New York Medical Malpractice

Under current law, the military cannot be held accountable for any sort of medical malpractice as it pertains to active servicemen. U.S. representative Maurice Hinchey from New York state is proposing a bill that would reverse the current law and make the military accountable for any medical malpractice that occurs. Entitled “The Carmelo Rodriguez Military Medical Accountability Act”, it is currently being debated by the House of Representatives.

Hinchey said his bill would make sure "the military, like any other health care institution, takes steps to improve care so that no one else ever has to go through what the Rodriguezes have endured." The legislation would continue to exempt medical professionals responding to "combat scenarios," he said.

Eufemia Martinez died from a botched gastric-bypass surgery. Not only was the surgery botched, it wasn’t even necessary.

“You heard about predatory lending? This was predatory medicine,” the lawyer said. “This surgery is a surgery of last resort. It’s not a cosmetic procedure.”

Martinez’s sons were represented by Trolman, Glaser & Lichtman, a New York Law Firm that specialized in Medical Malpractice. When asked about the the case, it was reported that:

The Bronx mom stood 5-foot-6 and weighed 230 pounds. But the doctor “changed the records” to make her height 5-foot-3 so she could be considered morbidly obese to medically require the surgery, Lichtman said.

Her two sons were awarded $17 million from North General and the doctor involved with the surgery. The New York Post has the full story in their artice, Just Desserts.

The Five Towns Jewish Times had an excellent article that outlined how to protect yourself during your hospital stay.

Upon admission, get yourself a copy of the Patients’ Bill of Rights.

This documents all the rights to which patients are entitled, including the right to be kept apprised of medical care and the right to a safe, clean environment.

Ask questions

It is not unusual for medical staff to be too busy to speak to patients. If you feel someone is not giving you the answers you request, ask to speak to someone else (a supervisor or patient advocate).

Be aware

If you know what medications you are supposed to be on and a nurse comes in offering something “new,” have them double-check your chart just to make sure you are getting the correct medication and dosage.

Stay vigilant

This may mean being perceived as a “pain,” but keep on top of your own care; medications, treatments, and tests all create the potential for errors.

Don’t accept things unquestioningly

Remember, you always have the right to ask for a second opinion and even a third if you do not agree with the answers provided. Sometimes the worst errors occur when one merely parrots what his predecessor says.

It’s hard to believe, but more deaths come from medical errors than deaths from car accidents, breast cancer and AIDS.

In 2000, the Institute of Medicine concluded that medical errors account for more deaths than motor-vehicle accidents per year. The study called for improvements in the medical profession and found the following:

• Preventable adverse events are a leading cause of death in the United States. When extrapolated to the more than 33.6 million admissions to U.S. hospitals, the results of these two studies imply that at least 44,000 and perhaps as many as 98,000 Americans die in the hospital each year as a result of medical errors. Even when using the lower estimate, deaths in the hospital due to preventable adverse events exceed the number attributable to motor-vehicle accidents (43,458), breast cancer (42,297), or AIDS (16,516).

• Sizable numbers of Americans are harmed as a result of medical errors. Two studies of large samples of hospital admissions, one in New York and another in Colorado, found that the proportion of hospital admissions experiencing an adverse event, defined as injuries caused by medical management, were 2.9 and 3.7 percent, respectively. The proportion of adverse events attributable to errors (i.e., preventable adverse events) was 58 percent in New York and 53 percent in Colorado

The Journal of Urology recently published a study that suggests that urologists could cut their medical malpractice risk by referring difficult cases. They surveyed 20 years of data from a liability insurance company in New York.

The new study finds those strategies are useless against one of the most common risks: missed or delayed diagnoses. A survey of 469 successful lawsuits against New York urologists found 15% were based on alleged missed diagnoses. Many of those claims had nothing to do with urology.

Furthermore, it was discovered that office-based urologists may incur a much higher risk of medical malpractice. The researchers concluded:

“Failure to diagnose confers a malpractice risk, and it exists in the office setting…It is unlikely that any practicing urologist would be immune to such risk if he or she shows up to work.”

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