The hospital insists it did nothing wrong and followed all proper protocols, but a pathologist’s report suggests otherwise. It appears now that a jury will have to decide whether there is any merit to a claim of hospital negligence based on the finding that an 80-year-old woman was apparently frozen alive in the hospital’s morgue. The circumstances of the...
Read MoreMost of the time, when someone in Kansas City is having surgery, they get general anesthesia to make it through the procedure without pain. General anesthesia allows for considerable latitude when it comes to surgery, but patients must also be closely monitored while under the effects. A failure to monitor patients can lead to serious injuries or death. It...
Read MoreDoctors are scientists. At least most claim to be. That suggests that their practices are guided by standards that have been established by having gone through the rigors of scientific study and research. But, as many medical professionals argue, health care is also something of an art. That’s convenient on one level. It means that standards of care and...
Read MoreThere is no substitute for good communication. It doesn’t matter what the context is, if solid communication is lacking, the chances increase that something will go wrong. In a hospital setting, the risks of failing to communicate often result in a patient’s condition getting worse or death. Considering that such failures are often due to negligence on the part...
Read MoreAs professional singer with the Nashville Opera, a Cincinnati woman was aware that having a C-section could endanger her career. What she didn’t expect was that an episiotomy during natural childbirth could force her to put her career on hold indefinitely. In fact, she couldn’t have expected it, because she was never told an episiotomy might be performed. Moreover,...
Read MoreAccording to Courthouse News Service, more than 100 medical malpractice lawsuits were brought against Kaiser Foundation hospitals in 2013 alone. While neither the foundation nor Kaiser Permanente operates in Missouri or Kansas, this is of major concern because the group is the nation’s largest health care system, operating in nine states and Washington, D.C. One recent claim involves allegations...
Read MoreIn April 2012, a 77-year-old Seattle musician and U.S. Army veteran died at a VA hospital after a long struggle with throat cancer. He had come to the hospital for end-of-life care but, tragically, it wasn’t his cancer that killed him. He died on his second night in the hospital from a massive morphine overdose. An Infusomat pain medication...
Read MoreUniversal Health Services, the company that operates the Two Rivers Behavioral Health System facility in Kansas City, is in the news for potential negligence, understaffing and even abuse at its psychiatric hospitals. Its latest quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that eleven of its psychiatric facilities have received subpoenas from the U.S. Department of Health and...
Read MoreLeaving foreign objects in the body after surgery is called a “never event” — a mistake so preventable that it should never happen if basic procedures are followed. The sad fact, however, is that “never events” do happen, and this one can cause pain, physical injuries, infections and even death. The Joint Commission, one of the nation’s preeminent healthcare...
Read MoreLast week, an extremely disturbing story of hospital negligence was brought to light. A patient being treated for an infection at San Francisco General Hospital, that city’s main public hospital, went missing on Sept. 21. Despite a search of the grounds by both hospital personnel and sheriff’s deputies, her disappearance was a mystery until Oct. 8, when her body...
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