“Defensive Medicine” is a concept created by the medical insurance industry to describe a practice of doctors ordering “unnecessary” tests and treatment for patients as a response to “out of control” medical malpractice lawsuits. The reality of defensive medicine, however, is something totally different. This summer the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies published a comprehensive… Read More
Patients’ Right to Know Act Takes Effect
The medical malpractice attorneys of Passen & Powell have frequently written about the legislative efforts to return physician profiles to the public domain after more than a decade of absence. We have lobbied for this important public access, and lent our support to the Patients’ Right to Know Act as it wound its way through… Read More
When There Is No Diagnosis
Our medical malpractice attorneys have frequently written about the severe consequences, and legal liability, associated with the failure to diagnose a particular condition or disease. But what if the doctor fails to make any real diagnosis at all? The complete failure to diagnose a condition can be one of the most devastating things a patient… Read More
FDA Warns Against Use of Transvaginal Mesh
Today, our medical malpractice lawyers discuss a recent FDA report concerning the safety of transvaginal surgical mesh. Surgical mesh is a metallic or polymeric screen that can be implanted inside a person’s body to reinforce soft tissue or bone where weakness exists. Surgical mesh has been used for several decades to repair abdominal hernias and,… Read More
Failure to Diagnose Skin Cancer
In recent years, the mortality rate (i.e., the number of deaths) for many cancers has declined. Skin cancer is the exception to this trend: death from skin cancer is actually on the rise. This is despite improved treatment options, and greater public awareness. The problem? The failure to diagnose skin cancer by inexperienced primary care… Read More
Failure to Diagnose Breast Cancer
There are few things as frightening and overwhelming as receiving a cancer diagnosis from your physician. But, for many patients – particularly those with advanced cancers – the pain of this situation is compounded by wondering: could this have ended better, could I have been spared this pain and suffering, if my condition had been… Read More
AMA Uses Bad “Facts” to Support Bad Law – H.R. 5
As we have previously noted, the leadership in the Federal House of Representatives has now moved to undo the recently-passed federal healthcare reform, and replace it with legislation designed solely to protect doctors and prevent the victims of medical malpractice from fully recovering for the harm they suffer. The American Medical Association has now come… Read More
Patients’ Right to Know Act Passes IL Legislature
In a major victory for Illinois patients and advocates for patients’ rights, such as the experienced Illinois medical malpractice lawyers of Passen & Powell, the Illinois Patients’ Right to Know Act has now passed both houses of the state legislature and is now on its way to the Governor’s desk. If, as expected, Governor Pat… Read More
Postoperative Vision Loss: A Primer
Of all the non-fatal complications of surgery, perhaps none is more traumatizing, and more unexpected, than postoperative vision loss. Patients rarely, if ever, anticipate the possibility that when they awaken from unrelated surgery – on their back or hip, for instance – they will do so with severely impaired vision, or no vision at all. … Read More
Patient Rights Advocates Strongly Oppose HR 5
The experienced medical malpractice attorneys of Passen & Powell have repeatedly spoken out against HR 5, the anti-patient legislation currently pending in the U.S. House of Representatives. Last week in Roll Call, a widely read publication in Washington, DC, other patient rights advocates spoke out strongly against the bill as well. HR 5 bears the… Read More
