Chicago Medical Malpractice Blog

Technology has made medical care more affordable and reliable, but the bottom line with medical care is that you still need a competent doctor. The news is filled daily with horror stories about careless doctors who ignore their Hippocratic oaths for the sake of profit or pride and put patients at risk. With reforms to the health care system looming around the corner, it is even more important that medical professionals are held to the proper standards; those who are not meeting those standards must be properly disciplined.

In 2009, Public Citizen's Health Research Group surveyed data from the Federation of State Medical Boards. The Group was able to analyze data regarding serious disciplinary action taken by state boards against their doctors. The Group found that there has been a national decline in state sanctions against doctors and that some states may be ignoring disciplinary issues within their state. When considering the states with more than 40,000 licensed physicians, the highly populated states of Texas, New York, California and Florida don't have the highest rate of serious sanctions against doctors -- that title goes to Illinois.

Preventing Elder Abuse in Illinois and Throughout the U.S.

Almost daily, news headlines recount horrific tales of exploited, abused or neglected senior citizens. Almost six million senior citizens are the victims of abuse every year. Similar to child abuse, a case of elder abuse occurs every five seconds. To increase awareness of this growing problem, the state of Illinois has designated July as Elder Abuse Awareness Month.

Elder abuse is an unfortunate societal ill that can affect anyone, anywhere and anytime. It occurs in homes, residential facilities and institutions. Elder abuse occurs regardless of economic class, education or culture. Physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, financial abuse, exploitation, neglect, abandonment and self-neglect are all aspects of elder abuse.

If you or a loved one has suffered due to medical malpractice, it is important to know your legal rights. At Cirignani Heller & Harman, LLP, we help people throughout Chicago, Illinois, and the surrounding region with a wide range of medical malpractice claims.

Something we discovered in our years as medical malpractice lawyers is that an informed patient is a safer patient. So we've put together this web log to bring you not only important medical information but also our thoughts on medical and legal issues that may impact your life. We also hope it will serve as a forum in which we can hear your questions and concerns regarding medical malpractice.

Whether you have suffered due to a doctor's failure to diagnose cancer, your family is coping with the consequences of a birth injury, or a loved one has suffered a wrongful death, it is important to be equipped with the necessary information. We hope you will find this Blog useful and return for regular updates.

Stay informed. Stay safe. Stay tuned.

For specific information about your case, please contact us today online or by telephone at 312-346-8700 to speak with an experienced Chicago, Illinois, medical malpractice attorney.

The CBS Evening News (12/14, story 3, 2:20, Lapook) reported, "The problem of too much radiation during CT scans may be more widespread than anyone thought." In fact, "new research...found a wide variation in radiation dose for the most common CT scan like abdomen, pelvis, and chest. A survey of four hospitals found some patients received 13 times more radiation than others for the same type of scan."

NBC Nightly News (12/14, story 8, 2:10, Bazell) reported, "Depending on the part of the body being scanned, each CT exposes a patient to an amount of radiation equal to between 30 and 440 chest X-rays." But, in a separate study, "researchers calculated that 72 million CT scans are performed in this country a year and concluded that could lead to 29,000 excess cancers and 15,000 excess deaths a year in the future."

In that study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers at the National Cancer Institute "found that people may be exposed to up to four times as much radiation as estimated by earlier studies," USA Today (12/15, Szabo) reports. But, James Thrall, chairman of the American College of Radiology, noted that "scientists have not yet determined whether low doses of radiation actually increase cancer risk, or whether the risk rises only after exposure levels reach a certain threshold."

Meanwhile, the second study, appearing in the same journal, of over 1,000 patients at four hospitals, showed that one woman out of 270 and one man out of 600 would suffer from cancer after undergoing a single heart scan at age 40, the Wall Street Journal (12/15, A3, Wang) reports. Researchers noted that the differences in radiation doses may be due to a lack of standardized settings and disparities in technology use.

The Los Angeles Times (12/15, Maugh) reports that, in an accompanying editorial, Dr. Rita F. Redberg, editor of the journal, noted that "the articles...make clear that there is far more radiation from medical CT scans than has been recognized previously." Redberg said, "Even many otherwise healthy patients are being subjected to the radiation...because emergency [departments] are often sending patients to the CT scanner before they see a doctor." Dr. Michael S. Lauer, of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, added that "there are no clinical trials that show such imaging saves lives."

Bloomberg News (12/15, Ostrow) reports that in the National Cancer Institute study, "the authors predicted that lung cancer will be the most common radiation-related cancer followed by colon cancer and leukemia." For its part, the FDA "issued interim regulations Dec. 7 requiring closer monitoring of CT scans after more than 250 cases of exposure to excess radiation were reported since October." Still, Donald Frush, chairman of the American College of Radiology's Pediatric Imaging Commission and chief of the division of pediatric radiology at Duke Medical Center, said, "We can't lose what the benefits of CT scanning are," calling CT "one of the most invaluable medical advancements in the last 100 years."

In an increasingly mobile society, getting and transferring medical records has become a commonplace need. Public Citizen Health Research Group, www.citizen.org/hrg, correctly points out these facts about medical records:

• You are entitled to your own medical records, though you usually have to put the request in writing and probably pay copy charges (Be aware, that these charges are usually set by state statute, and that it is not uncommon, especially when the records are requested following medical malpractice, for hospitals to erroneous charge excessive rates. So be sure to research the prices for research the prices for your state (try Googling: medical record copy costs and the name of your state)
• Others,such as insurance companies, other medical care providers, government agencies, and even your employer may gain access to your medical records. Mostly they gain this right with your consent. Typically, you will be asked to sign a medical release document granting them these rights as a condition for getting benefits.
• There are circumstances where a provider may deny you access to certain types of medical records. Generally speaking, these special types of records are protected from disclosure for public policy reasons. Examples would include: psychotherapy records, hospital incident reports, records created by the hospital for the purpose of evaluating quality of medical care, and in some circumstances records relating to "private" matters, such as acquired immune deficiency.
• Generally speaking, you are entitled to get copies of your records only; however, there may be situations where the law allows you to acquire the records of others. This includes: parents getting the records of minor children; legal (court-appointed) guardians getting the medical records of their ward; and agents such as lawyers, who have acquired the right by a valid Power of Attorney.
• While medical care providers usually keep records for it five to eight years, there is no uniform law that requires a specific time. Consequently, it is a good idea to request your records whenever you are finished using a specific hospital or doctor.
• HIPPA sets national standards for medical records privacy, but does not apply unless the provider maintains and transmits records in electronic form. If your provider does, HIPPA provides that you have the right to see, get a copy of, and amend and supplement you medical records.
• Most other issues regarding health records are governed by state law, so take the time to research what your state has to say.

Author's note: While Public Citizen has much good to say about many things, please do not assume that CH&H agrees with everything that organization says. We do not.

We are frequently asked to review cases where a family suspects that their loved one may have died from a negligent overdose of painkillers (opioid narcotics, oxycodone, etc). In analyzing whether there was negligence we have to look at two things: the patient's response to drugs, and the doctor's response to the patient. Let me explain.

Patient Response To Drugs

While there are general guidelines that describe a maximum safe dosage of painkillers, the reality is that safe dosages are patient-specific.Not only are there difference among the various painkillers, patients have different reactions to the different narcotic medications. These reactions can change from drug to drug, as well as from use to use. One reason this occurs is called opiate tolerance. When a patient use one specific type of painkiller over a long period of time, they can build up a tolerance to the drug's effects, meaning that they might need more of the drug to gain the same level of relief. Conversely, if a patient has never used a particular painkiller, they are sometimes called opiate naïve.

In either case, a doctor must obtain a full history from the patient about their painkiller use before deciding which drug to use and in what dosage. Often, when a patient is in a pain crisis they may not be good historians--they may not be able to recall the medications they've used in the past. In such cases, the doctor must review the patient's chart, or, if it is a new doctor (say, during an emergency room visit), the doctor must contact the patient's prescribing doctor to get that history. For this reason, if you are a chronic pain sufferer, it is often a good idea to carry your doctor's contact information in your wallet.

In addition to the patient's history of painkiller use, the doctor must also consider: the other drugs used in mixed preparations ("painkiller cocktails"), and cross-tolerance. Caution is the guiding principle whenever new painkillers are started, or when increasing dosage of existing painkiller regimens.

Doctor Response To Patients

As noted above, patient reactions to painkillers can change from drug to drug, as well as from use to use. Therefore, it is imperative for a doctor who is using a new painkiller, or adjusting painkiller dosages, or using particularly strong painkillers (like the synthetic narcotic, Dilaudid), to monitor the patient for adverse reactions before sending the patient home, and, just as importantly, to inform the patient's family to return the patient to the emergency department if they see signs of respiratory depression (which the doctor should describe).

Many people suffer daily from chronic or even acute (sudden) episodes of pain, and their only relief is the various opioid narcotics. These drugs are generally effective and safe, but only if the doctor follows certain simple and easy precautions.

Be a smart patient and insist that they do.

In the news on reform of the civil justice system, consumers--and their lawyers--are always depicted as the enemy, creators of all manner of ill: expensive products and loss of doctors chief amongst them. What is often not mentioned, is the good that comes from accountability. Ten years ago some smart lawyers and some brave clients weathered the ridicule and sought to hold tobacco companies accountable for the lies. Despite initial losses, the tobacco industry began settling cases. Importantly, since then, smoking rates have decreased and most of the settlement proceeds have helped balance state budgets, build schools and pave roads.

A recent study in Chest, the medical journal of the American College of Chest Physicians, cautions that the popular cold remedy VapoRub can stimulate mucus production causing airway inflammation when used on infants and toddlers. This reaction can severely affect young children's breathing. Once again, caution is the word with cold medications in children under two, even over-the-counter meds.