Another study, published in a surgical journal in February and conducted by an American scientist, also found that antibiotic treatments may be a safer alternative to surgery.

Though appendicitis surgery has been a routine treatment for over a century, it still requires a patient to undergo a hospital stay, increasing the risk of infection and lengthening the recovery time. An operation also exposes patients to potential mistakes related to surgeries, like those mentioned in a recent report about the safety impacts of pre-op and post-op briefings for medical staff.

For some kinds of appendicitis, surgery is still often the only option.

It’s still unclear to doctors and scientists just how important an appendix is to a person, and what effect its removal may have. Other recent articles, including one in Scientific American, focused on research by a scientist at Duke University and opined that the appendix might be useful in helping our digestive systems recover from diseases and illnesses by providing a safe haven for friendly bacteria. If this is the case, people who undergo appendix surgery may be more affected by food poisoning and other digestive illnesses throughout their lives.

With all of the new and continuing discoveries, patients may be relieved to take a “wait, watch and treat” approach for their appendix problems—and more and more patients may be able to just take a few pills rather than undergo surgery. 

About Our Chicago Healthcare Injury Attorneys

Salvi, Schostok& Pritchard P.C. is an Illinois medical malpractice law firm with offices in Chicago and Waukegan. In addition to representing clients in medical malpractice cases, the firm’s personal injury lawyers focus on car and truck accidents, airplane and train accidents, construction injuries, birth injuries, brain injuries, unsafe properties and animal attacks.

The firm’s success in medical negligence, personal injury and wrongful death cases features recoveries of more than $630 million on behalf of its clients, including more than 180 multimillion-dollar verdicts or settlements.For more information, call (312) 372-1227 or use the firm’s online contact form.

The NPR story mentions a case involving a 56-year-old man who was admitted to a hospital from his nursing home to have a feeding tube replaced. Because of a mistake made by a doctor distracted with her smartphone, the patient ended up having to undergo open heart surgery, according to the story.

When you look at a more detailed account of the case, you’ll see that the reason the doctor was using her smartphone in the first place was to change the medications the elderly patient was receiving. The hospital where this case happened used a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system, which allowed doctors to enter medicine changes and prescriptions with their cell phones or other mobile devices.

As the resident was about to order that the patient should stop receiving blood thinners, she received a message about a party from a friend. The doctor texted her friend back, confirming her attendance. She forgot to use her cell phone to complete the CPOE order.

This first distracted doctor’s mistake was made even worse by the hospital’s reliance on technology. Because the hospital and the hospital staff were so sure of the CPOE system, no one double-checked to see that the patient was receiving the correct medications. He continued to receive blood thinners for three days. On day four, the patient had to undergo emergency open heart surgery.

Fortunately for the patient, this potentially deadly mistake didn’t cost him his life—but it did create a three-week hospital stay, increased recovery time, and drastically different medical problems than he or his doctors expected.

This man’s case, unfortunately, seems to be yet another example of the growing problem of technology pursued at the cost of safety in medicine.

Salvi, Schostok& Pritchard P.C. is an Illinois medical malpractice law firm with offices in Chicago and Waukegan. The firm represents clients in matters involving emergency room errors, failure to diagnose, hospital negligence, physician error, birth injuries, surgical malpractice, anesthesia errors, organ puncture/perforation, post-operative and pre-operation malpractice and surgical complications.

The firm’s success in medical negligence, personal injury and wrongful death cases features recoveries of more than $630 million on behalf of its clients, including more than 180 multimillion-dollar verdicts or settlements.

To learn more about Salvi, Schostok& Pritchard P.C., call (847) 249-1227or use the firm’s online contact form.

The researchers looked at the results of more than a dozen studies in order to see how frequently patients experienced injury or other complications from breathing tubes or masks used while under general anesthesia.

One study reviewed found that as many as seven out of every 10 patients had complications like internal bleeding, swelling of the throat, and vocal cord injury. The two techniques examined in the review were endotracheal tubes and laryngeal masks. Both of these are common ways to keep patients breathing during surgeries.

Endotracheal intubation is also often used in emergency medical care and involves a tube being fed directly into the throat and windpipe (or trachea), through a person’s mouth or nose. Laryngeal masks, in contrast, sit on top of a person’s voice box (or larynx), instead of passing through it. The study found that hoarseness was the most common injury found in patients who had used the masks, though patients whose doctors used tubes also reported hoarseness. Complications were found anywhere from immediately after surgery to the week after.

A spokesman for the American Society of Anesthesiologists, a professional organization that represents doctors, was quoted in the news release about the report. The spokesman said the report’s findings aren’t new, and that the rates of injury found after using tubes and masks in surgery shouldn’t be alarming to patients. An independent expert who commented on the report in the news release, who was not involved in the study, said that patients who experience hoarseness or other discomfort or injury after their surgery, and whose doctors used breathing devices, may want to consider seeing a nose and throat specialist.

Medical experts seem to agree that the breathing tubes and masks do carry risks of injury, since the parts of the body involved (like the mouth and throat) are softer, more sensitive areas. The authors of the study said that most patients with injuries recovered quickly. However, the lead researcher on the study serves on the board for a maker of laryngeal masks. Though she reported no financial ties to any companies, further reviews of the after-effects of breathing devices may help clarify just how quickly and completely patients heal. Getting these figures straight seems particularly important when you consider that over 48 million people had surgery in the year 2009 alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. is an Illinois medical malpractice law firm with offices in Chicago and Waukegan. The firm represents clients in matters involving emergency room errors, failure to diagnose, hospital negligence, physician error, birth injuries, surgical malpractice, anesthesia errors, organ puncture/perforation, post-operative and pre-operation malpractice and surgical complications.

The firm’s success in medical negligence, personal injury and wrongful death cases features recoveries of more than $620 million on behalf of its clients, including more than 175 multimillion-dollar verdicts or settlements.

To learn more about Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C., call (847) 249-1227or use the firm’s online contact form.

Major teaching hospitals were 10 times more likely than other hospitals to have high rates of serious complications, a Kaiser Health News analysis of the Medicare data showed.

The new hospital ratings are part of changes being phased in from the 2010 federal health law. A central tenet of the law was to tie Medicare reimbursement to a variety of measures, including how patients rate their stays, readmission and mortality rates, and how closely hospitals adhere to basic guidelines for care.  The Obama administration believes adding such financial incentives into Medicare will prod hospitals to lower costs and improve treatment.  This new Medicare data is a first step in the process.

The data seems to support what plaintiffs’ lawyers have been saying for years: it’s more difficult and dangerous to adequately train and supervise new doctors in large, fast-paced environments.  Decisions and procedures are often made by junior level trainees, without proper oversight.  If you don’t know what to look for, and many of these doctors don’t, you won’t find it.

Some examples of complications mentioned in the data included punctured lungs, blood clots after surgery, wounds that split open after operations, bedsores, catheter and bloodstream infections, and broken hips from falls after surgery.

You can access this information by visiting hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.

Many of us wouldn’t go to a training center to get our hair cut, let alone be treated for a serious health ailment at one.  If you or a loved one has been injured or is a victim of medical malpractice that may have occurred at an Illinois teaching hospital, we may be able to help.

Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. is an Illinois personal injury law firm with offices in Chicago and Waukegan. In addition to representing clients in medical malpractice cases, the firm focuses on car and truck accidents, airplane and train accidents, construction injuries, birth injuries, brain injuries, unsafe properties and animal attacks. The firm has obtained more than $620 million on behalf of its clients in personal injury and wrongful death cases, including 175 multi-million dollar verdicts or settlements.

For more information, call (312) 372-1227 or use the firm’s online contact form.

The authors also looked for links between the numbers of diagnosed cases and the introduction of prescription drug treatments for ADHD. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a combination of drugs and behavior therapy is often used to treat the disorder. The study found a link between the kinds of treatments recommended and prescription drug changes.

Use of the drug atomoxetine, sold under the name Strattera, is an example of the kind of trends the study found. When the drug was introduced in 2002, it was used in about 15 percent of ADHD cases. Then, in 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found that patients using Strattera were at risk for suicidal thoughts or sudden death. Strattera was not removed from the market, but prescription rates fell to about 6 percent of ADHD cases in 2010. Straterra is a non-stimulant drug. According to the study, non-stimulant treatments recently began gaining in popularity, and in 2010 they were used in about 13 percent of cases.

Non-stimulant treatments (sold under names such as Intuniv, Wellbutrin, Tenex or Nexiclon) are still used less frequently for ADHD than stimulant drugs, which are prescribed in about 87 percent of cases. The FDA has been studying the potential risks of stimulant drugs for children with ADHD, particularly after some people raised concerns that certain kinds of drugs could cause heart problems. While the FDA found that stimulant treatments were not necessarily more likely to cause strokes, heart problems or sudden death in children, the authors of the final FDA report said that other studies did find a greatly increased risk.

The authors of the Northwestern study say the increased numbers of ADHD cases don’t necessarily mean that children are developing the disease more often; it is possible that parents are becoming more aware of the disease and may be taking children for treatment more often. The authors think that increased advertisements by drug companies may be involved in this. Interestingly, the study also found that parents are seeking ADHD treatment for their kids from psychiatrists more often than from pediatricians.

About Our Chicago Prescription Drug Attorneys

Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. is an Illinois medical malpractice law firm with offices in Chicago and Waukegan. In addition to representing clients in medical malpractice cases, the firm’s personal injury lawyers focus on car and truck accidents, airplane and train accidents, construction injuries, birth injuries, brain injuries, unsafe properties and animal attacks.

The firm has obtained more than $620 million in verdicts and settlements on behalf of our injury clients. Our record includes 175 cases with verdicts or settlements of $1 million or more. For more information, call (312) 372-1227 or use the firm’s online contact form.

Medicare and Medicaid fraud is a costly issue for Illinois, according to the Illinois Healthcare and Family Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which investigates claims of fraud and health care providers across the state. In the latest annual report, the OIG found over $18 million in Medicare or Medicaid overpayments. The OIG also partnered with other State and Federal agencies to prosecute drug companies, health care facilities and others guilty of violating proper medical assistance program rules. The prosecutions resulted in over $30 million in re-payments to the State of Illinois Medicaid Program. That same year, 45 cases of potential fraud were reported to Illinois State Police.

This latest fraud took place over a five-year period, from 2006 to 2011, and involved thousands of fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid, impacting the care of thousands of patients. At one point, the indictments claim, one of the companies even paid homeless people staying at a Dallas shelter to help them bill the government for healthcare services that were never provided. The indictments are part of a Federal program aimed at catching cases of Medicare fraud across the country. Since the program began in 2007, they have charged more than 1,190 people with frauds that cost taxpayers more than $3.6 billion.

According to the OIG, it is important that consumers pay attention to the kinds of care they receive, and that patients and families ask questions about procedures and all medical bills. Tip-offs about potential frauds can be filed by consumers, patient advocates and, most importantly, employees of medical companies themselves.

About Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C.

Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. is a leading Illinois personal injury law firm with offices in Chicago and Waukegan. In addition to representing clients in catastrophic personal injury, medical malpractice, aviation and product liability cases, the firm focuses on car and truck accidents, airplane and train accidents, construction injuries, birth injuries, brain injuries, unsafe properties and animal attacks. The firm has obtained more than $620 million on behalf of its clients in personal injury and wrongful death cases, including 175 multi-million dollar verdicts or settlements. For more information, call (312) 372-1227 or use the firm’s online contact form.

The CDC warning is about a potentially deadly bacteria called C. difficile. The germ is spread mainly by contact with contaminated surfaces, such as sinks or the improperly cleaned hands of healthcare workers. Though almost half of infections are in people younger than 65, over 90 percent of deadly infections occur in the elderly. These bacteria can also be spread by infected patients when they move to new facilities or return home, which means that even one unsanitary doctors’ office, hospital or care facility can spread the germ to others.

Overuse of antibiotic drugs might be one cause for the widespread infections. Those who are currently on antibiotics or have taken those drugs in recent months are vulnerable to C. difficile germs. Unsanitary working conditions and a lack of communication by healthcare workers about recent infections may also have helped spread the germ. According to the CDC, C. difficile infections result in an extra $1 billion in costs and 14,000 deaths annually.

Elderly patients in medical facilities or long-term care and their families can take steps to minimize the risk of deadly infections or improper care. Patients and families have the right to ask healthcare providers questions about medications and procedures. All medical staff should be able to show identification, and answer questions about sanitation.

If an elderly patient is not able to ask questions or understand the answers, he or she has the right to ask a family member or friend to be his or her medical advocate. Patients and families or advocates for the elderly should also check the latest ratings given by the federal government to each nursing home and other long-term care facilities. All facilities should be able to share their latest ratings.

About Our Chicago Medical Malpractice Attorneys

Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. is an Illinois medical malpractice law firm with offices in Chicago and Waukegan. In addition to representing clients in medical malpractice cases, the firm’s personal injury lawyers focus on car and truck accidents, airplane and train accidents, construction injuries, birth injuries, brain injuries, unsafe properties and animal attacks. The firm has obtained more than $620 million in verdicts and settlements on behalf of our injury clients.

Our record includes 175 cases with verdicts or settlements of $1 million or more. For more information, call (312) 372-1227 or use the firm’s online contact form.

The drug scam caused a stir in Chicago when the area’s Cancer Treatment Center received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning letters that asked recipients to check their stock and prescriptions for fake Avastin. The drug is used to treat brain, kidney, lung and colon cancer in the U.S., and is also used for breast cancer in Europe. A doctor at Chicago’s Cancer Treatment Center emphasized that the facility never purchased Avastin from the supplier that sold the counterfeit medication.

The imposter Avastin was found in both the U.S. and Europe. British doctors sent some of the fakes to Roche, the makers of the real Avastin, for testing. Early tests had shown that the fakes contained no actual Avastin and no generic versions of the drug.

After tests, Roche announced that while it detected several ingredients, including salt, acetone and starch, it found no cancer-fighting drugs in the fakes. Roche also said the levels of ingredients in the samples it tested varied so widely that it could not clearly determine whether there would be any serious or fatal reactions in people who had taken the bogus Avastin.

Investigators think the Avastin impostor drugs may have come from Egypt before reaching distributors, who then sold them to as many as 19 hospitals in the U.S. Counterfeit drugs are a serious problem in medicine worldwide.The World Health Organization declared the problem a considerable threat to public health, and linked appearances of fake prescriptions on the market to levels of mistrust in doctors and medical treatments.

Experts say that fake prescription drugs are particularly hard to track and international statistics are vague because of the widely differing regulations and standards in each country. According to the FDA, 30 to 50 percent of all prescribed drugs are counterfeit in some countries. Nearly 40 percent of drugs prescribed in America are imported, and almost 80 percent of the active ingredients in all prescription drugs consumed in the U.S. come from foreign sources or manufacturers. This makes testing, quality control and regulation of prescription drugs an ongoing international problem.

About Our Chicago Prescription Drug Attorneys

Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. is an Illinois medical malpractice law firm with offices in Chicago and Waukegan. In addition to representing clients in medical malpractice cases, the firm’s personal injury lawyers focus on car and truck accidents, airplane and train accidents, construction injuries, birth injuries, brain injuries, unsafe properties and animal attacks. The firm has obtained more than $620 million in verdicts and settlements on behalf of our injury clients.

Our record includes 175 cases with verdicts or settlements of $1 million or more. For more information, call (312) 372-1227 or use the firm’s online contact form.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), responsible for regulating medical licenses, blamed the cost of researching and updating records for its slow and often absent responses to citations and complaints against doctors.

The cost in question is the amount required for access to the National Practitioner Data Bank, which collects information about doctors nationwide. The U.S. government established the databank to help states identify so-called “problem doctors,” who might move from state to state in order to practice medicine despite their records. The cost of querying the database is less than $5 per record.

While many states access the database regularly, Illinois does not. The state has ranked among states with the worst rates of disciplinary actions against problem doctors. Illinois currently ranks 20th.

In 2010, investigations revealed that IDFPR had also allowed 16 convicted sex offenders to maintain medical licenses even after their convictions. Public advocacy groups and experts have expressed dismay and frustration that IDFPR has been allowed to act so slowly to correct mistakes in licensing and take disciplinary action against problem doctors.

Many also admit that the agency has been poorly funded in the past. Legislation has been introduced to increase IDFPR’s budget by $1 million, mostly from raising licensing fees, in order to better fund investigations into problem doctors in Illinois.

Contact Our Chicago Medical Malpractice Lawyers

Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. is an Illinois medical malpractice law firm with offices in Chicago and Waukegan. In addition to representing clients in medical malpractice cases, the firm’s personal injury lawyers focus on car and truck accidents, airplane and train accidents, construction injuries, birth injuries, brain injuries, unsafe properties and animal attacks. The firm’s results include 175 cases with verdicts or settlements of $1 million or more.

For more information, call (312) 372-1227 or use the firm’s online contact form.

According to one expert, “Ethical, medical, Joint Commission, and other legal considerations unequivocally call for—in fact, mandate—radiologists to promptly and completely divulge to patients or patients’ families the occurrence and nature of any error or adverse event that takes place during a diagnostic or therapeutic radiologic procedure.”

However, disclosure of errors by radiologists is not measuring up to that recommendation. That lack of communication can be dangerous — a report on radiology errors showed that harmful mistakes occur seven times more frequently in radiology than in the healthcare system overall.

The way a doctor talks to a patient about an error can affect his or her ability to make informed decisions about treatment. Helping doctors to speak in ways patients can understand is a growing focus in medical schools and hospital training.

Some doctors are calling for quicker, clearer communication about mistakes. Dr. Leonard Berlin, who practices and teaches in the Chicago area, has written of the need for doctors to follow existing rules more closely and to speak to patients or patients’ families quickly and clearly about errors.

We believe the radiology profession should adopt programs that provide new doctors with more tools and guidance for talking to patients. In the end, more open lines of communication will lead to greater patient safety and better healthcare. 

Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. is an Illinois medical malpractice law firm with offices in Chicago and Waukegan. The firm represents clients in matters involving emergency room errors, failure to diagnose, hospital negligence, physician error, birth injuries, surgical malpractice, anesthesia errors, organ puncture/perforation, post-operative and pre-operation malpractice and surgical complications.

The firm’s success in medical negligence, personal injury and wrongful death cases features recoveries of more than $620 million on behalf of its clients, including more than 175 multimillion-dollar verdicts or settlements.

To learn more about Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C., call (847) 249-1227or use the firm’s online contact form.