Category: Hot Topics

Injured By A Drunk Driver?

Posted on November 7, 2007 by James Sabatini - Car Accidents, Hot Topics

If you have been injured by a drunk driver, it is vital that you contact one of our Hartford personal injury lawyers as soon as possible. Why? – because not only is the drunk driver liable for your injuries and losses, but the establishment that served the alcohol to the drunk driver. You have 120 days to put the dram shop on written notice of your intention of filing a claim against it. If written notice is not given within the 120 days, you will be prohibited from bringing a dram shop claim against the establishment.

Tips On Avoiding Fatal Pharmacy Errors

Posted on October 25, 2007 by James Sabatini - Hot Topics, Medical and Dental Malpractice

“There’s been a tremendous increase in fatal pharmacy errors over the past 20 years,” said David Phillips, a sociology professor at the University of California-San Diego who has studied this issue. “And the increase is much bigger for outpatient pharmacies than for inpatient pharmacies.”

Why the increase? Phillips said more health care is happening outside hospitals, putting more of a burden on outpatient pharmacists. Here, from Phillips and other experts, are ways to avoid becoming a victim:

Don’t get a prescription filled at the beginning of the month.Phillips’ research shows that in the first few days of each month fatalities due to medication errors rise by as much as 25 percent above normal. The reason: Social Security checks come at the beginning of the month.”Quite a number of people can’t afford to get their medicines until the Social Security check comes in, so at the beginning of the month they turn up in abnormally large numbers and swamp the pharmacists,” Phillips said. “When pharmacists are busy, they make more mistakes.”

Of course, it’s not always possible to wait a week or two to get a prescription, but Phillips advises to do so if you can.

Open the bottle at the pharmacy.Mitch Rothholz, a spokesman for the American Pharmacists Association, said pharmacy errors aren’t common, but that there are things patients can do to make sure the medicine inside a bottle is the right drug.He said opening the bottle right at the pharmacy and showing the pills to the pharmacist is one safeguard. Another: If it looks different than the medicine you’ve taken before, or you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask the pharmacist.

Don’t be in a rush.”When picking up drugs, patients want to get in and out quickly,” said Hedy Cohen, a spokeswoman for the Institute for Safe Medication Practices. “We care if our food has butter or margarine on it. We really should be much more careful about the medications we put in our mouths.”Cohen said patients should take the time to get detailed instructions about how to take a drug. Errors happen not just when the wrong medicine is dispensed, but when the right medicine is taken at the wrong dosage. To read about more on how to avoid pharmacy errors, click here.

Medtronic Warns Doctors Of Faulty Heart Defibrillator Component

Posted on October 15, 2007 by James Sabatini - Defective Products, Hot Topics, Legal News

The nation’s largest maker of implanted heart devices, Medtronic, said Sunday that it is urging doctors to stop using a crucial component because it is prone to a defect that has apparently been linked to five deaths and has malfunctioned in hundreds of patients.

The faulty component is an electrical “lead,” or a wire that connects the heart to a defibrillator, a device that shocks faltering hearts back into normal rhythm. The company is urging all of the roughly 235,000 patients with the lead, known as the Sprint Fidelis, to see their doctors to make sure it has not developed a fracture that can cause the device to misread heart-rhythm data.

Such a malfunction can cause the device to either deliver an unnecessary electrical jolt or fail to provide a life-saving one to a patient in need. In most cases, the defibrillators can be reprogrammed without surgery to minimize the likelihood of faulty shocks.

Replacing leads on a heart device like a defibrillator is considered by experts to be far more dangerous than replacing the device itself. As a result, doctors said that patients are better off leaving the lead in place except in those instances where it has ceased to function.

Medtronic estimated that about 2.3 percent of patients with the Fidelis lead, or between 4,000 to 5,000 people, will experience a lead fracture within 30 months of implantation. Those patients will need to have the lead replaced, experts said.? Read more here

Woman Attacked By Pit Bulls

Posted on August 22, 2007 by James Sabatini - Hot Topics

A 59 year old woman was attacked today by two pit bulls in her own home.? Apparfently, the pit bulls go in to the woman’s home through a dog door.? The pit bulls were chasing another dog.? The pit bulls then encountered the woman who was sleeping at the time and attacked her repeatedly.? The injured woman was taken to a hospital and is expected to recovery from her injuries.? To see the video story about this pit bull attack, click here.

Learn more about dog bite law.

How To Protect Yourself From Pharmacy Prescription Errors

Posted on August 22, 2007 by James Sabatini - Hot Topics, Medical and Dental Malpractice

What You Can Do It’s not easy for consumers to protect themselves against such errors, but there are steps you can take:

Read the prescription your doctor gives you aloud. Ask the physician to confirm it.
Verify the dosages and drug names with your doctor.
Before going to the pharmacy, write down the dosage and drug names.
Go to a reputable pharmacy, one that has more than a single pharmacist working with clerk and technician helpers. You can contact your state pharmacy board for information. Some will tell you if a pharmacist has been disciplined in the past.
When you pick up the prescription, check the labels and make sure the dosages and drug names match what you have written down.

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