her child, her family, and her friends.

The medical malpractice experience of this Tennessee mother highlights the fact that medical care that falls below the required level of care can have catastrophic results that destroy the life of not only the patient, but also the lives of the patient’s family and loved ones.

No one expects that their medical care providers will breach the standard of care required of them but when they do, the advice of a medical malpractice attorney is critical to protecting the rights of innocent victims injured as a result of medical malpractice through no fault of their own.

Click here to visit our website  to be connected with medical malpractice lawyers in your state who may be able to investigate your medical malpractice claim for you and represent you in bringing a medical malpractice lawsuit, if appropriate. You may also reach us toll free at 800-295-3959.

Turn to us when you don’t know where to turn.

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