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What Will You Need After You Leave The Hospital With A Spinal Cord Injury?
Time does not heal all wounds. Spinal cord injuries can be devastating and often lead to paralysis. Paralysis changes life forever. As a victim of a complete spinal cord injury resulting in paralysis, you may wonder what your future will be like. What will you need to function? What can be done to help you make sense of your new normal? What expenses can you expect? Spinal cord injuries can be debilitating with wide reaching effects to every facet of life. The costs of your injury do not end when you leave the hospital. Spinal cord injuries for those living in Virginia or Washington DC can easily exceed one million dollars for a lifetime of care. While actual costs may vary, the needs may include the following:
- Home health care or assisted living facilities
- Additional/ongoing surgeries
- Rehabilitation services which may include physical therapy to help improve mobility, occupational therapy to learn basic skills in a new way, and speech therapy for those with paralysis of the faceMedical equipment, possibly including wheelchairs, hoists, lift chairs, and other aids
When Medications Are Mislabeled At The Pharmacy
Prescription labels serve to tell customers about the medication they are taking. The label should include the name of the drug, the dose, and the instructions. Generally, a pamphlet about the drug's potential side effects is inserted into the bag with the pill container as well. All of this information is critical for a person to have before leaving the pharmacy in order to ensure the medication will be taken correctly, and it is a pharmacist's job to make sure a patient has the correct information.
Sometimes, however, a bottle of medication may get mislabeled by a negligent pharmacist or pharmacy technician. Mislabeling errors can include:
- Missing instructions or insufficient warnings. Many medications need to be taken with food, require no sun exposure, or have another specific requirement that a patient needs to know about. When medication instructions such as these are missing, a person may take the drug incorrectly and may not understand the harmful side effects that can occur.
Understanding Side-Impact Accidents To The Fullest
A side-impact crash involves one vehicle smashing into the side of another car. Because this often looks like a "T" shape, this type of collision is also known as a T-bone accident. These wrecks often occur at intersections when drivers fail to stop at traffic signals and stop signs.
Some Common Factors That Lead to T-Bone Collisions
Many things can lead to a side-impact collision, but the following are some of the most common contributing factors:
- Distracted driving. When drivers are texting while driving or distracted by their phones or other things, they take their eyes off the road. Unfortunately, they may miss a stop sign altogether or they may miss seeing a signal light change from green to red. Thus, distracted drivers are one of the common causes of side-impact collisions.
- Aggressive and reckless driving. When drivers are going over 80 miles per hour or speeding over 20 miles per hour above the posted speed limit, they are considered reckless drivers in Virginia. Unfortunately, when drivers speed, they often run red lights and fail to stop at stop signs. Sometimes drivers do this because they cannot bring their vehicles to a stop in time, and other times drivers behave this way because they are aggressive drivers who are blatantly breaking the law and ignoring traffic signs and signals. As a result, T-bone accidents occur at intersections when negligent drivers fail to stop at red lights.
Brain Damage And Death: Consequences Of Anesthesia Negligence
After six months of constant pain and having to go to Inova for visit after visit to determine what was wrong, today you're finally going to get surgery. However, although you're excited about no longer being in pain, you're also extremely nervous about the surgery itself. Since they have to open you up in order to remove your gall bladder, they want to give you a general anesthetic before the operation in order to knock you out completely. You're worried because you've never had anesthesia and you're not quite sure how you'll react.
You know that it's necessary but you're still worried. Will you be safe? Could the anesthesia cause you more harm? What are your risks?
Anesthesia and Your Potential Risks
Anesthesia has come along way over the past 50 years. You no longer have to bite down on a stick, or throw back a few shots of whiskey to distract from the pain. Instead, modern medicine provides anesthesia that can be used to numb specific areas, or even put you to sleep so you don't feel the pain of an operation.
Safety Concerns For Liposuction Malpractice
You've been on and off some sort of exercise regime since you turned sixteen. You've tried every diet fad from Paleo to South Beach to Atkins, and yet each year you seem to be getting bigger and bigger. After seeing countless pictures of yourself surrounded by thinner friends and family, it has come to the point where you're seriously thinking about liposuction.
Although you know it's expensive, and may hurt for a while after, it's better than pushing yourself at the gym until you can barely walk and still not seeing any results, right? At least liposuction will guarantee a change in your body for the money, energy and time you put into it. However, the only thing that's holding you back is the risk of injury.
You've read that the procedure has gotten a lot safer over the past ten years, but what could still go wrong? What happens if the doctor screws up or makes a poor decision that causes severe injuries? What exactly are your risks?
Liposuction Risks
What You Won’t Know After A Medical Mistake
You're scheduled to undergo surgery this morning and you're fairly nervous. Although you are scared that something will go wrong, you don't really have a choice. Your doctors have told you that you need this surgery, so you check in at the hospital with the hope that the procedure you're going to receive will help you.
When you wake up, you feel fine, but as the anesthesia and pain medication wear off, you're in extreme pain and have a sinking feeling that something has gone wrong. A few weeks later your fears are confirmed-the doctor made a mistake during surgery and now you're suffering because of his carelessness.
Waiting for the Doctor to Tell You About the Mistake? Don't Hold Your Breath!
Unfortunately, the doctor who made the error likely won't even bother to mention it to you. In 2013, the investigative news site ProPublica asked patients to complete a Patient Harm Questionnaire. Here are the disturbing results:
- Only nine percent of the patients surveyed said the medical facility voluntarily disclosed the harm that was done to the patient.
Variety Of Malpractice Claims Initiated Against Virginia Hospitals
A few months ago, your wife was in a horrible car accident and was raced to the hospital. While the doctors felt the surgery was successful, she suffered a seizure when she was put under anesthesia and may suffer permanent brain damage. Since your wife was unable to inform hospital staff of her past bad reactions to anesthesia when she arrived, you think you may have a malpractice case. Is the hospital responsible? Is there a reliable attorney who would take the case?
Medical Malpractice Liability Incidents
It's never easy deciding to sue the people who save lives every day. But when you or your loved one is hurt or killed because of a medical mistake, other patients' positive outcomes mean little to you. Understanding what hospitals have been successfully sued for in the past can help you reach a decision about your case. What are the most common reasons for malpractice lawsuits filed in Virginia? The major categories of successful suits include:
- Miscommunication: not adequately communicating care, procedures, side effects, dangers and proper insurance pricing.
Important Steps for Preventing a Spinal Cord Injury in Virginia
Spinal Cord Injuries Are Often The Result Of Another's Negligence And We Believe In Holding That Other Person Accountable. Call Our Fairfax Spinal Cord Injury Lawyers For Immediate Assistance If You Have Been Injured.
Spinal cord injuries cause serious pain and suffering in thousands of individuals living in Virginia each year. Spinal cord injuries can even be fatal. A spinal cord injury occurs when there is trauma to the spinal column. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spinal cord injuries can lead to long-term neurological, musculoskeletal, respiratory, urinary, and gastrointestinal problems. Spinal cord injuries are not only debilitating, these injuries are costly to treat. In fact, the treatment of a spinal cord injury can leave a family virtually broke.
An individual suffering from a spinal cord injury will find this to be a life-changing event. Quite often a victim of a spinal cord injury can no longer drive, work, or even care for loved ones. All independence may be gone and the individual may need to rely on others for daily living. If another is at fault for your physical, emotional and financial suffering, you will need the assistance of a Fairfax spinal cord injury attorney.
What You Should Know About Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
We expect hospitals to be clean. Restaurants, food processing plans, and stores are inspected for cleanliness. But surprisingly, hospitals and even operating rooms, are not. Cleanliness is not measured by The Joint Commission, which inspects and accredits U.S. hospitals. Nor do most state health departments or the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assess hospitals for sanitary conditions.
With the recent superbug outbreak tied to two patient deaths and several infections at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in California, lawsuits are expected to follow. At the center of the finger-pointing is the hospital's sterilization process and the manufacturer of the medical instrument believed to have spread the bug known as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae or CRE.
Although this outbreak happened on the West Coast, there are new cases in North Carolina, and antibiotic-resistant infections have become threats in Virginia hospitals in just the last few years.
How A Fairfax Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer Can Help If You Have Been Injured In Virginia Or Washington D.C.
A spinal cord injury occurs when there is damage to the spinal column, which is essential to the proper functioning of the central nervous system in your body. Any damage to the spinal cord can cause a loss of strength, a loss of function, or a loss of sensation below the injury. A spinal cord injury may be caused by a:
- Car crash
- Slip and fall
- Abuse or violence, such as a gunshot wound
- Sports injury
- Disease, such as cancer, arthritis, or osteoporosis
- Medical malpractice
Call a Fairfax spinal cord injury lawyer if you have sustained a spinal cord injury and you believe another is at fault for your pain and suffering. These types of cases can be complex in terms of the legal and medical issues, but our experienced attorneys can help.
According to the Mayo Clinic, you are at a higher risk for spinal cord injuries if you have been in an accident and you are:
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From our office in Fairfax, Shevlin Smith, P.C. serves clients throughout Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., including Alexandria, Annandale, Arlington, Ashburn, Burke, Centreville, Dale City, Fair Oaks, Leesburg, Manassas, McLean, Oakton, Reston, Springfield, and Woodbridge, as well as Fairfax County, Arlington County, Fauquier County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County.
Results listed are not a guarantee or indication of future case results.
