Under some circumstances, patients can undergo heart surgery while still awake. The benefits include quickly recovery time and avoidance of risks of traditional anesthesia.
Recently, researchers at Baylor University College of Medicine and Veterans Affairs Medical Center created a computer algorithm designed to prompted doctors to follow up with patients.
Clostridium Difficile (C-diff) Infections are on the rise in the United States, complicating the health of many and unfortunately killing thousands in health care facilities since 2011.
Modern medicine has solved many problems, but it hasn’t yet solved hospital-acquired infections. Unfortunately for people harmed by such infections, it is very difficult to bring a claim for injury.
In some cases, even when it is clear that a health care provider was at fault, it can be challenging to prove which provider it was and how much worse the error made the patient. In this case, it was necessary to convince two different providers to contribute toward a settlement based on the risk that each might be the one found to be responsible and that the negligent act resulted in the patient’s death 6-1/2 months later.
This paper outlines legal defenses based on the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act, how the act applies to medical negligence claims, and how court rulings have gradually eroded those defenses.
