Cerebral Palsy Malpractice

While most people tend to think of medical malpractice as something a doctor does to cause someone a physical injury, med mal may also mean causing pain and suffering in instances such as cerebral palsy.

"Medical malpractice, or call it medical negligence, may also be the result of human mistakes; mistakes with the potential to end up with tragic consequences such as cerebral palsy," said Christopher Mellino, a Cleveland malpractice lawyer specializing in Cleveland medical malpractice cases in Ohio. This kind of medical error/mistake may cost a child and their family permanent pain and suffering, as cerebral palsy is a lifelong condition that is not curable.

In most cerebral palsy medical malpractice lawsuits, the damages may cover a wide range of areas from emotional and physical to monetary awards, or in other words, non-monetary and monetary damages. The toughest thing for the families to endure are the costs associated with cerebral palsy med mal that include physical therapy, surgery, special equipment, drugs, etc. "It's not uncommon to hear of horrendously high bills when caring for a cerebral palsy patient," indicated Mellino.

If the cerebral palsy was the result of negligence on the part of a doctor or other medical provider who did not follow the required standard of accepted medical care during a pregnancy, the delivery or very soon after labor and the birth, the victim and their family have every right to file a medical malpractice lawsuit.

"In any case where a person feels they have been the victim of medical malpractice, the first thing then need to do is speak with a highly skilled med mal attorney who is intimately familiar with these types of cases," explained Christopher Mellino, a Cleveland malpractice lawyer specializing in Cleveland medical malpractice cases in Ohio. Lawyers with a proven track record in these situations have more than a passing familiarity with legal jargon and know precisely how to evaluate these cases.

If the attorney feels there is a strong enough case, a medical malpractice lawsuit will be filed. "Parents of a child suffering from cerebral palsy may claim damages for things such as – the pain and suffering of the child (and family), medical bills, child care, cost of future care, and loss of future earning capacity," added Mellino.

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

The Tragedy of Birth Injury

When something is wrong with a newborn, the first thing that comes to mind is birth injury malpractice.

"Birth injury malpractice is not to be confused with birth defects, as these are two different things," explained Christopher Mellino, a Cleveland malpractice lawyer specializing in Cleveland medical malpractice cases in Ohio. A defect is usually something that happened before pregnancy or during gestation, causing something to go drastically wrong with the baby's health and normal development.

A birth injury refers to something that happened during delivery – say shoulder dystocia – which was a direct result of a botched delivery. These things should never have happened in the first place.

"Most birth injuries are due to a fault of the physician (or other medical staff) who were working as a team to deliver the baby," said Mellino. If something does go wrong and the personnel provide less than sterling care and skilled medical intervention, the conditions are ripe for a medical malpractice lawsuit.

"When dealing with a birth injury malpractice lawsuit, there are usually four elements that need to be present in order to proceed: proximate cause, injury, breach of duty, and the fact that a duty of care was owed to the patient," outlined Mellino, a Cleveland malpractice lawyer specializing in Cleveland medical malpractice cases in Ohio.

To show duty of care, the attorney needs to prove the doctor owed the patient a duty to provide reasonable care. "The breach of care aspect is relatively self-explanatory, in that it means the physician didn't provide the professional/reasonable care anticipated and expected," added Mellino.

These two elements must result in an injury or death to show there was medical malpractice. This leads us to proximate cause, which means that without the negligent act, the injury would never have occurred. Or, to put this another way, the harm would not have happened if the doctor had not made a mistake.

If someone has suffered the trauma of birth injuries, the best thing to do is to contact an experienced and highly knowledgeable birth injury lawyer. The attorney will assess the case and advise how to proceed to justice.

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

Traumatic Brain Injury May Progress to Vegetative Coma

With the rising car crash statistics across the nation, it's no small wonder the numbers of traumatic brain injuries are also on the increase. Traumatic brain injury patients are at higher risk to slip into a vegetative coma.

Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are also called contrecoup brain injuries that, in a nutshell, means "A specific area of brain injury located directly opposite to the site of impact to the head that results from linear violent collisions of the brain with the skull." While many TBIs appear to be just fine after their accident (e.g. Natasha Richardson), they rapidly develop a variety of symptoms that may include headache, nausea, dizziness, ringing in the ears, blurred vision, and problems concentrating.

While a TBI may be classified as mild to severe, even a mild form of TBI may have life altering and long-term consequences. Mild brain injuries usually wind up with the patient either briefly losing consciousness or not, and then feeling dazed and confused later. Moderate brain injuries may last for mere minutes or hours, with the resulting confusion hanging on for weeks or months. The length of time for cognitive impairment may range from months to permanently.

A diagnosis of severe TBI has the potential to last months to years with the patient being unconscious the whole period of time. In these particular cases, the patient runs a very high risk of slipping into what is called a "vegetative state" or "locked in" syndrome. In most instances such as this, impairment, even if there is recovery, is permanent.

TBI cases are touch and go and leave doctors without many options to handle this kind of injury. Treatment mainly consists of stabilizing the patient to prevent further injury and making sure the brain is properly oxygenated, keeping consistent blood flow and controlling the fluctuating blood pressure.

Depending on the cause of the accident that resulted in a TBI, the patient or a representative on behalf of the patient, may be able to file a personal injury lawsuit. If you or a loved one faces something like this, speak to a highly skilled medical malpractice lawyer to obtain compensation.

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.

Are You Awake?

If you've ever had a medical test done at a hospital under something called "conscious sedation," be aware this has the potential to be a highly risky procedure.

These days the use of conscious sedation is on the increase in outpatient centers, clinics and hospitals. This isn't to say that the increasing rate is necessarily a bad thing, but you should be aware that there are serious risks associated with conscious sedation.

Many times this procedure is performed without any anesthesia personnel present during the administration of the drugs, during the actual test or while the patient is recovering. Anesthesia personnel include an anesthesiologist or a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA); people who assess and/or give sedation drugs. For the most part, the reason for not using anesthesia personnel is strictly a cost saving measure. It is not for patient safety.

While this might not bother the person who is undergoing the procedure, they really need to know that the drugs that are used for sedation are respiratory depressants. Where the danger arises during this type of protocol is problems assessing a patient's physical status classification – as in how well they will tolerate anesthesia, especially if they have other health issues.

Other areas that cause concern are the dose levels of the sedation drugs and being aware of, recognizing and responding when a patient is in trouble or has slipped over the edge into a deep sedation. Personnel on deck during the procedure (who must be Advanced Cardiac Life Support or “ACLS” trained and certified) need to be able to immediately reverse the drugs, rescue a deeply sedated patient or be able to resuscitate someone who goes into cardiac arrest. The ACLS training is supposed to be updated every year; however this is not always the case.

Although conscious sedation is supposed to help patients deal with the pain and/or anxiety of certain not so pleasant tests, this "twilight sleep" has the potential to do them more harm than good. In fact, these days, the drugs to induce this kind of "sleep" are even more potent than before and are usually short acting compounds. Being more potent means the patient slips "under" much more quickly than ever.

If you or a loved one has had a brush with danger during the use of conscious sedation, and has suffered lingering side effects, contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney and discuss your potential 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.

Birth Trauma Litigation

Birth trauma litigation is a very complex area of the law, and only a highly skilled attorney with an extensive track record in this area is able to ensure justice for the family.

Birth trauma usually refers to situations where children are victims of medical malpractice as they are being born. They may suffer significant injuries or death during, or as the result of something going wrong with the pregnancy or during delivery. "This is to be clearly distinguished from birth defects that happen prior to birth and were likely the result of genetic flaws or other processes during the pregnancy," outlined Christopher Mellino, of the Mellino Law Firm in Cleveland, Ohio.

Statistically speaking, it appears that birth injuries may occur in roughly five out of 1,000 births. While not a shocking number, it is still high enough to cause concern. Injuries of this nature are usually the result of a nurse, mid-wife or doctor failing to properly assess or react to conditions that arise during pregnancy or during the baby's delivery.

Not every birth injury forms the basis of a medical negligence claim. In fact, in order to file such a claim, the injuries must be severe, if not classified as catastrophic. The reason for this is that these kinds of cases are enormously expensive to pursue. Most litigations of this nature require an in-depth review of the medical records, and the presence of various medical witnesses who testify that the physician involved in the birthing violated the accepted standard of care. "Medical negligence claims do tend to be expensive," said Mellino.

Some of the medical negligence cases that Mellino has tried have involved children who did not survive birth, suffered permanent brain damage, shoulder dystocia, Erb's Palsy, and Cerebral Palsy. "Unfortunately there are a high number of birth trauma cases that go unreported because the parents are not aware they may be victims of medical negligence or because the injuries may not be that serious," added Mellino.

In all cases where a child has suffered a birth trauma, it is best to consult with a skilled medical malpractice lawyer such as Christopher Mellino, of the Mellino Law Firm in Cleveland, Ohio. Mellino is noted for his razor sharp ability to get to the heart of his cases and get justice for his clients.

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

Amputation – Loss of Limb Litigation

In most instances, amputation is thought of as the removal of a body part via surgery or trauma. It is usually performed to stop the spread of a disease or limit an existing malady.

Amputation has a rather colorful history starting in the 15th century when doctors performed surgical intervention on gangrenous or severely injured limbs. "Needless to say the results were often less than perfect due to infection and major blood loss," indicated Christopher Mellino, of the Mellino Law Firm in Cleveland, Ohio. Amputations weren't performed with any degree of frequency until the 19th century when anesthesia was introduced into the equation and blood loss and infection control became more effective.

By the time the 20th century rolled around, the better the medicine, the better the amputations – often resulting in prosthetic limbs and longer, healthier lives. In the 21st century the major reasons for amputations include gangrene, diabetic foot infections, bone infections, cancerous bone or soft tissue tumors, and traumatic limb injuries. The amputation itself results from negligence in gangrene cases, or as the result of vascular injuries that were not recognized soon enough to be treated in a conventional manner.

"In fact, failing to diagnose vascular insufficiency when the arteries in the leg are blocked from blood clots is a common source of below or above the knee amputations," said Mellino. Other loss of limb injuries may be the result of a person losing the function of a limb due to a nerve injury. In addition, there is also the medical mismanagement of a diabetic foot that may result in a medical malpractice case, although these amputations may also be due to gangrene.

In dealing with amputations over the years, I have seen many different forms that included fingers and toes as well as portions of toes or fingers. Calculating a just compensation in these cases is difficult," added Mellino. Prosthethics are costly and need to be upgraded and replaced over the course of their useful life and if the amputation that resulted in the need for prosthetics was due to a negligent act by someone else, the person who caused the injury should bear the costs.

The costs don't just stop there either. An amputee may be looking at significant expenses to modify vehicles, their workplaces or their homes. In home renovations to accommodate the injury should not be the responsibility of the victim either. This is another element used in the calculation of damages when such a case makes it way to the courts. "We also factor in medical bills, rehabilitation, pain and suffering, therapy, lost wages and loss of consortium, etc," explained Mellino.

This isn't an easy area of the law and many of the clients that Mellino handles have faced a lot of devastating trauma. Mellino's reputation for treating his clients with respect and dignity is well-earned, and he will go to great lengths to ensure his clients get justice and fair compensation.

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

Product Liability Law - Propulsid

Propulsid was supposedly designed to solve acid reflux; instead its side effects caused fatal heart rhythm abnormalities.

Propulsid/Cisapride was made by Janssen Pharmaceutical and was supposed to handle nighttime heartburn by moving food out of the stomach, and keeping acid away from the esophagus. It was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1993, and was marketed as being able to tighten the valve between the esophagus and the stomach.

For three years there was no warning label about the drugs effect on people's heart rhythms. Then adverse event reports began coming in, prompting Janssen Drugs to warn people they could die taking Propulsid. The drug was finally taken off the market in 2000. Taking it off the shelves affected over 350,000 Americans taking it. Over 30 million people had taken the drug since 1993.

Up until 2000 when Propulsid was taken off the market, the FDA received approximately 341 reports of serious heart problems and at least 80 deaths. Those stunning figures are what prompted the drug recall. Propulsid was approved for use only with adults, but it appeared infants and premature babies got it as a treatment for colic. Of the 80 deaths, 11 were children and 20 of the 341 adverse reactions were little ones with nonfatal heart irregularities.

Other damning evidence leaked out about this drug while it was still being marketed. Facts included information that Propulsid reacted badly to other drugs, and should not have been taken with allergy medicines, antidepressants, medicines for irregular heart rhythms, antibiotics, etc.

Propulsid side effects included sudden death, heart attacks, heart rhythm disorders, seizures, hepatitis, thrombocytopenia, and aplastic anemia, etc.

Propulsid lawsuits indicate the drug company didn't perform proper safety studies that would have told them this was a dangerous drug. There were also allegations that the FDA didn't reveal research that indicated the drug was flawed, because how it worked was supposedly a trade secret.

If you have any questions about having taken Proplusid/Cisapride, or about your legal rights when it comes to taking dangerous drugs, contact a dangerous product attorney who will advise you on how to proceed.

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.

Pharmacist's Malpractice Not Often Heard About

Not many people have heard about pharmacist's malpractice, but it's alive and well and definitely may be the source of a malpractice lawsuit.

Pharmaceutical error is not something a lot of people take the time to think about. They go to the drugstore, pick up their prescription and go home to take it. But, what if the drug was not the right one? What if the dose was not correct? What if the pills were time-released capsules and someone crushed them and gave them that way instead, significantly and dangerously increasing the dose the patient was supposed to take?

All these "What ifs" are real happenstances, and this should scare you into taking more care about drugs you take and what the directions indicate. Malpractice insurance isn't just for doctor's alone; it is for any health care professional in the medical field. Pharmacies are no different, and have distinct insurance predicated on their particular hazards, as opposed to the risks a physiotherapist may assume.

Pharmacist malpractice is on the rise, thanks to new technologies and new drugs hitting the market faster than the industry can keep up. The world of medicine keeps up a torrid, never-ending, fast-paced tango, and it's no small wonder that mistakes are made. The rapid pace of change causes errors to creep into daily work, with the end result being gravely injured consumers who took certain drugs in good faith – faith that the medicine dispensed was the right one for them.

The ultimate responsibility of a pharmacist is to ensure that prescriptions are accurately filled; the correct dose, correct drug, and the correct instructions concerning drug interactions, etc. It is also incumbent on the pharmacist to check doctor's handwritten prescriptions if the handwriting is so bad they can't really interpret the instructions properly.

Guessing at what a doctor says just doesn't cut it, as the doctor may have the wrong dose, the wrong drug or the wrong length of time for the patient to take the medication. While doctors certainly strive to keep up with all the new medications on the market, chances are, since they are human, they will make the occasional blunder.

Thanks to the rapid changes in technology, there are more new drugs on the market virtually every day. It should come as no surprise that pharmacists and even doctors have trouble keeping up with all of them. Ultimately it's a pharmacist's responsibility to make sure the prescription filled is the correct drug, the correct dose, and the correct length of time to take the medication, plus issue any warnings about side effects and drug interactions.

Were you aware that over 1.3 million people suffer from injuries every year thanks to medication errors? Those errors alone cost the health care system between $29 and $59 billion – yes, billion – a year. Stop and think about the ramifications of those numbers for a minute. There are over 100,000 deaths each year due to pharmacy malpractice. That death toll is higher than the number of fatalities yearly from car accidents. That's a high price to pay for a mistake that should never have happened in the first place.

If you think you have been given the wrong medication, been told to take an incorrect dose or were given the wrong prescription, you may be entitled to compensation. Contact a highly trained pharmacist malpractice attorney who will inform you of your rights and ensure you obtain justice.

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.