Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

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Jeffrey%20Bloom.jpgOur partner, Jeffrey Bloom, will be speaking tomorrow at the “Mt. Sinai Update 2013: Breast Imaging” program. This program is designed to cover clinical aspects of breast imaging including digital mammography, breast ultrasound, breast MRI, and interventional procedures, as well as medicolegal issues. The faculty consists of twelve nationally and internationally recognized experts. Jeffrey Bloom will be speaking on the subject of Breast Imaging Malpractice and provide a Plaintiff’ Attorney’s Perspective. The complete Agenda can be found here.

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Diagnostic errors are among the leading causes for Medical Malpractice Claims in the US. They cause personal injury to patients and waste resources.

Recently the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM) announced that the Institute Of Medicine (IOM) had accepted the SIDM’s proposal to undertake a report on diagnostic error as the next volume in the Crossing the Quality Chasm series. The “Quality Chasm Series” started in 2000 with the report “To Err is Human”. The publication of this report is often associated with the beginning of the patient safety movement.

Other IOM’s Quality Chasm series includes Health IT and Patient Safety (2012), Preventing Medication Errors (2006), and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001).

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Most Surgical Fires result from Medical Malpractice or negligence causing serious injury, disfigurement, and even death. They occur in, on or around a patient who is undergoing a surgical procedure. An estimated 550 to 650 surgical fires occur in the United States per year. Despite the fact that the root causes of surgical fires are well-understood, surgical fires still occur.

To promote actions to reduce the risk of risk of surgical fires.The Preventing Surgical Fires Initiative is celebrating its second anniversary during National Fire Prevention Week, October 6-12, 2013.

Fires happen during surgery because the 3 elements needed to start a fire (fire triangle) are present in an operating room:

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Errors when prescribing opioids may constitute medical malpractice that can lead to the death of a patient. In the US, the use of opioids to treat chronic non-cancer pain has increased dramatically in recent years and because of their highly addictive nature, some patients may use prescribed opioids for non-medical purposes increasing their risk for injury or death.

Providers may make multiple errors when prescribing opioids for non-cancer pain. Most common errors are inadequate screening for safe and effective opioid use, inability to monitor adherence, improper selection of opioids and insufficient consideration of co-morbid conditions.

In a recent case study, Web Morbidity and Mortality analyses the case of a 42 year old man who died of an overdose after doctors did not follow appropriate prescription practices.

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The number of deaths resulting from Medical Errors in Hospitals have been grossly underestimated according to new estimates developed by John T. James, a toxicologist at NASA’s space center in Houston. James runs an advocacy organization called Patient Safety America that he created after his 19 year old son died as a result of medical malpractice in a Texas Hospital.

In 1999, “To Err is Human Report“, estimated the number of deaths resulting from medical errors in hospitals at 98,000. In 2010, The Office of the Inspector General for Health and Human Services said that bad hospital care contributed to the deaths of 180,000 in Medicare patients alone in a given year.

According to the study published in the current issue of “Journal of Patient Safety” these numbers are too low and the true number of premature deaths associated with preventable harm to patients is estimated at more than 400,000 per year.

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$ 91.7 million was paid for more than 400 medical malpractice claims against the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2012. Cases included missed diagnoses, delayed treatment and procedures performed on wrong body parts. The highest settlement which was also the largest in 12 years was for $17.5 million to the family of Christopher Ellison who was left permanently incapacitated after getting teeth extracted at a Veterans Medical Center in Philadelphia.

Veterans%20Medical%20Malpractice%20Claims.pngFollowing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the number of veterans taking advantage of VA medical care has risen significantly. Last year, the 152 VA hospitals and 190,000 doctors treated 5.6 million veterans, an increase of more than 30% compared to 10 years ago.

In the next 4 years, 1.2 million soldiers will become veterans. Some of them who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering post traumatic stress disorder while others survived injuries that would have been fatal during World War II or the Vietnam War.

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10 Lawyers from Gair Gair Conason Steigman Mackauf Bloom&Rubinowitz were recently selected by their peers as New York Super Lawyers for 2013. Our primary practice area is personal injury. We handle all types of personal injury cases including medical malpractice, car accident, product liability, construction accident and wrongful death cases. Those selected are Jeffrey B. Bloom, Seymour Boyers, Anthony H. Gair, Howard S. Hershenhorn(Top 100) ,Jerome I. Katz, Stephen H. Mackauf, Ben B. Rubinowitz(Top100), Christopher L. Sallay, Ernest R. Steigman and Richard M. Steigman.

The sum of the verdicts and settlements our attorneys have obtained approaches $1 billion dollars. We believe the key to achieving these results is to limit our case intake to approximately 80-100 cases per year so that extensive personal attention and meticulous trial preparation are afforded to each of our clients on all matters. Because we are selective in the cases we accept, we are able to immerse ourselves in our cases and as a result, we are able to resolve our clients’ cases more quickly than other plaintiff’s personal injury firms.

We operate what some might call a “boutique firm”-which means we limit our practice to a select group of serious and substantial tort cases, but our results speak for themselves. As a personal injury firm, we spend a significant amount of time deciding whether we will accept a case, and, because we only accept a select few cases, we are able to spend more resources than other firms to secure the most knowledgeable experts and to get the best results for our clients.

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super%20lawyers.jpg Peter J. Saghir has been selected to the 2013 New York Super Lawyers Rising Stars list. Each year, no more than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in New York are selected by the research team at Super Lawyers to receive this honor.

Since joining the firm, Peter’s focus has been on the preparation of catastrophic personal injury cases, complex medical malpractice cases, construction accident cases, car accident cases product liability cases and wrongful death cases. His primary responsibilities include all aspects of the preparation of a case including taking depositions, drafting and arguing motions and trials.

Our congratulations to Peter on receiving this honor at this early point in his career. It is well deserved.

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Spyors%20Panos.jpg Accused by the Office of Professional Medical Conduct of botching surgeries,faking surgeries, performing unnecessary surgeries and prolonging the ailment of hundreds of patients, Dr. Spyros Panos, an Upstate New York surgeon formerly practicing at Mid Hudson Medical Group in Poughkeepsie, N.Y was ordered to surrender his medical license by the state Board of Professional Medical Conduct. DR. Spyro is facing over 200 medical malpractice lawsuits.

Read more in the Poughkeepsie Journal

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A surgeon can be sued for Medical Malpractice if he or she failed to properly communicate care instructions to a patient after the surgery.

Recently Web M&M analyzed the case of a woman who needed arthroscopic surgery after she tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee.

The surgeon talked to the patient before the surgery and gave her postoperative instructions for ACL repair that included 50% weight bearing immediately after the surgery