Chicago Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog

The Los Angeles county coroner's office recently issued a subpoena for Whitney Houston's medical and pharmacy records. This request is not surprising. After all, Houston is the latest celebrity suspected of dying from complications related to prescription drugs. With Houston's death, prescription medication bottles were found in the singer's hotel room where she was found unconscious in a bathtub filled with water. The subpoena for medical and pharmacy records was likely initiated to determine, in part, whether any doctors and/or pharmacists were improperly supplying Houston with prescription drugs.

Initial reports indicate the list of medications found in Houston's hotel included alprazolam (Xanax), ibuprofen (Midol), and amoxicillin. Following the death of Anna Nicole Smith, her doctor was found liable for improperly supplying the actress with prescription drugs. More recently, Michael Jackson former physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for improperly administering the drug propofol, used almost exclusively during surgery, to help the singer sleep at home.

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The mother of a young boy filed a medical malpractice lawsuit in Connecticut alleging their pediatrician failed to diagnose bacterial meningitis resulting in the loss of her son's eyesight. The lawsuit alleges the boy's mother took her son, then 7-years-old, to their pediatrician complaining of a severe headache. The pediatrician purportedly diagnosed the boy with an ear infection. Even after several additional visits with worsening symptoms over the next few days, the pediatrician did not send the boy to the ER where, it is alleged, a spinal tap would have revealed meningitis and prompted immediate treatment to halt the disease. Instead, the boy was not sent to the ER until it was too late after he went into a comma while home, resulting in blindness and other injuries.

Meningitis is a potentially life-threatening condition, particularly if bacterial, which causes inflammation of the membranes that surround the brain or spinal cord. If not treated in a timely fashion by doctors, bacterial meningitis can rapidly progress resulting in permanent brain damage or even death. Normally a complication of that occurs in the blood stream, meningitis can directly decrease the ability of the brain to protect itself from blood contamination. When this brain barrier is invaded by meningitis, infectious organisms invade triggering an inflammatory response. As this inflammatory response increases, brain tissue can begin to swell causing decreased blood flow to vital areas of the brain.

The signs and symptoms of bacterial meningitis vary depending upon age. In children older than one, classic signs and symptoms of bacterial meningitis may include one or more of the following: headache, nausea, vomiting, increased sensitivity to light, fever, altered mental status, lethargy, seizure activity, and neck stiffness or pain among others. For viral meningitis, the most common symptoms resemble those of the flu such as fever, muscle aches, cough and headache.

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Hospital-acquired infections are a serious problem in this country. Usually preventable, these infections routinely lead to unnecessary harm to patients, avoidable healthcare costs and needless medical malpractice lawsuits. Currently, 1 in 20 patients will develop a hospital-acquired infection while hospitalized in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control And Prevention, hospital-acquired infections cause and/or contribute to 99,000 deaths a year. These infections cost the healthcare system billions of dollars a year. Medical experts have concluded that most hospital-acquired infections are preventable. Recently, the federal government, through the Department of Health And Human Services, has launched a bold initiative, seeking to reduce hospital-infections by 40% over the next two years.

A hospital-acquired infection is an infection that a patient develops in a hospital usually from poor hygiene or sanitization practices by hospital staff. These infections can come from a variety of sources. Central lines, urinary catheters, bedsores, blood stream, and surgical sites are just a few examples from which hospital-acquired infections can develop. These infections can lead to serious medical complications and, on occasion, wrongful death.

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