Category: General

Medical Malpractice – Communication Breakdown

Posted on May 14, 2007 by - General, Medical and Dental Malpractice


The increasing fragmentation of medical care in general contributes to communication problems.? As we have more subspecialists, more hospitalists, more intensivists and less single primary care physicians in charge of someone, breakdowns in communication plague the medical community.? In paper based system, with mulitple consult specialists, under time constraints, it is far too easy for?missed diagnoses and failure to treat due to a breakdown in medical communication.? There are some remedies.? For example, universal electronic medical records would be a step toward remedying this problem.? It would provide a central repository so the patient can have access to the three or four specialists saying different things.? The communication breakdown leads to tragic cases of injury and death.? To bring a medical malpractice lawsuit in Connecticut, it needs to filed within 2 years of the date of medical malpractice.? In order to properly file the lawsuit, you must obtain a signed written report from a medical expert stating that malpractice has taken place and that the malpractice caused injury.? The signed medical expert report is appended to the lawsuit when it is filed with the court.? If an expert report is not filed with the complaint, the complaint is subject to dismissal.? Our firm’s personal injury lawyers have experience in handling medical malpractice cases on behalf of those that have been injured due to the malpractice of a doctor, hospital, or other health care provider.

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What To Do After A Car Accident

Posted on May 8, 2007 by - Car Accidents, General

Each year, thousands of people are involved in car accidents during the Memorial Day Weekend. If you are one of these unfortunate people, here are some tips on what to do after the car accident:

1. Safety first – When no serious injuries are involved, move your vehicle out of the roadway to help prevent a secondary collision. If potential serious injuries are involved, do not move until professional emgergency responders arrive to asses the injured person’s condition and how to best remove the person from the car.

2. Exhange Information – Obtain the other diver’s name, insurance information including name of insurer and policy number, address, license plate number, and driver’s license number. If a police officer responds to the accident, he will obatin and document this information for you. If you believe that you are injured, make sure you tell the responding police officer that you are injured.

3. Photographs – Take photographs of the damage to your vehicle.

4. Immediate Medical Attention – Seek immediate medical attention for your injuries. In some cases especially where neck and back strains or sprains are involved, the injuries will not become symptomatic for 24 hours. Once you experience symptoms, go seek medial attention. Delay in medical treatment creates two potential problems. Problem number one, your injuries may become worse due to a delay in treatment. Problem number two, the insurance company for the negligent driver will argue that the delay in medical treatment suggests that you were not injured or that your injuries were caused by something other than the car accident.

5. Contact a Personal Injury Attorney – If you have been injured in a car accident due to the negligence of another driver, contact an attorney. By contacting a personal injury lawyer sooner rather than later, your lawyer can ensure that all your legal rights are protected and that every legal claim you may have is being properly pursued. An attorney should be retained even in cases where the injured person believes that the injuries will go away. In certain cases, injuries that appear to be going away due not fully resolve themselves leaving the injured person with a permanent partial impairment or disability.

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Seat Belt Safety

Posted on May 8, 2007 by - Car Accidents, General

Many injuries or deaths occur when a person inside the car collides with:

the steering wheel
the dashboard
windshield and frame
a door
a window
the roof
other passengers

A safety belt helps stop this human collision by holding you in place. An internal collision occurs when the organs and bone structure of your body is altered due to the crash. The internal collision affects the brain, bony parts of the skull, and all internal organs.

Connecticut law mandates that all drivers and front passengers wear seat belts.? Connecticut law also requires that rear seat passengers between the ages of 6 and 16 must wear seat belts.?

To read more about safety belts and the injuries they can prevent in car accidents and truck accidents, visit the Connecticut’s Department of Transportation’s website.

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Herniated Discs and Pain

Posted on May 7, 2007 by - General

Spinal discs are round cushions that lie in between the vertebrae of the spinal column. These discs basically act like shock absorbers between the vertebrae, cushioning them when we contort our bodies in everyday life. These discs have an external shell and a liquid substance in the middle. The liquid substance is gel like.  If a disc is injured as the result of the trauma of an auto accident, the “gel” may leak out of the disc. If the inner core of the disc extrudes back into the spinal canal it may impact a nerve root. A herniated disc can put great pressure on the nerve, which can cause pain to radiate throughout the person’s body.  A herniated disc that does not impact the nerve root can also cause significant physical pain.  Where the pain radiates to in the body depends on where the disc herniation occurs. This radicular pain is typically described as a pain that shoots through the body. If a disc is herniated in the lumbar spine and it is impacting the nerve root the pain may radiate down one or both legs. If a disc is herniated in the cervical spine and it is impacting the nerve root, pain may radiate into one or more of the arms.

A herniated disc is rarely diagnosed in the emergency room after an auto accident. This is because the disc is invisible on an x-ray. A patient needs a CT scan or MRI test for the doctor to diagnosis a disc herniation.

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