blog | Lane Brown, LLC

Doctors Can Miss Other Serious Medical Conditions That Cause Chest Pains

Most patients are relieved to hear that they’re not having a heart attack, but ruling out cardiac emergencies doesn’t necessarily mean that patients don’t need medical attention. Even after a chest x-ray and EKG have come back normal, chest pain is a serious concern—with potentially serious consequences when the cause goes undiagnosed. Although the doctor may be sure that a patient isn’t having a heart attack, chest pain may indicate a number of other conditions that require medical attention, such as:

Aortic dissection
Lung infections
Blockages in the arteries or lungs
Inflammation in the lungs or heart
Other cardiac diseases

Because of this, it’s important for urgent care staff, doctors, nurses, and hospitals to continue testing in a patient with chest pain to rule out these serious complications and prevent injury to the patient.

The Consequences of Failing to Diagnose Other Causes of Chest Pains

When doctors rule out a heart attack, there can still be questions about what is causing the patient’s symptoms. If doctors don’t investigate complaints of chest pains further, the patient can suffer preventable consequences. In the case of undiagnosed lung infections, patients can develop serious breathing problems and scarring in the lungs while a diagnosis is delayed. In the case of aortic dissection or pulmonary embolism, the consequence of a missed diagnosis could be death.

Patients trust their doctors to take reasonable measures to protect their health and find out what’s wrong. When doctors make mistakes, ignore potentially serious symptoms, or send a patient home before adequate testing is performed, the victims can pursue a financial recovery against the doctor or hospital responsible.

For more information about misdiagnosed chest pains or filing a medical malpractice claim, don’t hesitate to reach out to our legal team at 312-332-1400 for help.

Victims May Have Trouble Holding Delivery Drivers and Their Employers Responsible for Serious Accidents

When you’re hit by another driver, you know that you need to exchange insurance information and file a claim for compensation if you’ve been hurt or had to go to the hospital. But what happens when the driver who hits you is driving a delivery van or carrying supplies to and from a place of business?

The injuries you sustained or what you went through may not have been any different had you been struck by a private car or truck rather than a business-owned vehicle. Yet being in an accident with a commercial delivery driver can actually be a lot more legally complicated than an accident with the driver of a personal vehicle.

Companies and Their Delivery Drivers Have a Duty to Keep Other Drivers Reasonably Safe on the Road

Chicago roadways are home to delivery trucks and vans of all kinds and sizes, including:

Trucks delivering commercial supplies and parts
Grocery and food delivery
Package delivery, such as FedEx or UPS

When companies use delivery drivers as a part of doing business, or when people are employed as commercial drivers, they have certain responsibilities to keep the public safe. When they break the rules of the road or ignore safety regulations and cause a serious wreck, the victims of that wreck may be able to file a lawsuit and recover the costs of their medical bills, time away from work, and even pain and suffering associated with their injuries.

However, understanding who is responsible and how to protect your rights in this situation isn’t easy. The businesses and insurance companies that deal with the liability for delivery vehicles are usually prepared to minimize how much they must pay for accidents. They know accidents can and do happen when they have a lot of vehicles on the road, so they employ teams of attorneys, insurance adjusters, and others who are trained in minimizing potential claims to protect the company’s bottom line.

The Type of Business, Driver, or Vehicle Could Have an Impact on Accident Victims’ Injury Claims

There are some unique challenges for victims when they are hurt by a commercial driver who isn’t a classic “trucker” or who operates a smaller kind of commercial van or truck. Depending on the type of vehicle, the company the driver works for, and other specific details, there can be big differences in how the insurance requirements and legal responsibility work when someone gets hurt. It may be unclear if a victim’s claim will go through the company’s insurance coverage or the individual driver’s coverage, and there may be limits on how much a victim can recover.

Get Help With Your Questions Today

Do you need answers about a wreck in the Chicago area that left you seriously injured? Don’t hesitate to call our law office at 312-332-1400 for immediate support and a free case review. Our legal team has extensive experience helping the victims of major traffic accidents, and we can help connect you with the resources you need to protect your rights to compensation.

Electronic Health Records Could Affect Your Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

Digitizing patients’ medical records and health information was supposed to facilitate patient care. However, now that electronic health records (EHRs) are being widely used by physicians and hospitals around the nation, they may have come with unforeseen problems. The move to EHRs has changed medical recordkeeping significantly—but EHRs could also be an increasing issue in medical malpractice lawsuits.

How Electronic Health Records (EHRs) Play a Part in Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

There has always been some risk of medical errors and mistakes in patient care, but new issues with documentation in patients’ electronic records can complicate these kinds of cases and create unique problems of their own. According to a study by the Doctors Company, only about one percent of malpractice lawsuits involved EHR issues in the period from 2007 to 2013. However, malpractice cases involving EHR issues doubled from 2013 to 2014. While you consider those numbers, remember also that medical malpractice lawsuits can take five or six years to resolve, and the use of electronic records has grown exponentially in the last decade.

Here are some examples of the types of medical errors and patient-care issues that electronic medical records can cause or contribute to:

Typos and data-entry errors in patient records
Inaccurate or outdated patient information
Errors from the use of voice-recognition software
Use of EHR technology in the exam room that takes eyes and attention off the patient
Differences between the treatment a patient receives and what is recorded in the electronic chart
Medication errors

Overall, it seems clear that electronic records are having a big effect on patient care, but the move to digitization is also potentially putting patients at risk.

Who Is Liable When Patient Care Is Affected by the Use of EHR Software

For the patient who doesn’t get needed care, it may not seem to matter who made the mistake—just that an error was made which affected his health or comfort. However, as more and more malpractice lawsuits are looking closely at EHR use in offices and hospitals around the nation, the growing price tag on digital medical mistakes has opened up some big questions about who has to pay when patients are harmed.

Is it the Fault of Doctors and Nurses When Electronic Records Are Inaccurate?

While doctor’s offices and hospitals are usually at the center of medical malpractice lawsuits involving EHR issues, the question of their responsibility may not be as simple as it seems. Patient records printed from electronic records systems don’t always reflect the templates and menu options that the doctors and nurses see when they add documentation to the patient’s chart. Care providers also run into problems with:

How they were trained to use a system
How to interpret menu options
Generic pop-up warnings and alerts that may not apply to an individual patient
Time spent on health updates prompted by the system, instead of on notes about the patient’s current conditions and complaints
Use of both digital charts and old paper charts, especially during EHR adoption
Increased need to review non-urgent documentation from other doctors and facilities
Use of “cut and paste” to fill in patient documentation

In some recent medical malpractice cases, electronic health records containing discrepancies between the record and actual care provided, inaccurate information, and poor use of generic templates have led to discrediting both the patient’s health record and the doctor’s testimony as evidence.

Are Software Companies Responsible for EHR Medical Errors?

Questions about responsibility in medical malpractice cases are also being turned to the companies that provide EHR software to doctors and hospitals. Many care providers are shifting the blame for poor medical recordkeeping and information gaps to the software that is used, which might include:

Confusing menu options
Set drop-down options and fields that limit what is recorded and how
Prompts and warnings that increase the amount of non-urgent documentation and take time and focus away from more important issues in patient care

Currently, many software companies are protected from lawsuits of this nature, but that could change in the future. Some experts predict that it won’t be long until lawsuits from physicians and medical facilities crop up in an attempt to hold software vendors responsible for errors in patient records.

How the Victims of Medical Malpractice Can Get Answers About EHR Issues in Their Own Cases

Do you need serious answers about the part that your medical record has played in your care? Medical malpractice cases are often complex, and there can be numerous mistakes and failures that play a part in patients not getting the care they deserve. If you have questions about something that happened to you or a family member, or if you want to further investigate how EHRs may have played a part in your case, don’t hesitate to contact our law office at 312-332-1400 or toll-free at 312-332-1400.

Sudden Stillbirths Can Be the Tragic Result of Medical Malpractice

When a baby dies during the late stages of pregnancy, it is a tragedy for the expectant mother and her family. Despite accepted safety procedures and medical technology, late-term fetal deaths and stillbirths still happen every year. And, although it may be difficult to think about if you have recently experienced a loss, the truth is that some of these deaths are caused by medical mistakes.

When Is a Stillbirth Medical Malpractice?

Sometimes, sudden stillbirths happen even though a doctor did everything right. However, that’s a fairly rare occurrence. There are almost always signs earlier in pregnancy or during delivery that indicate a need for further evaluation to ensure the safety of the baby. Although other risk factors play a part in fetal deaths, potential cases of medical malpractice might include situations where:

A doctor failed to address risk factors associated with previous medical difficulties.
A doctor or hospital did not adhere to regulations and procedures that help prevent infection.
A doctor failed to screen for or address possible fetal abnormalities or risks.
A doctor failed to diagnose or follow-up on signs of fetal distress.
A doctor failed to diagnose disorders in the mother before birth.
A doctor or medical professional failed to verify the safety of prescription medications during pregnancy.

How Can I Find Out If a Doctor’s Negligence Contributed to a Stillbirth?

In order to move forward with a birth injury case, you need to have evidence that the doctor was negligent and that the negligence caused the loss of your baby. Without medical experts and a knowledgeable legal representative, it can be very difficult to get this information or understand what it really means for your case. This is why it is crucial for families that have experienced a sudden stillbirth to reach out for help.

If you have concerns and want our attorneys to review your case, contact our Chicago-based law office at 312-332-1400. There is absolutely no cost or obligation just for giving us a call, and we would be happy to listen to what you have to say and answer your questions.

Have Fun and Celebrate Freedom in Chicago With These Memorial Day Weekend Events

Join us in remembering the sacrifices made by men and women in the U.S. military, and get out and celebrate our freedoms over the long weekend. There are a number of ways to enjoy Memorial Day weekend in Chicago. Here are some of the numerous events to choose from for 2015:

Wreath Laying Ceremony and Memorial Day Parade. The Memorial Day Parade in Chicago is one of the largest in the United States, honoring all of the people who have lost their lives defending our nation. Get started on Saturday with the Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Eternal Flame at the Daley Center Plaza at 11 a.m., and then watch the parade kick off at noon with marching bands, active and veteran military personnel, the drum and bugle corps, and more.
Red, White, and Bar-B-Q. This annual barbecue festival and competition is put on by the Westmont Lions Club, and is the largest sanctioned Kansas City Barbeque Society contest in Illinois. The festival runs from May 22 through May 24, and features live music, incredible food, an all-ages carnival, cooking demonstrations, and more. Admission is free, so drop by and join the fun at Ty Warner Park in Westmont.
Bike the Drive. Take over Lake Shore Drive on your bike and support a great cause! The MB Financial Bank Bike the Drive event gives cyclists the chance to enjoy the open road and see the sights around the city while the route is closed to vehicles. Everyone is welcome, regardless of age or ability, so sign up now and join the event at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 24—and don’t forget about the after-party at Butler Field. The event benefits Active Transportation Alliance, which is focused on making biking, walking, and public transportation a safe choice for Chicagoland residents.
Chicago Gaelic Park Irish Fest. The Irish Fest is a much-anticipated event every Memorial Day Weekend, and this May marks its 29^th year. Don’t forget to get your tickets! The event will take place at Gaelic Park in Oak Forest, promising four days of music, food, fun, and other great ways to celebrate Irish culture.
Belmont-Sheffield Music Festival. This music festival kicks off street-fest season in Chicagoland with food, libations, live music, and the work of local artisans. Put on by the Central Lakeview Merchants Association, the event kicks off on Saturday near the Belmont Red Line “El” stop and runs through Sunday. There is a suggested donation of $5.
St. Charles Fine Art Show. The Fine Art Show event, presented by STC Capital Bank, is a well-respected, juried art show that will showcase the work of 100 artists. On May 23 and 24, come to Downtown St. Charles to see artwork of all kinds, artist’s demonstrations, and live bands. While you’re there, don’t forget to check out the many parks, restaurants, and shops St. Charles has to offer!

Do you know of another Memorial Day event that you’d like to share with our readers? Connect with Lane Brown on Facebook and tell us all about it!

Angry, Irritated, and Aggressive Drivers Cause Accidents and Take Lives

Heavy traffic, road work, delays, or even just a bad day can cause drivers to lose their tempers, and we’ve probably all had a few moments in our driving histories where we’ve gotten a little irritated—or even downright mad. However, allowing that anger and aggression to creep into your driving behavior is a big mistake. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has estimated that aggressive driving behaviors cause more than half of all traffic deaths and are a serious risk on the road.

Aggressive Driving Is More Than Just “Road Rage”

While “road rage” is one form of aggressive driving, it isn’t the only kind. The AAA Foundation mentions a number of other driving behaviors that may be motivated by anger or aggression, such as:

Speeding
Driving slowly in a passing lane
Tailgating other cars
Racing with other cars
Ignoring traffic regulations

While most drivers say that they believe aggressive driving is dangerous, around half of the drivers surveyed by the AAA Foundation reported that they had driven over the speed limit in the last month—one of the most common aggressive behaviors. And keep in mind that just one aggressive driver in the mix can trigger aggressive driving by others in the area.

Have you been hurt in an accident by an aggressive driver or “road rage” incident? You can get help with your legal questions by calling our law office at 312-332-1400, and you can also start getting informed by requesting a copy of our free book, The 8 Steps to Follow After Your Illinois Car Accident.