Lake Charles Personal Injury Wrongful Death Law Blog

When people think about a medical malpractice issues, they often remember horror stories they have heard in the news where a patient had an instrument or other material left inside of them during surgery. Although these instances of medical malpractice get far more attention, misdiagnosis, and delayed or incorrect diagnoses happen far more frequently and might be just as detrimental to a patient's health.

Frequently, when a person believes that they are suffering from some sort of medical issue, they might do a little research on their own, and wait a week to see if the problem resolves itself. When a person goes to the doctor there might be true concern that there is something wrong.

There are two types of technology in cars: tech that distracts us while driving, and tech that helps us drive more effectively and safely. These two distinctions are important to make when considering a new vehicle. Many of the vehicles of the future, and some that are already on the market, will be equipped with high tech devices, from GPS to sensors that detect when a person might hit something.

Technology such as GPS devices, music players, and integrated phone and messaging technology might be all the talk in the car industry, but what cost does this have in lives and injuries. According to a report, nearly 3,000 people died in 2011 because of distracted driving, and 387,000 were injured. These numbers show that more can and should be done to prevent distracted driving car accidents, and that is what the Department of Transportation hopes to accomplish with new guidelines.

Most cars on the road have airbags. These are devices that were meant to help protect people in the event of an accident. One airbag manufacturer, Takata Corp., has made millions of airbags for car manufacturers around the world. Recently, faulty airbags have been reported in many different makes and models of cars with airbags from this manufacturer. The reports indicate that some of these airbags could explode, sending metal shrapnel into the car, driver and passengers.

According to reports, the airbags are now being recalled in more than 3 million cars, from four car manufacturers, so far. Because these airbags are used by so many automakers around the globe, there could be many more recalls to come. While no deaths have been linked to these airbags with exploding propellant canisters, a dangerous explosion like this could contribute to wrongful deaths if a person doesn't hear of the recall on their vehicle and is involved in an accident with airbag deployment.

Patient safety is supposed to be at the forefront of medical decisions and health care policies. That is one of the reason a medical oversight board reduced the number of hours a new doctor can work in one shift. New medical residents, which are new doctors, had their hours reduced from a maximum of 30 hours per shift to just 16 hours. While this was meant to help reduce the number of errors that doctors make due to fatigue.

Instead of decreasing the number of errors, two recent studies confirmed that the shorter hours actually increased the error rate of new doctors by 15 to 20 percent. It isn't really clear why the shorter hours led to an increase in errors, but it is definitely something that will likely be studied further and might need immediate action by health care officials. One possible reason may be because the responsibilities of these new doctors and medical students weren't reduced, despite a reduction in the hours they were allowed to work.