Posts Tagged ‘hospitals’

Blood Donation Infection Leads to Lawsuit

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Christopher Bui thought he was doing a good deed when he went to the Stanford Hospital to donate blood. Unfortunately, by the end of his ordeal, he ended up not being a hero, but a victim.

Bui had donated at the hospital yearly for over ten years before the fateful incident that led him to develop a debilitating infection. The expenses related to treating the infection at the hospital quickly added up and soon, he could no longer afford to pay. At this point, the hospital refused to provide him with further treatment. He is now suing the hospital for medical malpractice.

According to an Orange County personal injury lawyer, hospitals promise to take care of blood donors if any ill arises as a result of their donations. By refusing to treat Bui, they broke this promise to the donor and may have cost themselves additional donations from those who now fear the potential repercussions will not be covered by the hospital.

To read more about this suit, see the article in Justice News Flash. Image via Thirteen of Clubs [Flickr].

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Malpractice Suit Claims Delayed Care Caused Death

Monday, January 4th, 2010

The entire point of emergency care is to treat patients in critical condition in a timely manner. Unfortunately for Nicole Blincoe, her mother, Penny Louise Prevezich, was not afforded this consideration when she came to an emergency room in San Mateo County. Mrs. Prevezich was left waiting in the waiting room of the county hospital’s emergency care unit, while she died of a drug overdose. She was transferred from a veteran’s mental health facility to the hospital, where she was seated by a nurse and then left unattended for over 90 minutes, at which time she was found deceased.

A recent study has shown that hospital waiting times have been increasing significantly throughout the last year. The University of California San Francisco has found that only 75% of all patients are receiving care in a safe and timely manner. Orange County personal injury attorneys warn that the problem will get worse if left ignored.

To read more about the case, see the article on AboutLawsuits.com. Image Via Reegmo [Flickr].

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Patient Suing Over CT Scan Radiation Overdose

Monday, October 26th, 2009

timsamoffA patient who received a CT scan from the Los Angeles Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is suing the hospital and the manufacturer of the device after receiving a radiation overdose. His suit will not only be on his behalf, will be a class action including the 206 other patients that have received radiation overdoses from the machine. The defect has gone undetected for over a year and a half.

The patient, Trevor Rees, and his Orange County personal injury lawyer assert that both the hospital and the maker of the device, General Electric, have been negligent in preforming the scans. The lawsuit is also alleging medical malpractice on the part of the hospital and product liability on the part of GE.

GE says the machine is not defective. Hospital officials claim the mistake occurred when staff reset the machine, but a misunderstanding about a default setting applied by the machine led to patients receiving eight times the normal dose of radiation. 40% of all the patients suffered hair loss as a result.

Rees says he experienced signs of radiation overdose shortly after the exposure, including losing hair on his head and eyebrows, and redness and flakiness of skin on his face and scalp. A while after the scan, hospital officials contacted him, asking him if he experienced any side effects, but they would not tell him why. The hospital did not inform him of the overdose until much later.

To read more about this case, see the article in the Silicone Valley Mercury News. Image Via Timsamoff [Flickr]

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