San Antonio Personal Injury Law Blog

Stories of shocking abuse remind people that they cannot make assumptions about the safety of nursing home residents in Texas. A recent case in a neighboring state came to light after the local police department received a tip about abuse by caretakers at a nursing home. The investigation resulted in the arrest of one certified nursing assistant. Police expect to arrest three other former employees of the facility suspected of abuse.

The police chief said that he later learned that someone had filed a complaint with the Department of Human Services months before the police department received a tip. He said that DHS should have alerted his department at that time, but a statement from DHS said that the agency was not required to inform law enforcement.

Doctors in Texas and around the country face medical malpractice litigation when the care they provide fails to meet generally accepted medical standards and their patients suffer injury, loss or damage as a result. This type of lawsuit is often filed when doctors fail to diagnose a serious medical condition or diagnose the wrong condition. A delayed or missed diagnosis can result in patients being denied potentially life-saving treatment or suffering the side effects of unnecessary treatment. To prevail in court, medical malpractice patients must convince a jury that another doctor with the same set of facts would have made an accurate or timelier diagnosis.

The consequences of prescription drug interactions can be catastrophic, and this kind of medical mistake remains worryingly common despite improvements in the software used by doctors, hospitals and pharmacies. Surgical operations are closely monitored in hospitals, but thousands of patients every year undergo unnecessary surgery, have the wrong procedure performed on them or develop complications because a sponge or piece of medical equipment was left inside them.

Many people in the San Antonio area may feel that they don't need to be told about escalator safety. However, accidents do happen, largely because of unsafe riding practices. The National Elevator Industry has some safety tips that riders should take into consideration.

First, passengers must look at the moving steps before stepping on and off, firmly hold the handrail and remain clear of the escalator's sides. If they have a young child with them, passengers should hold that child's free hand and keep him or her from sitting on the steps or approaching the side area. Anyone with loose clothing must especially be wary of the sides.

Diagnostic errors in a primary care setting affect some 12 million Americans every year. San Antonio residents should know that misdiagnoses, in particular, can have serious consequences. Roughly 40,000 to 80,000 Americans every year die as a result of such mistakes. Inaccurate diagnoses are the leading factor in malpractice claims that involve death or a serious disability.

This was the conclusion of a study conducted by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Researchers analyzed over 55,000 diagnosis-related malpractice claims that resulted in death or serious injuries. Of these, 74.1% involved one of three conditions that researchers dubbed "The Big Three." They are cancer (37.8%), vascular events (22.8%) and infection (13.5%). Lung cancer, stroke and sepsis were the most frequently misdiagnosed conditions in each of these categories.