POSTS TAGGED "wrongful death"

The Halloween season is a time of fun and thrill for people of all ages. The costumes and the idea of finding haunted houses to seek fun by creating fear make up a huge part of this season. However, what happens when this fear is no longer fake but real? The father of a teenager in Missouri is filing a lawsuit against Halloween Productions that operates a haunted house in St. Louis for causing the death of his daughter.

 Just over a month ago, we blogged about so-called "July Effect," which suggests that July can be the worst time for a patient to enter the hospital since that is when all of the new interns enter. It raised an interesting question as to whether there are other times of the year, month, week or even day that tend to be a bit risky for hospital patients.

According to a study done by researchers from John Hopkins, it appears that there are patterns in patient care, and the odds of death for patients admitted on the weekend is higher than those who are admitted during the week.

The study, which was published in the Journal of Surgical Research, reviewed over 38,000 records of patients who had suffered head trauma. It found head injuries admitted on the weekend, even if it was less severe of a head injury, were more likely to prove fatal. The results were not a surprise to many health care professionals, as previous studies have already established a well-known "weekend effect" when it comes to heart attacks, strokes and aneurisms.

 For many, it is no surprise that people who work in high-stress occupations are vulnerable to alcohol abuse. Unfortunately, many of these same occupations require a great deal of skill. This is particularly troubling when the abuse might affect a medical practitioner who needs to operate at peak performance to ensure the safety of a patient.

A recent survey has revealed that a high percentage of medical surgeons have a drinking problem. A survey published in the February edition of Archives of Surgery found that 14 percent of male surgeons and 26 percent of female surgeons are alcoholics. One analyst has said the numbers might even be higher, since only about 29 percent of those surveyed actually responded. Researchers do not find this surprising since people with drinking problems often are reluctant to reveal that problem to others.

The survey did not specifically attempt to learn if surgeons who drink more have higher rates ofmedical negligence. But an earlier study in the same publication indicated this might be the case if the surgeon operates the day after a night of drinking.

 Clostridium difficile, or C diff, is a bacterial infection often linked to medical care facilities. C diff primarily causes chronic diarrhea in affected patients and can even lead to death; the bacterial infection is associated with some 14,000 deaths each year. And in most cases it is entirely preventable.

That is to say that almost 14,000 people die each year from an infection that most likely would not be spread if all hospital employees and medical staff properly washed their hands and followed basic routine measures.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of C diff infections are currently at an all-time high among U.S. hospitals - occurring in both inpatient and outpatient care.