A disgraced doctor pleaded guilty to three charges of manslaughter last week in Queens, according to The New York Daily News, Indicted on felony charges last year, Dr. Lawrence Choy ran a ‘pill mill’ out of his Queens office from 2012 to 2016. The former doctor routinely prescribed the so-called ‘Holy Trinity’ of drugs to his […]
Surgical Complications
Doctor Operates on the Wrong Eye
An ophthalmologist is facing a lawsuit and revocation of his medical license after operating on the wrong eye. The Chicago woman, Sutton Dryfhout, says she came in for a routine cyst removal surgery and experienced a living nightmare. According to Dryfhout, Dr. Benjamin Ticho realized his mistake after the surgery when Dryfhout was already in post-operative […]
New Bill Strengthening Informed Consent Laws for Medical Exams Heads to Gov. Cuomo
New York may join the rush of states requiring explicit informed consent for patients undergoing medical exams. The new law aims to prevent medical students and residents from performing pelvic, rectal or prostate exams on patients while they are under anesthesia. Amazingly, these medical exams are routinely performed on men and women while they are […]
New York Hospitals Continue to Rank Poorly for Patient Safety
New York hospitals continue to rank poorly compared to the rest of the country, according to the nonprofit LeapFrog’s rankings released last month. According to Washington D.C. organization, which ranks hospitals on 12 factors related to patient safety and then assigns a letter grade between A and F to each hospital, New York is the […]
After Losing Out-of-State License, Doctors Continue Practicing in New York
The New York Medical Board is slow to punish doctors who lose their license to practice in other states. According to The New York Post, the state licensing board for doctors took between “a few weeks to several months” to stop 14 doctors who had lost their ability to practice medicine in New Jersey over the […]
Federal Government Opens Probe into VA Hospital
The federal government opened a probe into a hospital run by the Department of Veteran Affairs. According to the New York Daily News, the federal probe is a response to a veteran’s allegations of neglect, medical malpractice, and elder abuse. The local newspaper describes the experience of Gary Zambito, who served in the armed forces during the […]
New York Hospitals Agree to Hire More Nurses, Establish Minimum Staffing Ratios
In a major victory for New York nurses, several major hospitals agreed to establish minimum staffing levels for nurses at hospitals. The unions representing the nurses in negotiations had threatened to a 10,000-strong strike at the hospitals if the hospitals did not satisfy their demands. Marc Kramer, the lead negotiator for the hospitals, told The New […]
New HBO Documentary “Bleed Out” Shines Light on Medical Errors
The new documentary “Bleed Out” provides an infuriating first-hand account of a routine surgery that went horribly wrong and changed a woman’s life. The documentary, which was released on HBO this month, dives into the third most common killer of Americans – preventable medical errors. According to a study released by Johns Hopkins University, medical errors kill […]
Patient Safety Ratings at New York Hospitals Drop
Continuing the state’s decade-long decline, New York ranked a dismal 48th in overall patient safety. The rankings, which are released twice each year by the non-profit organization Leapfrog Group, compile data from hospitals across the country and measure the rate of medical errors, infections and injuries, and patient satisfaction, to determine each hospital’s ranking. Since Leapfrog Group […]
After Dancing Through Her Surgeries, Georgia Doctor is Finally Suspended
A Georgia doctor who wanted to be known as the “dancing doctor” will no longer be a doctor in the State of Georgia. In a fantastic story by the New York Times, the dermatologist, whose name is Dr. Windell Davis-Boutte, would stop in the middle of her surgeries and perform a dance routine to popular hip-hop […]
New York Abortion Doctor Pleads Guilty to Negligence in Death of Woman
A New York doctor who claims he has performed over 40,000 abortions in the state pleaded guilty to reckless homicide in the death of a Queens woman. Dr. Robert Rho terminated the pregnancy of 30-year-old Jaime Lee Morales, who was six-months pregnant at the time of the procedure. After the abortion, Morales was “bleeding uncontrollably […]
Medication Errors Common in ICU Transfers
A new report by Christiana Care Health System showed that medication errors occurred in 47 percent of ICU Transfers. The study which followed 985 patients at almost 60 different ICUs across the East Coast who were transferred from the ICU to a non-ICU area in the same hospital or medical unit. According to the study, […]
New York City Paid Lowest Amount in Five Years to Settle Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
New York City paid over $123 million last year to settle medical malpractice lawsuits against the 11 city-run hospitals. In total, that amount settled only 198 of the cases pending against the hospitals in 2017. Since 2011, the city has paid an eye-watering $928 million to settle medical malpractice lawsuits. City representatives state that the […]
N.Y. Lawsuit: Patients Allege Surgeon Breached Trust
One of the highest-paid surgeons in the United States was hit with two lawsuits alleging that the doctor was not performing his own surgeries. According to the lawsuit, Dr. David Samadi, the head urologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, routinely allowed medical residents, who are still in training, and other doctors to perform the surgeries. […]
Medical Errors are More Common and More Lethal
Medical errors are gaining more attention as a whopping one-fifth of Americans admit to having personally experienced one. At the same time, Johns Hopkins University has released a new study that reports medical errors may be the third highest cause of death in America. With America’s healthcare industry continuing to reshape itself, healthcare advocates worry that unintentional […]