We have been discussing cleft lip and palates in a variety of different topics on this blog, including surgery and medical care. However, it is important to know that there are other resources around the world (and web) that can be beneficial to helping your child overcome his cleft lip/palate birth defect. Our attorneys care about you and your family’s well-being and wish to provide a link to scholarship opportunities for students attending college.
The Cleft Palate Foundation’s College Scholarship
Our birth defects attorneys believe that the Cleft Palate Foundation is an invaluable resource of knowledge for families with members who have a cleft lip or palate, of any age. While the website itself is a great resource for knowledge, they also have an annual scholarship fund, and applications for the 2012-2013 school year are being accepted until January 1st, 2012. It is uplifting to see the past recipients of the scholarship as well, because you can see their corrective surgery, as well as the bright future ahead of them. Please submit your application to them and good luck with the selection process.
Birth Defects Attorneys of New Jersey and Philadelphia
Our professionals are available for your needs. If your child was born with a birth defect, like a cleft lip or palate, your legal rights may have been affected. For instance, the FDA has recently announced that Topamax (Topiramate) has been linked to the development of cleft lip/palates. If you believe that this drug may have contributed to the development of your child’s birth defect contact the Mininno Law Office at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia for a free case evaluation and consultation.
Dr. Anthony Pickett, who was dismissed as a defendant, performed the circumcision on January 3, 2003 at Maternity Center of Vermont. The doctor was using a Militex Mogen clamp which removed eighty five percent of the top of the boy’s penis. The young boy’s medical malpractice attorneys said, “because of the defective design of the circumcision clamp, there was no protection for the head of the penis and Dr. Pickett was unable to visualize the head when excising the foreskin.” The lawyers working the case earned the plaintiffs $3.07 million in the settlement after fees and costs were deducted. Although the boy needs to regularly visit a physician and may need additional surgery in the future, they believe this is a great victory for the boy and a way to secure his financial future. Although medical malpractice statutes appeared as though they may limit the available recovery in this case, the lawyers were able to earn a just result for the young boy.
According to the fire department, facility workers wheeled the woman outside daily so she could smoke by the entrance of the building. The residents were allowed to smoke in that area of the nursing home. But it was not required by the home that the residents be supervised while they were smoking. According to Jim Suydam, spokesman for the Texas Veterans Land Board, an entity that runs the El Paso facility, since the woman did not suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, she did not need to be under constant supervision.
In August of 2002, Bruscato smashed his mother, Lillian Lynn, in the head with a battery charger and then stabbed her 72 times which resulted in her death. He was charged with murder but due to his psychological state, he was found to be incompetent to stand trial and he was committed to a mental institution. His father, Vito, then sued the doctor for medical malpractice because he believes that his son never should have been taken off of the medication. A judge at the trial court level ruled in favor of the psychiatrist but a divided state Court of Appeals elected to overturn that decision and allowed the case to proceed to trial.
Soland was given a criminal neglect charge to for each victimized patient, along with a possession charge for the drug. Soland pleaded guilty in May to one felony theft and criminal neglect charge, and the rest of the charges from the incident were dropped. She was sentenced to 120 days in jail and was credited for 67 days served. She must also complete five years of probation.
It is suggested that extreme time pressures may be the number one cause of wrong-site surgeries. Doctors are extremely busy people, and their schedules are not getting any less full. However, this does not mean that innocent people should be injured. Some surgeons have suggested a protocol to prevent wrong-site injury by requiring a pre-operative verification of important details, marking the surgical site, and a mandatory timeout to confirm everything before the procedure begins. When steps like these are not followed, preventable injuries occur. Sometimes, those injuries are fatal.
A 57-year-old woman was found unresponsive this week outside of the Riverview Nursing Home in Bossier City, Louisiana where she lived. The autopsy has not yet been performed, but Bossier Coroner Dr. John Chandler said there were indications that the death was heat-related. It was 100 degrees with a heat index of 106 degrees in Bossier City on the day the woman was found. She had been missing for several hours before a staff member of the nursing home found her a little after 6 p.m. She was taken to Willis Knighton Pierremont hospital in Shreveport where she was pronounced dead.
The data for this study, which appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, examined data gathered between 2003 and 2008: 2.1 million white nursing home residents and 346,808 black nursing home residents were studied. Although the overall number of bed sores has decreased in recent years, black patients still consistently maintained higher rates than white patients. White nursing home residents saw their total rate of bed sores decrease from 11.4 percent to around 9.6 percent in 2008. On the other hand, black nursing home residents saw their bed sore rate drop from 16.8 percent in 2003 to 14.6 percent in 2008, still significantly higher than their white counterparts. Bed sore attorneys say that the highest rates of bed sores in recent years come from black residents who live in nursing homes that have the highest concentrations of African American patients. They say that conversely, the lowest rate was among white nursing home patients who resided in homes with few or no black patients. Bed sores are a major problem in our country today and blacks and whites alike need to be aware of the potential danger that they present.
Nancy Kammerer, 56, of Urbandale, Iowa, alleged that her physicians mistakenly cut part of her pancreas while undertaking the transplant procedure in 2008. Her lawyers said that her pancreas needed to be removed after this mistake, leading Kammerer into a future of medical uncertainty. Kammerer was a special projects manager at Wells Fargo prior to her surgery, a position that she soon had to give up after the alleged medical negligence. Her medical malpractice attorneys said that Kammerer became an insulin dependent diabetic, which added further pain and medical troubles into her life. In her complaint, attorneys alleged that the error was due in part to an inaccurate medical record that was in her file. It is certainly an unfortunate situation, but they say that it is not uncommon. It is important for patients who have been victimized by medical negligence to seek legal advice in order to receive compensation for their potentially sky rocketing bills. Victims often have increased hospital bills, future medical expenses, and extreme pain and suffering, which occurs far too often.
Defective products attorneys work to serve two groups of people: their immediate clients who have been injured and are in need of compensation, and the public at large, who are put into harm’s way with a defective product.