A Virginia jury recently returned a verdict in favor of the family of an 89-year-old woman who was killed in an automobile crash after her car was struck by the defendant’s car as she was proceeding through an intersection on a green light. The defendant, a 90-year-old woman, was traveling…
A Virginia jury recently returned a verdict in favor of an 84-year-old nursing home patient who sustained an un-witnessed fall in her bedroom. The nursing home patient claimed the fall was caused by the nursing home’s failure to apply and monitor a fall alarm in her bed, which was required…
Decedent, age 49 at the time of his death, underwent an arthroscopy with synovectomy operative procedure on his left knee in 2006. Eight days post-op defendant orthopedic surgeon diagnosed decedent with an acute deep venous thrombosis involving the gastrocnemius veins of the left lower extremity. He prescribed Lovenox and Coumadin…
Virginia residents should be aware that a recent study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services covering the 15 percent of the U.S. population enrolled in Medicare found that each month one out of seven Medicare hospital patients is injured-and an estimated 15,000 are killed-by harmful medical practice.…
A jury in Charlottesville, Virginia recently awarded more than $10.5 million to the family of a woman who died after a concrete mixer truck fell on her car in 2007. The victims were a married couple from southwest Virginia who were travelling on State Route 53 when their car was…
Virginia residents should be aware that a recent study has shown that patients in hospitals where nurses work long hours are much more likely to die of pneumonia and heart attack. In most U.S. hospitals, nurses work 12-hour shifts exclusively, a trend that began during the 1980’s due to nationwide…
Virginia residents should be aware that according to recently released study, as many as 75 percent of hospital tests are not followed up on and this failure can have serious consequences for patients, including delayed or missed diagnoses and even death. Researchers analyzed 12 international studies and found that between…
A jury in Norfolk, Virginia recently awarded a doctor beaten by a patient in a Virginia Beach psychiatric clinic a $5.35 million judgment. The award was against Psychiatric Solutions Inc. and First Hospital Corp. of Virginia Beach, the companies that own and operate the Virginia Beach Psychiatric Center, a 100-bed…
According to a recently released report by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, there are substantially more motorcyclists traveling Virginia’s roads, which has in turn contributed to an increase in fatal accidents involving motorcycles. Since 2001, DMV spokeswoman Melanie Stokes says motorcycle registration in Virginia has jumped by 105 percent.…
In Virginia, residents (“doctors-in-training”) at teaching hospitals may be immune from civil liability based on the ancient doctrine of sovereign immunity. National medical research, however, increasingly supports the long-held concern that lax supervision of residents at teaching hospitals contributes to patient harm, even death. “Teaching hospitals differ from other health…