Alleging a radiologist missed something on a film and caused you harm can be tricky. Often the “miss” is not obvious to the untrained eye (otherwise they wouldn’t have missed it), and the defense is usually that, only with the benefit of hindsight, can you now “see” the finding.
That question is currently being asked in a courtroom in Kitsap County. Intuitive Surgical, the maker of the da Vinci surgical system, is defending itself from accusations that it isn’t safe when the company’s profits drive surgeons and hospitals to use it without proper training.
The issue of transparency in hospitals is not a new one, particularly when errors occur. On the one hand, hospitals prefer not to disclose information that might open them up to liability due to an error that resulted in injury to a patient. Hospitals also argue that allowing it to have a degree of privacy makes patients safer, because they can have internal discussions about what went wrong and fix the problem so that it hopefully will not happen again.
Pat Greenstreet discusses a case that vividly demonstrates why CMG focuses on medical negligence cases. Pat describes how medical mistakes resulted in a baby suffering a profound brain injury due to prolonged labor. It is challenging and heartbreaking cases like Anthony’s that keep CMG working toward being “a trusted voice for victims of negligence.”
A new study will be published soon that found that 20 of 24 credentialed radiologists did not see a dancing gorilla placed on one of five scans they were asked to look at. In fact, half of the 24 radiologists looked directly at the gorilla, and missed it.
Blood is naturally able to clot, and that’s a good thing. Otherwise, our cuts and scrapes wouldn’t stop bleeding, and our bruises would keep getting bigger and bigger. But sometimes it’s a very good idea to hinder this clotting process, particularly in people at an increased risk of developing clots that can break off and travel to the brain, lungs or heart.