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Tucson Personal Injury Law Blog

What happens when your doctor doesn't treat your preeclampsia?

Pregnancy can be a beautiful, joyful experience, but it can also bring with it significant risks to the mother and her unborn baby. In addition to everything that can go wrong during the delivery of the child itself, the mother can develop a number of dangerous medical conditions during pregnancy, such as gestational diabetes or preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia is relatively rare, but it is still a noteworthy risk that affects some pregnant women. Your physician should monitor you for preeclampsia during your pregnancy, and the hospital staff should monitor you for late-onset preeclampsia during labor and delivery. Failing to check you for preeclampsia and treat you for its symptoms could have long-term, potentially fatal consequences.

Proving medical malpractice after a doctor or hospital error

Many of our readers in Arizona know that medical malpractice is shockingly common in America. In fact, medical malpractice is usually cited as a leading cause of injuries, illnesses and deaths in our country. However, proving that medical malpractice has occurred can be a complicated task.

The decision to pursue a medical malpractice legal claim is not an easy one. Our readers have probably heard before about how time-consuming and technical these types of legal cases can be. But, when the decision is made to press on with a claim, Arizona residents will need to prove certain elements of the claim in order to, hopefully, be successful in the case.

Congress attempts to address nursing home abuse and neglect

"Elder abuse" is a familiar term to many of our readers in Arizona. It is a term that is, unfortunately, becoming more widely known as elder abuse and neglect gains more attention, both nationally and in Arizona. Naturally, legislators have become aware of this issue and are attempting to push through laws that can help prevent elder abuse and neglect. Nursing homes, in particular, are one of the targets for prevention efforts.

According to a recent news report, a few Democrats and Republicans in Congress are attempting to work together to pass legislation that will re-authorize funding for the "Elder Justice Act," which was first passed in 2010. As part of the efforts, the bipartisan push included a series of hearings in Congress earlier this year focused on nursing home issues and elder abuse, as attention is drawn to the current and expiring laws that may impact elder abuse in America.

Taking action when a surgical procedure goes wrong

When Arizona residents go to the doctor, they expect to receive the best treatment possible. After all, America is on the leading edge of medical technology, so that expectation is realistic. However, there is also the reality that, unfortunately, medical malpractice does occur with alarming frequency in America. When something goes wrong with medical treatment, particularly a surgical procedure, patients in Arizona usually start looking for options.

One option might be to consider a medical malpractice lawsuit. In such a claim, the alleged victim must prove that a doctor-patient relationship existed - which is fairly easy to do - and then, from there, prove that the treatment in question was negligent or reckless in some manner, or not up to the standard of care expected. In a case involving a surgical procedure, the technical aspects of the case can seem daunting. Medical professionals go to school for years and practice their trade meticulously. As a result, some people may think that it is foolhardy to question a doctor's moves. But, the reality is that many medical malpractice claims are, in fact, valid.

Malpractice award will allow woman to care for her disabled son

When large medical malpractice verdicts hit the news, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that there is almost always a monetary reason behind why the award was so high.

Take, for example, a recent case out of another state involving a single mom and her child. The woman, who gave birth at the age of 29, delivered a child with severe brain damage and resulting developmental disabilities after a birth experience gone awry.

What is the meaning of differential diagnosis?

Medicine is just as much of an art as it is a science. What this means in practice is that, ultimately, a doctor or other medical professional are really making their best educated guess about what is ailing their patients when giving a diagnosis.

Because there is some guesswork inherently involved in the practice of medicine, a doctor is not liable for medical malpractice simply because he diagnosed a patient with one condition but it turned out that the patient actually had something else.

Do you know how to choose a surgeon?

You've come to find that you need surgery to correct a medical condition, but have concerns about moving forward at this time. While it's natural to have various concerns and questions, those associated with choosing a surgeon are extremely common.

While there is no right or wrong way to choose a surgeon, there are steps you can take to improve the likelihood of making the right decision. And when you do, you'll feel better about the process leading up to your procedure, the surgery itself and your future care.

Arizona agency failed to investigate nursing home complaints

Many people in Arizona are retired and aging. As people age it is common that more and more health concerns will arise. The body just does not function the same way it did when it was younger. People may suffer injuries, contract illnesses that affect their body and mind in some cases. This is an unfortunate fact of life for many people as they continue to grow older. While family members may step up and allow these loved ones to live with them and care for them, sometimes the illnesses require more supervision than family members can provide.

In these situations, people may put their loved ones in nursing homes and other care facilities which provide the type of care people need. People expect their loved ones to receive the care they need while they are there as well. However, this does not always happen and many people may be the victims of nursing home neglect or abuse. That is why the Arizona Department of Health licenses these facilities to ensure that they are providing the proper care and to investigate complaints when they arise.

Illnesses and conditions that are commonly misdiagnosed

Most people in Arizona know when they are not feeling well and something is not quite right. Sometimes people may also know what may be wrong, such as having a cold, the flu or other common illnesses. However, people do not always know what may be wrong. Other times they may experience symptoms that are common for colds or the flu that are actually indications that something much more serious is wrong. In these situations, people rely on doctors to diagnose what may be wrong and how to treat it.

Doctors also go to school for a long time in order to learn about different potential diseases and conditions and the symptoms to look at to determine what is wrong. However, sometimes doctors do not properly analyze all possibilities or incorrectly determine what disease is causing the problems. If they fail to diagnose a disease incorrectly it can be very detrimental to people's health and a condition that may have been treatable grows worse and becomes much more difficult to treat and control.

Many spinal surgeons have operated on the wrong level of a spine

Doctors in Arizona must go through extensive education and training before they can become a doctor. This is because they provide an extremely valuable service for people. They can help heal people from their injuries and illnesses. However, in order to effectively do this, doctors need to have a very good knowledge of the human body and how it works not only to appropriately diagnose a problem, but then to prescribe the correct medication or conduct the appropriate procedure.

Then once they know which procedure or surgery must be done to treat the problem, they also need to correctly operate on people, so the surgery is actually effective. If doctors make surgical errors it does not matter whether they accurately diagnosed the problem and determined the correct surgery. People still could be left in a worse position than they would have been in prior to the surgery.