Vermont & New Hampshire Injury Blog

HOSPITAL MISTAKES CAN BE DEADLY

Does The Medical System Really Make Life Threatening Mistakes?

When people employed in the medical industry learn that I represent victims of medical malpractice against hospitals, doctors and other medical providers I  often get a cold reception. With the medical professionals willing to talk with me about (yes I do have friends and colleagues in the medical profession and they do talk to me) they candidly admit that mistakes are made in hospitals, clinics and doctor's offices that often cause serious injury and sometimes death. For the most part they also agree that the  victims of these mistakes should have  legal recourse and should receive reasonable compensation for their losses.

Sometimes the mistakes are on an individual level and sometimes they are big and very dangerous mistakes that threaten the safety and wellbeing of large numbers of people. One of the big mistakes was made recently in one of the nation's biggest medical laboratories, Quest Diagnostics in the testing of vitamin levels in blood samples. To read about it see the January 7, 2008 NY Times article.  Mistakes like these have the potential of causing serious problems. False results may lead to patient's changing or eliminating important supplements they are required to take to maintain good health. False results could even lead to toxic overdoses.

Does the medical industry make mistakes? You bet it does. Our legal system of medical malpractice law is  necessary and vital to redress those mistakes asking only that the persons or corporations responsible for making them should be made to pay the costs of the mistakes. Otherwise the entire burden of medical mistakes would be thrust on the victim. This is unwise and unfair and contrary to our tried and true system of American justice. To learn more about medical malpractice and our law firm's experience in this area of the law visit the Medical Malpractice Section of This Website.

One Million Dollar Settlement in Medical Malpractice Claim Against VA Hospital

We are pleased to announce the recent settlement of a major medical malpractice case in our office. Our client Bill N. a disabled veteran suffered from a chronic debilitating skin disease known as hydradenitis suppurativa. For many years he was treated at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in White River Junction Vermont yet they could not control or cure the problem. At one point he was hospitalized for over a year. The treating doctor’s admitted they weren’t helping him but nevertheless they would not refer him to a specialist outside the VA system. So he continued to deteriorate. Finally,  he saw a doctor at Brigham Women’s Hospital in Boston who was shocked that the VA did not give him better treatment. As a result Bill sought legal counsel and his local lawyer referred him to us, here at Van Dorn & Curtiss. After speaking with the doctor in Boston who said that if Bill had been treated by a specialist there was a lot that could have been done to help him that the VA didn’t do. We decided to represent Bill and filed the law suit on his behalf.

The Vermont US Attorney’s Office  represented the VA and despite the fact that the attorneys there had no experience with medical malpractice law they adamantly denied that the VA was liable forcing the case into a long drawn out litigation. Finally before the case went to trial the VA settled for $1,000,0000 which was the maximum authority the Vermont US Attorney had for settling the case. Click here to see our Case Results article on this settlement.