Harrisburg Medical Malpractice Blog

There is much debate as to whether Caesarian section births or vaginal births are safer for mothers and infants. Generally speaking, a C-section is unnecessary unless labor is not properly progressing or the infant is somehow distressed. There are a number of unique risks associated with the procedure that you should know about, whether or not you and your doctor have planned a C-section for your child's birth.

The following are three of the most common risks that can result from a C-section procedure. It is the responsibility of your medical provider to perform the surgery correctly and prevent complications. If you experience any of these, you should consult with an attorney.

People face injustice every day. You have surely encountered a situation where you had to pay for another person's negligence, or somebody else's mistakes inconvenienced you. On a small scale, such instances may not have a life-altering impact, but on a bigger scale, they can easily derail your life and leave you struggling to pick up the pieces. This is certainly true when an injury of any kind is involved.

Perhaps your doctor has misdiagnosed you, and your condition has worsened as a result. Maybe you were involved in a car accident that left you injured and unable to work. An attorney can help you fight for justice in such cases, but how can you afford to hire a lawyer when you are already struggling?

Residents of Pennsylvania know that when they hear the sirens or see the flashing lights of an emergency vehicle, they should pull over and stop until they know that vehicle has safely passed them if that needed to happen. This is true whether the emergency vehicle is a police car, an ambulance or a fire truck. It should always be assumed that these vehicles are on their way to help others in need and standing in the way of that should not happen.

Unfortunately it seems that not everyone has learned this lesson or may be so focused on where they need to go that they fail to put the safety and health of others first. A story was recently reported by Penn Live that provided details on how the driver of a sport utility vehicle failed to stop when approaching an intersection where a fire truck was driving through at the time. The incident happened on a weekday evening and the fire truck was indeed en route to a location where someone needed help and had both its lights flashing and its siren sounding.

Claims of medical malpractice leveled against doctors in Harrisburg often come down to issues regarding the accepted standard of care. Patients may argue that their doctors deviated from it; doctors may counter that they did nothing wrong and that their work was justified. It may be true that no medical procedure is offered with a "money back guarantee," yet most patients assume that by following the recommendations of their doctors, they will achieve the outcomes they are hoping for (while avoiding complications at the same time). If poor outcomes are believed to the fault of a doctor's methods, it may be easy to see why those affected by them want to pursue legal recourse. 

Such assistance recently led to the awarding of multi-million dollar judgment to the family of a Massachussets woman who died following surgery in 2013. The woman underwent a laparoscopic procedure to repair a hiatal hernia. The doctor who performed the procedure used surgical mesh secured with tacks to close an opening in her diaphragm (a method cited by an expert witness as routine and one that the doctor had utilized in hundreds of other procedures). However, the woman died from cardiac arrest two days after the surgery. Her family claims that an autopsy revealed markings on her heart, which they believe were caused by the tacks the doctor used. He and his supporters disagreed, yet the jury hearing the case sided with the woman's family.