Blog Archive 1
Medication Errors and Malpractice
Posted April 12, 2010
According to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, prescription errors cause more than 7,000 deaths annually. In today’s busy medical environment, as insurance regulations put ever-increasing pressure on doctors and medical support personnel to ramp up “productivity” by crowding more and more patients into a busy day, there is all the more opportunity for errors to occur. In addition to fatalities, there are thousands more who suffer injury or serious illness as a result of prescription errors. Data indicates that in approximately 68 percent of cases, doctors have prescribed the wrong medication, which can often lead to serious reactions. Prescription errors can be the result of a doctor or pharmacist's negligence or they can result from intentional wrongdoing. A doctor could prescribe the wrong medication or a pharmacist could misread a physician's handwriting. In addition, the similarities between the names of many medications make mix-ups increasingly likely. A patient might receive Xanax (an anti-anxiety drug) in place of Zantac (a heartburn medication), for example.
Legally speaking, prescription errors are any medication-related mistakes made by doctors, hospitals, pharmacists, or other medical professionals that may result in injury, illness, or even death. Common types of prescription errors may include the following:
The wrong drug is given
The wrong dosage of a drug is given
Incorrect directions for the drug’s use are given
Drugs are improperly combined or given in an unsafe manner
The wrong person receives the medication
The American Pharmaceutical Association and various other professional groups have established very specific procedures that must be followed both in writing and in filling prescriptions. If a medical professional doesn’t meet the required standards due to negligence, they may be held accountable for the patient’s losses and suffering.
A qualified personal injury attorney can help you file a medical malpractice claim to seek compensation for the damages suffered, but malpractice claims are subject to a statute of limitations, so you have only a limited time frame after the incident in which to file a claim.
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Retired United States Supreme Court justice will give speech at the University of Kansas
Posted April 8, 2010
LAWRENCE, Kan. - Retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor will spend two days next week on the University of Kansas campus.
On Monday, she'll take part in an event called "An Evening with Justice Sandra Day O'Connor." It will be presented as a fireside chat between O'Connor and Judge Deanell Reece Tacha of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. The talk Monday night at the Dole Institute of Politics is not open to the public.
O'Connor also plans to be meet with law students and faculty during her visit.
Law school Dean Gail Agrawal clerked for O'Connor at the Supreme Court during the 1984-85 term.
O'Connor was appointed to the court by President Reagan and was the first female member of the court. She retired on Jan. 31, 2006
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WHAT TO DO – AND WHAT NOT TO DO – AFTER A CAR ACCIDENT
Posted April 8, 2010
If you are involved in a car accident there are certain things that you should and should not do. If you’re on the road, turn your flashers on or put out flares to warn other drivers. If there are injuries or substantial property damage, or if you’re unsure if there are, call the police. If there are injured people, tell the police when you call and give the number of injured if possible so that enough emergency personnel will be sent to the scene. Be sure to stay at the scene until the police say that you can leave. Leaving the scene can result in criminal charges.
If somebody is injured, and you are trained in administering first aid, try to help, but do not move an injured person.
In any accident, you should obtain the name, address, driver's license number, insurance information, and license plate number of the other driver. If there are any witnesses, get their names, addresses, and telephone numbers as well.
Don’t make statements to anybody at the accident scene, except for the police, and when you speak with them, just tell them the facts of what happened. Even if you think you might be at fault, do not admit liability. Don’t say things like “I’m so sorry” to the other driver, as this can be interpreted as an admission of responsibility or guilt. There may be other factors which played a role in the accident which you are unaware of and which might make the other driver more at fault than you. Ask the police officer to give you a business card with the accident incident number so that you can obtain an accident report. Most officers will give you this information automatically, even if you don’t ask.
You might want to take notes about the circumstances of the accident, including road conditions, speed limits, the weather, and lighting, as well as how the accident occurred. You should be aware that if litigation results from the accident, you may have to share your notes with someone you are suing or someone who is suing you.
Be sure to get medical care. Be aware that the "adrenaline rush" from the accident can mask symptoms -- a physical examination may reveal an injury that you do not yet feel.
Tell the doctor if you experience headache, memory loss, fluid or blood in your ears, dizziness, ringing in the ears, nausea, confusion, disorientation or any other unusual physical or mental feeling. People often hit their heads and suffer brain injuries in car accidents and don’t realize initially that they are even injured, so be sure to have your doctor check you thoroughly.
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Attorney Fee Structures
Posted April 5, 2010
Obviously, the lawyer fee is an important concern when deciding to hire a lawyer. Therefore, the following is posted as a very basic explanation of types of fees.
Flat fee: The attorney does the work for one flat fee. So, if the attorney quotes you $10,000 for a flat fee, then this is how much you will pay, regardless of the amount of work the attorney does. If the attorney does an hour of work, he makes a lot of money for that hour. If he takes 100 hours to do the work, he is making close to minimum wage. But you always know how much you are going to pay.
Contingency fee: This is the most common type of fee in personal injury cases, including car wrecks, malpractice, and slip and fall cases. This means the attorney gets a percentage of the settlement. There is no set percentage. Most attorneys charge between 30% to 50% of the settlement. Sometimes, it may be appropriate for less or more. So, calculating a fee is quite simple: take your settlement and multiply by the percentage. If your case settles for $100,000, and the attorney fees are 40%, the attorney gets $40,000. There are a few variations of this fee. Sometimes the attorney takes the fee after he subtracts out costs, sometimes before costs. In Kansas, lawyer fees should be determined on the percentage calculated after costs are repaid.
Hourly: This is what most people are used to. However, it is more uncommon in personal injury cases. It is what it sounds like: take the number of hours worked on a case and multiply by the hourly rate. If the lawyer makes $210 per hour and works 5 hours on the case, then multiply 5 hours times $210 per hour for a total of is $1,050.
Hybrid: There are numerous ways of combining these. An attorney can charge a flat rate for some work and hourly for additional work. An attorney can charge hourly to do some things and then a contingency fee. Sometimes this happens when a client enters a case but then runs out of funds to pay the attorney. Rather then just withdrawing from the case, the attorney may then choose to convert the case to a contingency fee contract if the client so desires as well.
Pro bono: This is a big one and people ask about it all the time. This means "for free." In other words, the attorney will not be charging you. If an attorney agrees to work for free, you do not get a bill. However, if you call an attorney and ask them to take your case pro bono, most attorneys will tell you no. We like doing pro bono work and most of us take on pro bono cases. But these are cases that we select for a variety of factors. Sometimes, I am willing to take a case at a reduced rate in the right circumstances. For example, I recently settled a car wreck case for a client and only charged him 20%. But this was a unique situation that called for it. An attorney has a duty to zealously advocate for his clients, regardless of the percentage. However, when you barter with your lawyer, make sure you don't disincentives him.
The above is not comprehensive by any means. This is just an overview of different types of fees. You should always make sure you have a signed fee agreement with an attorney and that you fully understand the fee being charged. In Kansas, attorneys are required to have all of the contingency fee contracts in writing. Make sure you understand your contract an that it makes sense for your unique situation. Ask questions and make sure you understand the fee.
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National Health Care Bill: Benefits For Personal Injury Victims? April Fools! Or not?
Posted April 1, 2010
I'm not sure I agree it will work, but there is an argument how the Bill will positively help. The health care reform bill may provide big benefits to personal injury victims. Traditionally, those people most put at risk after accidents were the middle class uninsured. Poor people have Medicaid to fall back on and others have private insurance. Now there will be an additional 32 million with coverage.
There has always been a problem when dealing with insurance defense representatives. They have a reputation for cutting off benefits to victims after sham medical exams by "independent" examiners hired by the insurance companies. These doctors are anything but independent. Victims are often told that they aren't injured, despite the pain they are in and their restrictions of motion. Or that the pains that they have are "preexisting" despite the fact that they felt fine before the accident. So with more of the victims covered by their own insurance, we are likely to see these positive effects, the first of which is obvious and the second two more subtle, but most definitely important:
First: People that were previously left to the mercies of existing no-fault laws and the spotty medical care that they provide can continue to get care and, to the extent treatment benefits the quality of life, be healthier. Yeah, right. We will see.
Second: If an individual believes others are at fault and starts a lawsuit, the injuries that they suffered will be documented by treating medical practitioners. Currently, if a patient stops treating, that is an issue that defense attorneys love to harp on in front of juries. Without having their doctors treating them, plaintiffs must tell juries that the reason they aren't treating is that they can't afford it. And with that, their credibility can be attacked, which is far easier than attacking the credibility of multiple physicians, because the plaintiff is an "interested party" in the outcome of the suit. As a personal injury lawyer, I know this to be true. It does indeed make the case more difficult to litigate when my client hasn't seen the doctor for years. I try to explain it's because of cost, but it simply looks like he just didn't go because he wasn't really hurt.
Third: The existence of continuing health care hamstrings liability insurers that oft times will rush in to accident victims with low ball offers before they have consulted with attorneys. When there is no other insurance, and a victim that may not be able to work, a $5,000 offer may be desperately needed money. With the injured already knowing they are covered, they won't be as vulnerable, and will be in a better position to sit back and objectively evaluate their situation. So, this may be a good situation for those who have been injured, beyond the most obvious point of simply being able to obtain health care. While there is understandably much opposition to the Health Care Bill, I do hope it does indeed help people, such as my injured clients.
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When A Little Car Accident Can Cause A Lot of Pain
Posted March 29, 2010
Years ago I miraculously survived a serious car wreck. The pictures of the vehicle were scary and my car was totaled. Yet, despite this major damage, my actual bodily injuries were minor, considering the severity of the vehicle damage. Conversely, there have been wrecks with little to no vehicle damage, yet the person experienced lifelong bodily injuries. How do we explain when a person is involved in what appears to be a low speed impact, yet is still suffering from pain? Whether or not there is vehicle damage does not necessarily determine the extent of injuries that one can suffer. There is considerable misconception about the amount of vehicle crash damage is directly related to the degree of occupant injury. Even minor car damage can major occupant injury and the injuries can be quite serious.
Plastic vs Elastic Deformation
Most people would expect that more injury will occur when the speed of the collision is greater. The truth is that this is the case sometimes especially when collisions occur at highway speeds. But in most cases even when the speed of a vehicle is very slow, with little or no damage, it can create a lot of pain. To understand this, we must understand the relationship between plastic and elastic deformity. When sufficient load is applied to a metal or other structural material like a car, it will cause the material to change shape. This change in shape is called deformation.
What happens when we hit something plastic vs something elastic? If you hit something plastic , most likely it will break or dent. In plastic deformity, there is more deformity to the car. With plastic deformity there is more metal crushing or more damage to the vehicle, the G Forces associated with the crash are absorbed by the crushing metal, which in turn exerts less g forces to the contents of the vehicle (you)- therefore less injury.
A temporary shape change that is self-reversing after the force is removed, so that the object returns to its original shape, is called elastic deformation. If you look at a vehicle that is stiffer, with less vehicle damage, the energy is not absorbed by crushing metal (elastic deformity), meaning that the occupants will be more jostled and thrown around to a greater amount. In this case more g-forces are exerted and there is a greater change of injury.vs elastic which will bounce back to its original shape. In elastic deformity there is less damage.
The Mathematics of Acceleration
Acceleration and Crush Distance can equal major injuries. In an automobile crash, acceleration is inversely related to how long the car moves before it comes to a stop (the crush distance).
a = V2/2s
where a=acceleration, V=velocity of impact, s=the Crush Distance.
Let’s look at 2 car collision scenarios:
1. A car hits a brick wall at 10mph and crushes the front of the car 5 inches.
A=78.3 m/sec2, or 8 GS of Force
2. A car hits a brick wall at 10mph. This car has a different car design and crushes the front of the car only 2 inches.
A=196m/sec2, or 30G’s of force.
As you can see, we have a collision with the same velocity, but with a different crush distance smaller by 2.5 times, will have a resulting G force 2.5 times larger!
Sometimes no serious visual deformation may occur on a vehicle even though it is subjected to relatively high speeds of impact. Often times motor vehicle bodies or bumper to bumper chassis give little or no crushing effect. Thus relatively high G forces can result in a whiplash injury. The use of stiff motor vehicle bodies and chassis will also produce a spiked G force loading to those in the car, even if little damage occurs to vehicle body or the frame of the car. So as you can see, even minor collisions can result in injury.
Injuries that can Result from car accidents
Injuries from a car, truck, or motorcycle accident can be very serious. What may appear to be minor in the beginning, can turn out to be quite major. Diagnoses related to auto accidents include: whiplash, herniated disc, lower back pain or lumbago, stiff neck, carpal tunnel, nerve entrapment, TMJ disorder, and headaches. This can lead to lifelong difficulties, loss of job/income, loss of consortium, and loss of enjoyment of life.
