If you are going to practice medicine, then it is a good idea to get it right or make every attempt to do so by taking some action. In this case, the initial doctor took no action and because of that failure to diagnose, a 42-year old former police officer died for no good reason.

The story went like this. The former cop, who was 35-years-old when he first went to a doctor in 2004, went because he had a variety of gastric complaints and rectal bleeding. The rectal bleeding alone should have prompted the first doctor to order a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy to check for rectal cancer. The doctor did no such thing. Instead, he ordered a series of upper G.I. films for his stomach issues. An upper G.I. will not find cancer in the colon.

The ex-officer moved to another state in 2006 and found another doctor. When he went to see him, he repeated his complaints about rectal bleeding. His doctor immediately ordered the right tests and they revealed he had Stage 4 colon cancer that was incurable. At the age of 42-years-old, the man was told he had less than a year to live.

Knowing his family would be in difficult financial straits, and that he would need extra and extraordinary care until he died, he filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the first doctor who failed to diagnose him in 2004. His claim pointed out that by failing to diagnose his condition, the doctor handed him a death sentence. When this case went to court, the jury agreed with the plaintiff, and found the first doctor negligent and that negligence directly caused the plaintiff’s pending death.

The jury handed down a $2.5 million verdict for pain and suffering, medical expenses and decreased life expectancy; a verdict that was reduced to $1.25 million thanks to medical malpractice caps. In other words, the victim was raped twice: once by the doctor who failed to diagnose his condition because he did not do the proper tests when he should have, and twice thanks to medical malpractice caps that limit damage awards in cases like this.

Medical malpractice caps do what? They take money away from a devastated injury victim so the insurance company gets to write a smaller claim to close the file. Tort reform is not about helping medical malpractice victims find justice. It is about ensuring the doctors do not pay for their mistakes or take responsibility for their errors and the insurance companies can keep more money and to heck with the innocent victims.

It is also about not trusting juries to make a righteous and fair decision about the case in front of them. You have to trust juries to do their job. It is rare to have a runaway jury, as most strive to get an equitable balance in their decisions.

What kind of a justice system is that? Do you think the reduced amount was adequate to compensate the man for his premature death, his pain, suffering, and medical bills and end of life care? If you were in the same situation, would you be happy with the state raping you for your just compensation to keep big insurance in business?

This kind of case is something that a plaintiff would need to discuss with an experienced Manchester medical malpractice lawyer. Make sure you promptly look into what your legal rights are to bring a lawsuit for medical negligence. A Manchester medical malpractice lawyer’s job is to help victims get as much compensation as they can for their future.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

It was not that long ago that Illinois decided to post doctor disciplinary records online, and let the public know about their profiles and convictions. The public loves it, and it has had more than 750,000 visitors since it went live in October 2011. However, there is a word of caution necessary here, and that is that some profiles are missing important information.

Close to 85 percent of the medical health professionals on the site, including chiropractors and doctors, have their information up there for the world to see and read. This information includes if they paid on a medical malpractice claim within the last five years, if they were convicted of a felony or Class A misdemeanor, or were fired. The state wants to eventually increase the time period to 10 years to provide a broader picture of the medical practitioner’s history.

While this sounds like good information to know, particularly if you want to see a certain doctor, you should be aware that all the profiles are not complete. An example is one chiropractor that did not have the information on his profile about his 2007 conviction for battery of a patient. In other words, if the system is self-reporting and on a doctor’s honor, it appears there may be some holes the size of a truck in it. On the other hand, should the system be mandatory, that may well change how things are reported.

Health care institutions and insurance companies are bound to report actions taken against doctors or payments they made for medical malpractice. However, criminal convictions are another can of worms. Not many choose to report those on a voluntary basis, even though it is required by law, and trying to search the hundreds of county courts for conviction records is a mind-numbing task.

The good news is that too has changed, as Illinois has once again taken a side on the issue and passed a new state law that all health professionals convicted of battery of patients, forcible felonies or sex crimes, should have their licenses revoked permanently. This hard-nosed attitude has prosecutors and state regulators talking to one another on a more regular basis.

New Hampshire could surely use something similar, don’t you think? A registry like this would be extremely beneficial for a Manchester medical malpractice lawyer building a case for a client. It would save time and man hours tracking it down.
Even though patients would make use of such a tool, its potential for a Manchester medical malpractice lawyer is significant. If a lawyer can help his client by using information that is readily available, he saves the client money, and the case may move forward even faster. What is discovered online might not be admissible at trial, but it is helpful to know who you are dealing with, and ultimately, the information may be used as leverage in negotiating a settlement.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

Although many people think that a plaintiff always wins a medical malpractice suit that is not always the case. For this reason, if you think you have a medical malpractice case, get an honest opinion from a Manchester medical malpractice lawyer about your chances of success. The advice is free, and you will find out right away if the case may not be worth pursuing, or conversely, if the case is worth pursuing.

What many do not understand is that a bad result with a medical professional does not necessarily mean there was medical malpractice. A Manchester medical malpractice lawyer is able to explain the differences, should there be a question about your situation. It is always smart to speak to an experienced lawyer though, to get the peace of mind in knowing if there is a case or not.

This story is about a woman in the third trimester of pregnancy. She went to a local chiropractor complaining of lower back pain. The doctor suggested a pelvic adjustment.

As a result of that pelvic adjustment, the plaintiff filed a lawsuit, alleging that her now chronic pain was caused by the doctor. Was it? Or was there a pre-existing medical condition? Those two questions were put to the trial jury, and they found that the doctor had been negligent in the care of the plaintiff in 2007. But that was not the reason why she had chronic pain. In other words, the verdict was for the defendant and the plaintiff did not receive compensation of any kind.

During the course of the trial, it was revealed that the plaintiff had difficulties with lower back pain that happened to the woman even before the pelvic adjustment she received just seven weeks before giving birth. In fact, her lower back pain and joint pain had been treated since the plaintiff was five years old, which makes one wonder whether or not the chiropractic treatments were the cause of the continuing pain.

For two years prior to her appointment with the doctor in this case, she had been for treatments 19 times for a variety of symptoms, including back pain, neurological difficulties, fatigue, depression and flank pain. On consideration of the evidence, the jury felt the pain was not caused by the doctor’s treatment; this was despite the plaintiff’s expert suggesting the chiropractor should not have done a high force adjustment on a patient who was seven months pregnant.

In the final analysis, the jury made up their minds on how they viewed the facts and evidence in the case. In this instance, the jury felt the doctor did not cause the woman’s chronic pain and chose to believe the evidence of the defendant’s expert witness. Often this is what happens at medical malpractice trials – dueling expert witnesses give their opinions for the jury to pick and choose who they believe. Who is right? Who is wrong? Or is the answer somewhere in the middle?

Without the expert legal counsel of a Manchester medical malpractice attorney, a case like this could be very confusing for the plaintiff. They may think they have a case, and indeed, in this story, the plaintiff’s lawyer thought she had a case as well. But when the jury considered the evidence, as in other medical malpractice cases, the opposing side made an impact.

A skilled attorney knows what plays to a jury and what does not. He is also responsible for fully explaining what the trial process is all about. Seek the experienced legal advice you will need if you need a Manchester medical malpractice lawyer. He will outline your rights and what to expect as you move forward. He will also let you know why some medical errors are not medical negligence.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

This case was ultimately settled out of court, a sign that usually means the defendants just want the suit to go away and stop causing them trouble. Often, this also means the plaintiff has a good case and the other side realizes it. In this case, the plaintiff’s husband was hospitalized in September 2005 for a cardiac catheterization and percutaneous cardiology intervention.

Of note is the fact that evidence in this case indicated the hospital appeared to be allowing elective percutaneous cardiology intervention without cardio-thoracic surgical coverage or availability. At this point, you may well wonder what they were thinking of offering a high-risk surgical procedure like that without the proper staff or equipment.

The hospital also failed to have a transfer medi-vac helicopter with a balloon pump on board for patients like the plaintiff’s husband. The lawsuit stated that if the hospital had not fraudulently misrepresented their capabilities to treat her husband, he would still be alive. His surgery proceeded without the proper staff and equipment and subsequently there were unforeseen complications; complications no one could deal with as there was no cardio-thoracic surgeon around.

The plaintiff was in excruciating, permanent pain, was disabled, had enormous medical bills and was unable to perform his usual daily chores, attend to his affairs or carry out other duties. His quality of life, what was left of it, was awful and his family suffered with him as they watched him struggle to deal with his situation.

Medical malpractice? Yes, most definitely and egregious as well. What hospital in their right minds would say they could perform a surgery for this type of risky procedure when they did not have the staff or proper equipment? It is not much wonder the defense made a settlement offer to deal with this case. If they had gone to court, the chances are the plaintiff would have been won a fairly high jury award.

Have you been the victim of medical malpractice? Did you have a similar experience and are suffering because of a medical professional’s negligence? It is time to make a phone call to a skilled Manchester medical malpractice lawyer.

Medical malpractice cases need an experienced Manchester medical malpractice attorney taking them to court. He knows what to do, when to do it and what the outcome should be in cases like this. In the state of New Hampshire, there are no punitive damages when a case like this goes to court. However, a case with these kinds of facts would most certainly be in line for a large compensatory verdict.

Keep one thing in mind. Not all bad medical outcomes are necessarily classified as medical malpractice. This is why it is best to discuss your potential case with a Manchester medical malpractice personal injury lawyer. Know your rights – the quality of your life may depend on it.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer and handles injury cases across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

Americans have been discussing the tort reform debate for a number of years, and, as always, it is a debate that infuriates many. There are those in favor of tort reform and those against it. The main thing is this – if you are involved in a personal injury case that leaves you with catastrophic injuries and you need medical care for the rest of your life, you suddenly understand how important it is that damages are not capped. In other words, if you expect to be able to pay for your care, you better hope the state you live in does not have a medical malpractice cap.

Is this a simple issue? No. Is it an issue that is unfair to the victims of medical malpractice? Yes. Victims of medical malpractice get hurt twice – once by the doctor, and the second time by the justice system. What possible rationale can there be for the justice system to go along with politicians and rubber stamp a damage cap that, in essence, tells a victim to shut up and live with their injuries because the justice system will not award them any more than they have to according to which cap is in place in a state.

Unfortunately, it is all about money and politics, which is actually the same thing. Supposedly, tort reform saves money on insurance premiums for doctors and reduces the amount of money paid out on insurance claims. See the picture here? Who wants to save money? The insurance companies. They do not care if someone is so severely injured by a doctor that they need lifelong care, so long as they can deny, dismiss or diminish a claim. And what does the victim do? Face the rest of their life, which may have become a living hell, trying to handle their medical care and wondering how to pay for it.

Just to make a point here, it is big insurance money that is pounding into people’s minds that verdicts are too big. They try to outshine in the debate so that every juror thinks an injury victim is trying to take advantage of the system. What happens is that regular, hard working and truthful injury victims could get shortchanged. Leave it to the jurors to decide on an award. There is no need to place a cap if we trust the wisdom of the jurors. They oftentimes have a much better sense of justice than the politicians.

The bottom line? Medical malpractice caps do very little in the way of making health care more affordable. The truth is victims are not getting the compensation they need, and a doctor’s liability is reduced, as they do not face a high premium for negligence. Put another way, doctors can practice and commit medical malpractice with little accountability for their actions.

Another truth that many people do not realize is that the risk of a medical malpractice lawsuit is already taken into account in the existing malpractice insurance system. Doctors are rated on an experience ranking scale that calculates how much of a premium they need to pay. This means less risky doctors pay lower premiums.

Medical malpractice caps get rid of incentives for insurance companies to deal with this issue in a realistic manner, meaning they do not have to pay out what a lawsuit may actually be worth based on the level of negligence involved in a case. What is wrong with that picture? Plaintiffs are getting the short end of the stick because insurance companies want to save money and politicians want to keep the insurance industry voting for them. Whatever happened to the concept of taking responsibility for mistakes? It seems to have died an ugly death when it comes to medical malpractice.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

There are some moments that are best forgotten. In particular, those moments when you are not paying attention to the traffic around you and cause a nasty accident can haunt you for years to come. It is even worse if you happen to be a cop and are the at-fault party. There is no living that one down back at the station. This reported case will be under investigation until the responding officers are able to figure out what went wrong.

This was a two car wreck, and both of the drivers were badly injured enough that they needed to be taken to the hospital by the emergency first responders. Both were also listed in serious condition. No one saw this one coming, not even the police officer in the cruiser involved in the accident. At least, that is what it appears from the information in the accident report.

The details, while still a bit sketchy, point to a 27-year-old woman driving on the highway who slowed down to make a left-hand turn onto a street. At that very moment, she was t-boned by the police cruiser that was being driven by the 33-year-old officer. The wreck shut down the highway while accident scene investigators tried to determine what happened.

There are two things going on here, and we can only speculate the order of events. Either the woman made an illegal left-hand turn in front of the cop car, or the cop car was not paying attention to where he was going. He may have been speeding to a call, in which case he was hopefully using his lights and siren. Or he may have been on the radio or reaching for something on the front seat. Similar scenarios may apply to the woman as well. She may not have looked before turning, was on her cell phone, reached for a coffee on the dashboard or was chatting with someone in the car.

The bottom line is that both victims may choose to file personal injury lawsuits in order to recover compensation for their injuries. If nothing else, this accident shows how bizarre personal injury accidents can be and how each driver involved may end up suing the other person. Depending on which state an accident happens in, there may also be fault apportioned by a percentage when the case gets to court.

Whatever you do, do not try to settle matters like this by dealing with the insurance company directly. Their only goal is to reduce, diminish, defer or deny your claim. They would rather keep the insurance money than give it away to a victim.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

For now, the information in these black boxes is not voluntarily available to plaintiffs and defendants or insurance companies. However, this is about to change in 2013. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will mandate that all vehicles with a black box must record the same data in the same format by 2013, and there has to be a tool available to access this data.

Event data recorders have been around a long time. In fact, since the 1970s they have been used in airplane crash investigations. These boxes provide all sorts of critical information that will help investigators, and soon lawyers, get the kind of information they need for a lawsuit.

Attorneys will have access to a real treasure trove of information that includes the speed of the vehicle just before impact, if the driver applied the brakes, seatbelt use and any changes in forward speed, for example. The data recorder takes a system snapshot of a lot more than that, and will provide vital information for lawsuits. In other words, car wreck lawsuits and concerns about owner privacy will take center stage in 2013 and beyond.

There are 13 states that have chosen to pass a law that requires an owner’s permission to download the black box data. However, this raises some questions. For instance, who is the owner when the accident happened – is it the registered person, the one that holds the title, or the main driver? Additionally, if a driver refuses to provide black box information, is that considered an obstruction of justice and impeding an investigation.

There are other issues that many people would not be aware of, and the biggest one concerns the destruction of data, either intentionally or unintentionally. Computer errors, malfunctioning, and product negligence could come into play. The legal term for data and evidence that goes missing or is compromised is called spoliation.

Evidently, the black box only stores information for roughly six to eight weeks of normal use, or conversely, what the industry refers to as 200 ignition cycles. That means if the vehicle is sold, destroyed or there are more than eight weeks of use, the data may be lost.

Those considerations aside, these black boxes will have a valuable role to play in determining liability for an accident. They will also clearly show whether or not the injuries alleged are the result of the accident and match the science of how the accident happened. Currently, if a case goes to court, the determination of injuries is typically done by testimony by the doctor treating the injured victim. With the advent of access to black box information, you may expect to see motions being made by insurance adjusters and lawyers, to preserve evidence.

One thing is certain – litigating car accident cases and other vehicle crashes will get a lot easier with black box information. After all, the black box does not lie and trying to beat it would be difficult, if not impossible.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

We have all heard about cellphones causing car accidents, but until recently many only guessed that other gadgets also caused wrecks. It turns out our assumptions were right. A new study from the Governors Highway Safety Association clearly points out that cellphones and other gadgets account for at least 25 percent of all U.S. car accidents.

Just what defines a gadget? These days that could be a GPS unit to the latest in tech travel toys or a laptop running movies to a video screen on the driver’s dashboard. What is wrong with people that they cannot just get drive but must be entertained by numerous devices? Why do people insist on having all these distractions even when it puts them at risk for an accident or worse? A tech fan with gadgets galore will be the first person to get flustered when ran into by another driver who was distracted.

Car accidents are serious events and may cause catastrophic injuries. Driving is a privilege and not a right, yet people treat it like it is not a big deal. It certainly can change your life when you slam into someone in the middle of an intersection because you were too involved in texting a friend about the lunch menu to pay attention to where you were going.

Unless there is a way to change people’s attitudes, the study and its consequences might not alter people’s habits. Laws do have some effect in the short term, but over the long haul they typically lose their impact as people get lackadaisical about them and figure they will not get caught. And, even though they might not get caught, they might just wind up dead instead.

There are more accident cases every year and it is always painful to know that many of them may have been avoided but for the negligent actions of another driver who was not thinking. For yourself and others, drive with care and pay attention – leave the gadgets for later.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

The process of killing a bill that someone dislikes at a political level is not unusual. What is different here is that the doctor owns a medical malpractice insurance firm that would have been regulated by the new law if it had passed. Further investigation into the situation shows that if the bill had passed, the doctor’s company would have had to significantly hike its cash surplus and rewrite their policies for charging customers. In other words, it would have forced them to try and find new monies, face new tax liabilities and may have made them less competitive in the insurance marketplace. These are not great things for someone in business to make money, but what about someone who is a doctor and politician?

While the doctor insists he did not have much influence on how the bill was dealt with, it comes off sounding rather weak in retrospect. He sticks to his guns on opposing the bill, despite how painfully evident it is that he is in direct conflict with his personal business interests. And politicians wonder why people do not believe a word they say?

What should have happened in this case? The man should have excused himself from any involvement with the bill in any manner, and even more so when there was money at stake. The fact is that he did not even have any business talking about it either given his direct interest in the outcome of the proposed bill’s passage. In that state, lawmakers have flexible discretion over how they influence legislation, provided they disclose any conflicts and are not directly affected by the outcome. This is certainly not the case with the doctor-senator- medical malpractice insurance company owner.

And the reason for the proposed medical malpractice insurance bill – to avoid a crisis similar to one that hit the state a few years back when a large funeral service provider took off with payments made for future funerals. It was a financial nightmare and taxpayers had to pick up the tab. It is pure speculation that the same thing would have happened in the medical malpractice insurance industry. But then again, who is to say it could not happen?

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

The Archives of Internal Medicine recently released a study that shows that when it comes to communicating with one another, primary care doctors and medical specialists fail. This can put patients at risk of a serious medical error.

The study took an interesting route to analyze information. It wanted to know how primary care doctors and specialists viewed the quality of information sharing between them. The results were not flattering to either side, and involved a lack of accurate, timely information about patient medical histories, whether or not there were any chronic conditions, and missing lab reports.

When two doctors are involved in treating a patient, if they do not talk to one another in a clear and relevant manner the patient gets stuck with a lower quality of treatment. Neither treatment may work or one treatment may negate the other. Unless doctors talk to one another with patient safety in mind, mistakes will happen.

The data showed that at least 70 percent of primary care doctors send in-depth medical histories and include explanations for their reasons to refer to a specialist. If that is the case, it is odd to note that 35 percent of specialists say they do not receive that kind of information. Whether they really do not get it or do not read it is the unanswered question.

Ultimately, if this huge gap in communication is indeed common, then the specialist is at a huge disadvantage in treating a referred patient. It would be like trying to treat a patient with no clue about prior tests (which may account for several tests for the same thing), comorbid conditions, or drug allergies, for example. To say that this lack of information would have an impact on the choice of treatments is a major understatement. It may even mean a specialist will choose a path of treatment that is detrimental to the long-term health of the patient.

While medical errors can and do happen, the significant lack of vital information given is medical malpractice in and of itself. What doctor would not want to find out more information about a patient when they are treating them? Evidently, there are more doctors and specialists than we might imagine who do not go the extra mile to ask pertinent questions about referred patients.

Are you a victim of a bad outcome with a doctor or specialist? Do not wait until it is too late to do something about it. Call an experienced New Hampshire injury lawyer and find out what you need to know to move forward with your life. It is the best call you will ever make. Those who commit medical malpractice must be held responsible for their actions. Doctors and specialists need to be accountable to those they treat. Remember that when you call an expert New Hampshire injury lawyer.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.