On the surface, tort reform sounds like it might be a fine idea, but the underlying premise is flawed and would actually hurt those it is supposed to help.

The great health care debate has actually dragged up more for discussion besides health issues, and one of those issues deals with the concept of tort reform. Tort reform sounds like not a bad idea until one really takes a close look at what it means to victims of medical malpractice whose lives have been devastated.

Typically, medical malpractice lawsuits that make it to court are the ones in which the victim has sustained serious injuries; injuries that have altered their lifestyles to the point where they need ongoing medical care of one type or another. They may also need therapy, medications, regular treatments, counseling, in-home care and renovations to make their house livable. In instances such as this, juries have been known to hand out high awards to pay for such serious damages.

Tort reform would stack the deck even further against the victims. Physicians and hospitals already have a significant advantage going into a medical malpractice lawsuit because med mal cases have the shortest statute of limitations for any case. Mounting a complex med mal lawsuit with only a year to get things together is nigh onto impossible. While the clock is ticking in favor of the defendants, the plaintiffs are struggling to get evidence together to prove their case.

In addition, a lawsuit cannot be filed against a doctor or hospital unless it has been certified by a qualified medical expert to be a lawsuit of merit so these are not frivolous lawsuits.

If these points are not enough to ponder, add in that any incriminating evidence or information uncovered by internal investigations into an injury or death cannot be discovered by the patient or the patient’s family. Talk about prejudicial actions.

Furthermore, insurance companies protecting the doctor and/or hospital have financial and other resources and access to experts that far exceed the resources available to most patients. Add to this that the primary evidence in any medical malpractice case is the medical chart, which is authored by the doctor(s) and other medical personnel at a hospital, and the patient has no say in what goes in that chart, nor any control over it. Once again, the deck is stacked in favor of the medical profession and the victim is left hanging out in the wind trying to make a case.

Unfortunately for the victims of med mal, jurors are usually more sympathetic to a doctor being sued than the patient, particularly if it is the patient’s family who has brought the suit to court. Even if a plaintiff/patient does stick to their guns and pursues the case, 48 out of 50 states have capped the limit on the amount of damages that may be recovered. This cap has no relation to actual injuries and is only in place so the insurance companies may have a “fixed” cost when insuring negligent doctors.

In a nutshell, tort reform means patients having to give up constitutional rights just to have access to health care, and insurance companies coming out ahead by limiting their claim payouts. The person who needs the most help is the patient, and tort reform does anything “but” help a patient who has suffered at the hands of the medical establishment. Victims of medical malpractice need to get an experienced med mal attorney to help level the playing field.

To learn more about Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland malpractice lawyer, Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer, visit Christophermellino.com.

Is there really any difference between a concussion and traumatic brain injury?

The question of whether or not a concussion is a more benign form of head injury as compared to traumatic brain injury is a good one. By all reports however, concussion and traumatic brain injury are the same thing and merely distinguished by degrees

Put another way, concussion is a milder form of traumatic brain injury, but certainly nothing to be downplayed, as even though it may be a mild concussion, it may still have serious consequences.

Witness any football game in the US, or anywhere else for that matter, and one will see bone jarring hits and collisions that often result in players being trucked off to the hospital for observation. Blows to the head are especially problematic.

While many sportscasters and players refer to a head blow as a concussion, most medical staff call it a traumatic brain injury. Oddly enough, in the world of sports, a hit to the head is often regarded as being funny and couched in terms like “the player got his bell rung.” There is definitely nothing funny about a mild concussion or any form of traumatic brain injury.

For those who don’t understand the term traumatic brain injury, it occurs when the brain is smacked up against the skull resulting in temporary neurological impairment. Other cellular processes that routinely happen in the brain are also disrupted for days or weeks after the initial impact, largely depending on the grade of the concussion. Concussions range in grade from 1 to 3, and concussion and mild traumatic brain injury are the same thing.

Grade III concussions are considered to be any loss of consciousness due to a blow to the head or by something else like whiplash. Even with lesser grades of concussion, they may lead to things like epidural hematoma; the cause of film star Natasha Richardson’s death. Richardson’s death was the impetus for school athletes to stay away from sports for several “months” if they’ve sustained even “one” mild traumatic brain injury.

Playing sports like football, soccer and hockey come with inherent risks, and that risk relates to things like brain injuries. Nonetheless, if someone has been injured as a result of a slip and fall accident, a car crash or by playing sports without the proper safety gear, and negligence is present in the equation, consulting an expert personal injury attorney is a smart idea.

To learn more about Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland malpractice lawyer, Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer, visit Christophermellino.com.

Traumatic brain injury is popping up in the news more and more these days in association with high-contact sports.

It used to be that most people associated traumatic brain injury with car accidents or slip and falls. These days, however, it is occurring more often when people are playing sports. This isn’t too much of a surprise as traditionally boxing has indeed been a sport associated with a high degree of minor concussions (traumatic brain injuries) on a smaller scale.

Nowadays the spotlight is focused on hockey, football, soccer and other sports that see hard hits and even harder falls. In either case, the brain stands a high likelihood of being rattled around inside the skull and leaving the individual confused and dazed. Interestingly enough, many of these “mini-concussions” are going undiagnosed and over the course of a season, the player may suffer multiple traumatic brain injuries.

Another interesting fact is also beginning to emerge as professionals study this particular phenomenon. It seems that people who have already experienced at least one concussion are more susceptible to getting further, similar injuries during other playing seasons. The reason for this doesn’t seem to be entirely clear, but the theory is that once the brain has been shaken up badly enough, it doesn’t take much to disturb it again if it sustains a thump.

While these “smaller” concussions are often referred to as mild, the fact is if they happen often enough, multiple concussions are linked to dementia and other neurological diseases later in life. One of the more classic cases is boxer Muhammad Ali, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s syndrome in 1984, a result of the frequent concussions he sustained during his fighting career.

In addition, a report commissioned by the National Football League in the U.S. shows that former football players were struck down by Alzheimer’s or other memory-related diseases at an astonishing rate of 19 times the norm for men between 30 and 49 years of age. Sobering statistics to say the least and it poses the question of what will happen to the younger players coming up through the ranks.

It should go without saying that those who sustain a concussion during rough sports need to have “more” attention paid to them and a very thorough medical evaluation, mild concussion or not. The fact of the matter is that any blow to the head could be dangerous now and in the future. More particularly, cumulative concussions have the potential to alter a person’s life by bringing on dementia a lot earlier in life.

Does having helmets and/or the right safety gear play a role in reducing head injuries? This is one of the questions that should be discussed with a skilled personal injury lawyer if you have been the victim of a head trauma that may have been avoided if you had been provided and were wearing the right safety gear.

Christopher Mellino is a Cleveland Malpractice Lawyer specializing in Cleveland Medical Malpractice cases in Ohio. To learn more about Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland malpractice lawyer, Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer, visit Christophermellino.com.

Author: Patrick Malone
Originally Published in the Huffington Post

The recent news about the two Northwest Airlines pilots whose licenses were revoked, less than a week after they let their plane wander 150 miles off course, raises the question: Where are the firing offenses in medicine?

The pilots injured no passengers, and the event didn’t even qualify as a “near miss.” But because they egregiously violated safety rules by working on their flight schedules on a laptop in the cockpit, the aviation authorities did not hesitate to pull their licenses.

In the medical industry, by contrast, it is well known that a doctor will lose his or her license for only flagrant patterns of drug or alcohol abuse or other criminal behavior, with a trail of dead and injured patients usually lasting years before the practitioner is finally put out of business.

Medicine’s big safety emphasis in recent years has been to create a “no blame” culture that encourages reporting of errors, injuries and “near-misses” by promises of confidentiality and non-punitive action. The idea has been to bring systemic problems out into the open so they can be corrected by implementing “systems” changes, such as checklists to make sure all appropriate steps are taken to prevent infections when inserting catheters into blood vessels.

But what about a doctor who repeatedly puts patients in jeopardy, in small or big ways, by ignoring the rules? Many don’t wash their hands routinely when they enter a patient’s hospital room, and deadly infections sometimes get spread from patient to patient. Others don’t “sign out” their patients at the end of a shift by a person-to-person encounter with the provider taking over.

Some surgeons still won’t follow the now routine practice of “signing the site” to prevent wrong-site surgery. If the surgeon is a prominent “feeder” of patients to the hospital, such transgressions can easily be overlooked by administrators who don’t want to lose the business. That helps explain why an estimated 4,000 wrong-site surgeries still are performed every year in the United States, more than a decade after the “sign your site” campaign by orthopedic and other surgical specialties.

The good news is that medical safety leaders are starting to call for accountability for rules violations. Dr. Robert Wachter of UC-San Francisco and Dr. Peter Pronovost of Johns Hopkins recently wrote about this in the New England Journal of Medicine. Comparing medicine to aviation (the article was published before the Northwest Airlines incident), they noted: “Every safe industry has transgressions that are firing offenses.”

They proposed a short list of offenses in the hospital that should call for suspension of the doctor’s practice for one or two weeks: failing to perform hand hygiene, skipping the sign-over to a new provider at the end of a shift, not marking the surgical site, and failing to use a checklist at the start of surgery to make sure everyone in the operating room knows the special needs of the patient. These penalties, they suggested, should only apply after the doctor has failed to respond to an initial warning and counseling.

These modest, tentative steps forward are proposed by the authors to their colleagues as a way of fending off intrusive government regulation. But they also say: “The main reason to find the right balance between ‘no blame’ and individual accountability is that doing so will save lives.”

Amen to that.

Who drives medical malpractice lawsuits and are they as prevalent as people actually think?

In actual fact, lawsuits are usually driven by plaintiffs. If that is the case, then it is reasonable to assume that medical malpractice lawsuits are a rapidly burgeoning sector within the total lawsuit industry. It appears that med mal lawsuits are beginning to play a greater role than they have ever played before, for a variety of reasons.

There are recent surveys that indicate medical errors are on the increase even in the face of new technology. The reasons for that vary, but by and large the main reason for the increase in errors is a lack of time. In the 21st century the American health system is in total shambles and seriously overburdened. Doctors and other medical professionals are overworked and dead on their feet from trying to keep up with the constant demand for medical services.

While it’s nice to have new technology, it takes time to learn that technology and what it is able to achieve. If there is no time because the physicians are running to keep up with non-emergency cases, the hospital ERs are jammed with people who should not be there and the clock is ticking, medical errors will still happen.
The more medical mistakes happen, the greater the potential for lawsuits, as it seems that today’s patients are more aware of what constitutes medical malpractice and are willing to file a lawsuit to seek justice.

Never assume that you do have a case of medical malpractice without consulting with a highly trained medical malpractice attorney. Choose one who has an extensive record handling all kinds of medical malpractice suits, who knows how difficult these cases are and who is prepared to ensure you receive the proper compensation for any injuries you may have sustained.

Christopher Mellino is a Cleveland Malpractice Lawyer specializing in Cleveland Medical Malpractice cases in Ohio. To learn more about Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland malpractice lawyer, Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer, visit Christophermellino.com.

There is no doubt that if you have been the victim of medical malpractice, your future is on the line and justice is of the utmost importance.

Probably the most vital thing you will ever need if you are a victim of medical malpractice is a highly skilled attorney who specializes in this area of the law. Your whole life and future are on the line and you need to do something about it immediately. Do not wait, even if you are unsure as to precisely what happened.Discuss your situation with an attorney and learn what your rights are and whether or not you may be eligible for compensation. The bottom line is that you need someone who knows what they are doing on your side if you face going to court to recover damages for your injuries.

A med mal attorney works with the doctor’s office and/or the hospital to get all the information that may not be available to you. S/he knows how the medical system works and knows what your rights are and will fight to make sure you are accorded those rights. Working in two different systems like this means you will get the best benefits if you ultimately need to go to court. Your job is handling the devastating effects of malpractice while your attorney hears your story and mounts a case.

Discussing your case with a med mal attorney is the beginning point here. S/he will assess your case, do some background work and then determine if you do indeed have a legitimate malpractice claim. Ask questions and mention everything you think of to your attorney, even if you think it’s an unimportant detail. You never know what information will be valuable in a medical malpractice court case, but your attorney does.
The other very important thing you need to be aware of when dealing with medical errors or malpractice is that your rights as a patient come first. This is what your attorney will be fighting for should you go to court. S/he will ensure your case is heard and that your claim is taken seriously.

Once a med mal case is filed your attorney is with you every step of the way from gathering records and files to examining lab results and finding expert witnesses. If you have been the victim of a medical procedure gone wrong or are suffering from debilitating side effects as the result of a drug the doctor gave you, the lawyer will argue for compensation for the injuries, for the costs of treating those injuries, lost income from missing work and for the emotional and physical distress you face daily since the medical incident.

While these cases are not easy, your attorney knows how to find their way through all the potential landmines that might crop up. Don’t hesitate to consult with a medical malpractice lawyer if you suspect that your personal injuries are the result of medical negligence or malpractice. The only bad thing you can do if faced with this kind of a situation is to NOT ask questions.

Christopher Mellino is a Cleveland Malpractice Lawyer specializing in Cleveland Medical Malpractice cases in Ohio. To learn more about Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland malpractice lawyer, Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer, visit Christophermellino.com.

While it is more common to hear of medical malpractice as it relates to doctors, nurses may also be guilty of it.

Nurses don’t go to work thinking about negligently performing their jobs. They arrive ready to do their shift and perhaps at some point during those 12 hours unintentionally commit a negligent act that results in injury or death to an unsuspecting patient. Sadly, it appears that nurse malpractice is on the rise thanks to the conditions in many hospitals today – overcrowding, understaffing, unrealistic deadlines, a steady stream of emergencies, and other factors that overwhelm even the best intentioned RN.

An overworked, overwhelmed RN makes mistakes; it’s just that simple. The results of those mistakes often mean a Cleveland malpractice lawyer is seeking compensation from the courts for damages a victim has suffered, including emotional, financial and physical.

The solution to nursing malpractice would seem to be more nurses. As simple as that may sound, it appears to be a difficult goal to achieve. While nurses are in high demand, there is a chronic shortage of registered and licensed nurses. That means that those working on the front lines are often tapped to work more and more overtime. The cumulative total of hours worked often leads to burn out and nursing errors. Many a Cleveland medical malpractice lawsuit has made mention of the nursing shortage at hospitals.

Statistically speaking if a nurse is working over 12.5 hours, they are three times more likely to make mistakes while on duty. In response to the, it’s no real surprise there is poor communication, carelessness and miscommunication. Many of these factors become part and parcel of a nursing lawsuit filed by a Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer.

Nursing errors may run the gamut from medication errors (wrong dose or wrong patient), not doing what a doctor instructed, not responding to a patient’s needs in a timely fashion, or going ahead and doing a procedure they are not properly trained to handle. While many of these mistakes may be explained by being overworked and stressed, the consequences of this inattention and negligence may result in a drug overdose, coma, infection, organ damage, an adverse drug reaction or death.

Patients who have survived what they feel was nursing malpractice should seek the expert legal counsel of a Cleveland medical malpractice attorney to discuss recovering damages for medical expenses, pain and suffering, loss of wages or the ability to work, loss of support (involving a death), etc.

To learn more about Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland malpractice lawyer, Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer, visit Christophermellino.com.

When it comes to taking medications or giving medications, it’s a matter of being right in order to avoid potentially disastrous consequences that would lead to a medical malpractice lawsuit.

It really shouldn’t be asking too much to get the right medications when a patient is in a hospital or other clinical setting where medical treatment is being carried out. After all, that would be a reasonable expectation of the patient. Patients rely on caregivers to look out for them and not harm them by giving them something that either produces a bad reaction or ends up causing the patient’s death. Unfortunately, medication errors are far too common and in order to avoid them, health care professionals must take steps to monitor their actions or face a potential Cleveland medical malpractice lawsuit.

Generally speaking there are at least five things, or five rights that patients should expect from medical personnel. The first thing is that the patient is correctly identified. While this may sound like a fairly straightforward job, those who perform it typically also answer phones, screen calls, take refill information, sign in co-pays and other miscellaneous distracting duties. If this causes negligence on the part of the medical intake person, they may face a Cleveland medical malpractice suit.

Consider the ramifications if the patient is initially not identified properly. This could mean the wrong treatment, wrong surgery, wrong diagnosis or a multitude of other errors all compounded by the patient being given the wrong name, charts and other vital medical information. This admittedly is more of a problem on admission to the hospital if the patient is not able to communicate articulately.

A patient’s second well deserved right is that they get the correct drug. Unfortunately this is a real concern in many health care settings, as drugs are often prescribed, handed out and given to patients without any information about their potential allergies, their age, height, weight, lab results, actual clinical condition or diagnosis. This is a recipe for disaster.

Add to this physicians who write faster than they think and hand out prescriptions that defy all logic with creative names for drugs they can’t recall and doses that are, at best, questionable. Unfortunately, there isn’t always a check and balance system in place to keep track of what patient gets what drugs when everyone is under the gun to care for more patients than there are beds. The possibility of negligence in a hospital or other clinical setting may be very high given the overburdened health system, something a Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer knows well.

Right number three deals with getting the right dose of a medication. This is a particularly difficult area, as trying to set the right dose for the patient is mostly done by an educated guess based on age, height, weight, what other drugs the person is taking and any known allergies. The art of different dosing for each patient is not one that everyone in health care settings understands well enough. Consider the case of a nurse crushing a time release capsule for a senior and finding out later crushing the tablet releases the whole dose at once with dreadful consequences.

Along with the right dose of medication comes patient right number four, the right route to administer the medication. In most instances, giving a pill or liquid is the easiest, safest and most cost effective route. However, there are other methods of administration such as intravenous, intradermal, subcutaneous and intramuscular that have the potential to go off the rails if done incorrectly. Other even more tricky methods of giving a drug include intracardiac, intrapleural, intraspinal, intraarticular and intrathecal. These are particularly dangerous routes of administration of a drug, as once the drug is injected there is no way to get it back.

Patient right number five relates to getting the right medication at the right time. If the required dose is delayed or forgotten, this becomes a medication error with the potential to cause significant problems such as making up doses and giving them too close together.

For a violation of patient’s rights, it is critical to speak with a Cleveland medical malpractice attorney to ensure justice is served.

To learn more about Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland malpractice lawyer, Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer, visit Christophermellino.com.

The face of hope for treatment for traumatic brain injury just got a bit brighter with the introduction of something called Oxycyte. This is a major breakthrough, as there is currently no effective medical treatment.

Traumatic brain injury is a real concern in Cleveland medical malpractice circles when someone has been in an accident. Whether that injury has been the result of a car crash, a slip and fall accident or other blunt force trauma to the skull (such as blasts from explosives), the consequences are life altering, if not deadly when not treated in a timely manner. Cleveland medical malpractice lawyers see instances like this quite frequently.

There are roughly 1.4 million cases of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the U.S. every year. Approximately 300,000 of those cases are classified as severe. The fact of the matter is that TBI is the number one cause of disability for those under age 35. This injury results in close to 99,000 cases a year of permanent disability. Fifty percent of those who survive a TBI sustain major impairment. These statistics alone speak loudly enough about the severity of this injury to prompt victims to hire a highly skilled Cleveland malpractice lawyer.

Lest we forget, there are hundreds of cases of military blast injury sustained by our Armed Forces personnel overseas, as a result of roadside bombs. There were approximately 360,000 military blast injuries 2002-2008. Those numbers have not decreased over the last two years. While we may be waging a war against terrorists, the real terror is stalking military personnel in the form of blast injuries. The incidence of deaths due to TBI from bomb blasts is also very high.

In most instances traumatic brain injury is “managed” in order to reduce the pressure on the brain from swelling and to ensure it is receiving enough oxygen. Any breakthrough in the medical field that offers promise for those who have sustained a traumatic brain injury is welcome news. Indeed, most Cleveland medical malpractice attorneys feel new therapy like this may assist their clients in recovery. While the proposed therapy and drug are pending trials in Israel and Switzerland, Oxycyte’s initial results appear to be promising.

This company focuses on pharmaceuticals and medical devices in the field of oxygen therapeutics and continuous substrate monitoring. Their latest offering to the medical community is Oxycyte, a perfluorocarbon therapeutic oxygen carrier and liquid ventilation product and an implantable glucose sensor.

Currently there are six treatment sites planned for each country with clinical trials slated to begin in the second quarter of 2009 and tentatively lasting anywhere from 12 to 18 months. There are many test subjects available, as the Israelis have been dealing with TBI and blast victims for quite some time. Their skill will enable them to utilize this promising therapy and provide clinical test results based on the therapy regime of a single infusion of one of 3 incremental doses of Oxycyte given within 12 hours of injury along with 50% oxygen and the usual care in cases like this.

The hope is that Oxycyte will play a crucial role in assisting in cases dealing with traumatic brain injury, wound care, strokes, heart attacks, surgery, etc.

From the point of view of a Cleveland medical malpractice attorney who deals with TBI as the result of someone else’s negligence, this latest medical news may change the outcome for TBI patients, and that could only be good.

Christopher Mellino is a Cleveland Malpractice Lawyer specializing in Cleveland Medical Malpractice cases in Ohio. To learn more about Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland malpractice lawyer, Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer, visit Christophermellino.com.

More than 1.3 million people take the wrong medication every year and close to 100,000 of those die.

While you may not have experienced a pharmaceutical error where you got the wrong drug, or the right drug but you reacted badly to it, or a new medication when combined with what you were already taking caused a serious side effect, errors like this happen every day. Some of these errors are not critical. On the other hand some of them may be deadly.

Not many people realize this, but medication errors are considered to be medical malpractice, largely because they have the potential to cause extremely serious injuries or death. Incidents like this can cost up to $72 billion every year – a staggering amount of money wasted on preventable pharmacy errors. Ask a Cleveland malpractice lawyer about the kinds of cases he deals with and you might be surprised at the answer.

A pharmacy error happens when a patient is handed the wrong medicine or given the incorrect dose of their prescribed medication. Other areas where mistakes happen are when the doctor writes out an illegible prescription, when the medication isn’t labeled correctly or when medicines that shouldn’t be mixed are taken together. Mistakes like this are quite easy to make if the pills are the same color, size or shape; if the names are similar or if the abbreviations on the prescriptions for the number of times or quantity to take them are wrong. If you think something like this has happened to you, contact a Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer.

Let’s say a prescription required a certain number of units of the medicine to be given every four hours and the “U” looked like an O. Obviously this would affect how much medication the patient was given and perhaps have the potential to cause an inadvertent overdose. All it takes is one small oversight in handing out meds and the consequences could be a Cleveland medical malpractice lawsuit.

There are ways to reduce the likelihood of this happening and people need to be more alert and aware of everything they are ingesting. This becomes more of a problem with seniors who may not understand what they are taking and why, and place an enormous amount of trust in their caregivers.

The first place to start to prevent any pharmacy errors is to check and re-check the medication with your physician after you have a prescription filled. While it may seem like you’re a being nuisance, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Asking questions that may avert a potential drug reaction is far better than having to find a Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer to right a wrong.

If you can’t read the handwriting, chances are the pharmacist will have trouble making it out as well. Ask to have it re-written or clarified before heading to the drugstore. Even though you know what dose the doctor suggested and how many times to take it, write that down on another piece of paper to check it against what you get from the pharmacist. Don’t take anything you are handed until you check it against the information you have.

Just because you may get medications and are told to use them according to the directions on the package, doesn’t mean something can’t go wrong. If you have a bad reaction, then something is obviously amiss. If you feel you have been the victim of pharmacy error, contact a Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer to discuss your case.

Christopher Mellino is a Cleveland Malpractice Lawyer specializing in Cleveland Medical Malpractice cases in Ohio. To learn more about Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland malpractice lawyer, Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer, visit Christophermellino.com.