A 19-year-old Howard University female student is suing Howard University Hospital, the District, and several doctors for medical malpractice and medical negligence. She claims that the University and District were negligent because several doctors at area hospitals committed medical malpractice by refusing to treat her with a rape kit even…
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center say that out of close to 500,000 women, nearly half of them were not informed by their doctor that a certain prescription drug could lead to birth defects. Failure to inform them of this potential side effect could have led to patients…
Drug manufacturer Cephalon Inc. is reporting that four people died after they improperly used FENTORA, a powerful painkiller. Cephalon says that FENTORA, newly approved by the FDA, is only supposed to be used by cancer patients that are already taking prescription narcotics, such as morphine, for their pain. According to…
The Adventist Rehabilitation Hospital of Maryland could lose its Medicare funding. Investigations by the state have found that some of the hospital’s patients have not been getting the proper diets ordered by their physicians, and this oversight may have caused their health problems to worsen. One of the hospitals patients,…
University Legal Services, Inc., an advocacy group for Washington D.C. children that have developmental disabilities, say that children at Riverside Hospital are in danger of “serious and persistent abuse and neglect.” City mental health officials will now begin to visit the hospital on a weekly basis to monitor the conditions…
Last week, a jury found Dr. Emerson R. Julian, Jr., an obstetrician and former city councilman, liable for medical malpractice. He has been ordered to pay $8.1 million to the parents of a baby boy who suffered brain damage during a challenging delivery at Mercy Medical Center in 2003. Baby…
Philip Peters, Jr., from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, says that juries tend to believe doctors more than plaintiffs in medical malpractice cases—contrary to popular belief in the medical communities that juries usually favor plaintiffs. He says he found that the majority of malpractice suits end in defense…
A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine says that in almost 60% of cases, basic doctor-related errors played a role in incidents where patients were allegedly injured due to delayed or missed diagnosis. Researches reviewed 307 medical malpractice claims from four U.S.-based malpractice insurance companies: · 187 of…
The family of a Bel Air man who committed suicide after becoming addicted to a prescription painkiller is filing a medical malpractice suit against his doctor. Ken Jones was addicted to OxyContin when he shot himself in the chest on March 2003. The painkiller was prescribed to him by his…
There is a new medical malpractice insurer in the state of Maryland called the Maryland Healthcare Providers Insurance Exchange. The Maryland Exchange plans to work with its insured doctors to identify causes of claims and find ways to avoid or mitigate them. The new insurer also wants hospitals and doctors…