In a recent guest column in The Washington Post, a physician talked about his earlier misguided belief that patients who were overweight simply weren’t adjusting their lifestyle through diet and exercise to lose weight. Doing that had worked for him when he was...
Pregnancy compels patients to rely on medical professionals to safeguard their interests in specific, consequential ways. However, medical errors do occur, and these mistakes can result in serious consequences for pregnant patients. While healthcare providers are...
No doctor wants to perform unnecessary surgery – and no woman wants to have one. However, childbirth is fraught with dangers for both the mother and baby, and C-sections can be life-saving. Is it malpractice when a C-section isn’t performed and the mother or baby...
Medication is crucial to the recovery of so many people. Yet, as we’ve discussed here recently, prescription medication errors are a serious threat to patient safety. It’s been estimated that medication errors harm at least 1.5 million people every year. Too often,...
Modern advances in medicine have meant that many conditions can be fairly easily treated with the appropriate medication. For example, many infections can be cleared up with a batch of antibiotics. For some people, medication becomes part of their daily routine to...
Trust is paramount in healthcare. Patients entrust their lives to medical professionals with the expectation of receiving safe and effective care. However, beneath the surface, patients can experience medical errors, which can have fatal consequences. Medical...
Many people have to undergo surgeries to help relieve pain, medical conditions, infections and other issues. There is often no other choice for people to resolve a medical condition other than surgery. When people get surgery, they put their trust in surgeons,...
For those who have chosen a profession that’s supposed to be about compassion and healing, doctors often hesitate to apologize when something goes wrong – or sometimes even to express any kind of sympathy. That’s how deeply ingrained the fear of malpractice claims and...
There is an assumption that medications approved for administration under certain circumstances are generally safe for patients. Physicians can also prescribe them off-label to people in other scenarios. For example, certain diabetes medications get prescribed...
About 650,000 people undergo knee replacement surgery each year, but not all of these operations are successful. Knee replacements sometimes fail because patients are told to avoid strenuous exercise, which can lead to a weakening of the muscles that support and...
