October 10, 2012 (Press-News.org) Connecticut Supreme Court Upholds Medical Negligence Verdict
People who suffer injury or prolonged illness due to medical malpractice deserve access to justice and compensation for protracted suffering, ongoing medical expenses and other damages. When a doctor or oncologist fails to diagnose cancer or another serious illness, a patient can lose precious time to fight a serious or terminal condition.
A recent case before the Connecticut Supreme Court involved a woman's lawsuit against an obstetrician and gynecologist whom a jury had found negligent for failing to properly warn the woman of her risk for developing ovarian cancer. The woman has an extensive family history of breast cancer and had previously elected to have a bilateral mastectomy to reduce her own cancer risk.
She also underwent a partial hysterectomy under the defendant doctor's care due to the presence of noncancerous tumors in her uterus. At that time, the doctor found her ovaries to be healthy and advised that her medical history did not indicate an increased risk of ovarian cancer, and they were therefore not removed during that surgery.
A year after the hysterectomy, she received a diagnosis of advanced, terminal ovarian cancer, which had spread throughout her abdomen. After she sued the doctor for failing to provide proper gynecological care and other negligence, the jury concluded that she would not have developed ovarian cancer if the defendant had removed her ovaries at the time of the hysterectomy, found him negligent, and awarded the woman $4 million in damages.
The doctor appealed, arguing primarily that the only issue that should have been considered was whether he had obtained informed consent from the woman to perform the surgery. The Connecticut Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's verdict, holding that the woman had alleged a claim of medical negligence as well as lack of informed consent. Most important, the court established that a physician can incur liability for not meeting professional standards of care if he or she fails to provide a patient with certain information.
Subtle distinctions in legal meaning between concepts like "negligence" and "informed consent" can make a major difference in a patient's right to recover damages. By working closely with a medical malpractice attorney from the original consultation to final appeal, a victim of substandard medical treatment can explore all legal theories for recovery or defend against a doctor's attempt to deflect liability.
Article provided by The Pickel Law Firm, LLC
Visit us at www.alanpickel.com
Connecticut Supreme Court Upholds Medical Negligence Verdict
A recent Connecticut Supreme Court case involved a woman's lawsuit against an obstetrician and gynecologist who failed to properly warn the woman of her risk for developing ovarian cancer.
2012-10-10
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Employees Should Be Wary of Classification Enforcement
2012-10-10
Employees Should Be Wary of Classification Enforcement
According to numerous reports, the U.S. Department of Labor has become more aggressive in enforcing wage and hour laws, and there are a number of cautionary tales that should keep employers vigilant in following employee classification rules. For instance, more DOL investigators are conducting unannounced wage and hour investigations, catching many employers unprepared.
According to the National Restaurant Association, the DOL collected $225 million in back payments for wage and hour violations last year. While ...
NFL Makes Major Grant for Brain Injury Research
2012-10-10
NFL Makes Major Grant for Brain Injury Research
In any personal injury action that involves head trauma, the injury victim's attorney must work diligently to document the full extent and effects of the resulting brain injury. This often presents challenges, because the harm suffered is not always immediately apparent, and patient recovery times can vary substantially.
Medical research into the diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injuries recently received a significant boost due to increased attention toward the long-term effects of concussions on professional ...
New Jersey Foreclosure Trends and Hope on the Horizon
2012-10-10
New Jersey Foreclosure Trends and Hope on the Horizon
RealtyTrac, a firm that tracks the U.S. foreclosure market, reported that August 2012 foreclosures were up nationally by 1 percent from July, but down 15 percent from August 2011. Bank repossessions, called REOs for short, were also down 2 percent in August from July 2012 and down 19 percent from the year before. That's good news for homeowners and communities in general, but 20 states still saw increased foreclosure activity in August 2012 from the previous year.
New Jersey Numbers
Among those states was New ...
Property Division in Georgia Divorces: Two Recent Cases
2012-10-10
Property Division in Georgia Divorces: Two Recent Cases
To modern ears, the common law conception of marriage sounds like a bad joke or possibly a feminist nightmare. The husband and wife were one, but the husband was the one.
Today, of course, a wife's separate property isn't subsumed into her husband's estate, as on the popular PBS series "Downton Abbey." Instead, when a couple divorces, most property is fair game for equitable division.
Two recent Georgia divorce cases are a reminder, however, that each party to a marriage can also have separate property.
Retirement ...
Study Shows More Males Engage in Distracted Driving
2012-10-10
Study Shows More Males Engage in Distracted Driving
Connecticut drivers have probably heard about the increasing number of distracted drivers on the road. Distracted driving has resulted in numerous accidents with tragic consequences.
Although females are often characterized by the media as being chatty, a new report shows that the highest numbers of distracted drivers in Connecticut are males. Connecticut was amongst the first states to impose a ban on handheld cellphones as well as texting while driving.
Since this ban went into effect in 2006, males have consistently ...
Keeping the Auditors Out of Your Small Business
2012-10-10
Keeping the Auditors Out of Your Small Business
According to data compiled by the United States Small Business Administration (SBA), there are nearly 28 million small businesses in the country today. Small businesses are an integral part of the American economy, employing about half of the country's workforce. No one would dispute that, for the most part, these businesses are run by hard-working, honest people who are earnestly trying to comply with the thousands of pages of federal regulations that make up the country's tax code.
Sometimes mistakes are made, and ...
Modification of Georgia Child Support Turns on Judicial Discretion
2012-10-10
Modification of Georgia Child Support Turns on Judicial Discretion
The Great Recession officially ended in 2009. The after-effects continue to be felt, however, in the uncertain economy that has followed.
In this altered economy, income or asset reduction due to job loss or other factors happens much more frequently after a divorce settlement than it used to in the past. For people who make or receive child support or alimony payments, the issue of reducing the payments has therefore become a very important one.
This article will discuss the process for child support ...
California Death-Spiral Lawsuit Against Health Insurer Blue Shield
2012-10-10
California Death-Spiral Lawsuit Against Health Insurer Blue Shield
The phrase "death spiral" has sobering implications in any context. In the health-insurance world, it refers to the events set off when an insurer closes an existing insurance policy to new enrollees, then raises rates on those remaining in the policy to a largely unaffordable level. Those remaining insureds are usually forced to jump to new, more expensive policies with lower coverage levels, or to become uninsured.
California Death-Spiral Prohibition
In 1993, reportedly in reaction to ...
Florida Trails Far Behind in Passing Adequate Distracted Driving Laws
2012-10-10
Florida Trails Far Behind in Passing Adequate Distracted Driving Laws
When motorists or passengers suffer injuries in a car accident or tractor-trailer wreck, a personal injury lawyer's most important role is to assess the circumstances of the crash to identify all potentially liable parties. Whether the accident was primarily caused by reckless behavior, intoxication or driver distraction, a review of witness accounts, police reports and other evidence can unearth negligence to justify full compensation for injury victims.
Unfortunately, Florida has lagged behind ...
Prenuptial Agreements: Gaining a Financial Picture Before Marriage
2012-10-10
Prenuptial Agreements: Gaining a Financial Picture Before Marriage
Everyone has their own financial personality. Your spending and saving habits may differ greatly from friends and family. According to a 2011 study from Utah State University, married couples who disagree about money issues once a week are twice as likely to divorce than couples who have money conflicts less than once a month.
Experts explain that money disagreements encompass a variety of issues that reach beyond financial matters. These contested discussions involve issues of control, freedom and ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
High-precision NEID spectrograph helps confirm first Gaia astrometric planet discovery
ABT-263 treatment rejuvenates aged skin and enhances wound healing
The challenge of pursuit – how saccades enable mammals to simultaneously chase prey and navigate through complex environments
Music can touch the heart, even inside the womb
Contribution of cannabis use disorder to new cases of schizophrenia has almost tripled over the past 17 years
Listening for multiple mental health disorders
Visualization of chemical phenomena in the microscopic world using semiconductor image sensor
Virus that causes COVID-19 increases risk of cardiac events
Half a degree rise in global warming will triple area of Earth too hot for humans
Identifying ED patients likely to have health-related social needs
Yo-yo dieting may significantly increase kidney disease risk in people with type 1 diabetes
Big cities fuel inequality
Financial comfort and prosociality
Painted lady butterflies migrations and genetics
Globetrotting not in the genes
Patient advocates from NCCN guidelines panels share their ‘united by unique’ stories for world cancer day
Innovative apatite nanoparticles for advancing the biocompatibility of implanted biodevices
Study debunks nuclear test misinformation following 2024 Iran earthquake
Quantum machine offers peek into “dance” of cosmic bubbles
How hungry fat cells could someday starve cancer to death
Breakthrough in childhood brain cancer research could heal treatment-resistant tumors, keep them in remission
Research discovery halts childhood brain tumor before it forms
Scientists want to throw a wrench in the gears of cancer’s growth
WSU researcher pioneers new study model with clues to anti-aging
EU awards €5 grant to 18 international researchers in critical raw materials, the “21st century's gold”
FRONTIERS launches dedicated call for early-career science journalists
Why do plants transport energy so efficiently and quickly?
AI boosts employee work experiences
Neurogenetics leader decodes trauma's imprint on the brain through groundbreaking PTSD research
High PM2.5 levels in Delhi-NCR largely independent of Punjab-Haryana crop fires
[Press-News.org] Connecticut Supreme Court Upholds Medical Negligence VerdictA recent Connecticut Supreme Court case involved a woman's lawsuit against an obstetrician and gynecologist who failed to properly warn the woman of her risk for developing ovarian cancer.