A Santa Fe couple have filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against a hospital after the wife almost died after being given the painkiller Dilaudid.

The woman was admitted to the hospital for severe abdominal pain in 2010 when she was intravenously given Dilaudid. According to court documents, she became sick and the pain intensified, but nurses continued to give her the medication. Later that day her husband says he found her twitching, foaming at the mouth, eyes rolled back, and turning purple.

The complaint states that the hospital staff should have known that patients who are morbidly obese are at a higher risk for obstructive sleep apnea, which can intensify when given narcotic analgesic medication like Dilaudid. She says she has suffered emotional trauma after experiencing cardio-pulmonary arrest.

If you or someone you love suffered due to hospital negligence, contact the Philadelphia hospital negligence lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C., at .

A couple in Pennsylvania is suing the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, accusing the hospital of negligence for allowing an infected kidney to be used in a transplant.  University of Pittsburgh Physicians, the staff at the hospital’s kidney transplant center, a nurse, and 4 doctors are also named as defendants in the medical malpractice lawsuit.

50-year old Michael J. Yocabet received a kidney from his longtime girlfriend, 40-year old Christina L. Mecannic, in April.  After the transplant, tests revealed that Meccanic’s kidney was infected with hepatitis C.

According to the lawsuit, staff at the hospital failed to recognize that she tested positive for hepatitis C in blood tests taken as early as 3 months before the transplant operation.  In addition, the lawsuit says that doctors and staff failed to realize that she had the potentially deadly virus several other times before the surgery.

If you or someone you love has been the victim of hospital negligence, contact the Philadelphia hospital negligence attorneys of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. at to learn more about how we can help you.

The number of doctors working with physician assistants increased by 26 percent between 2004 and 2009.  Additionally, the number of emergency room doctors supervising a PA increased by 19 percent.

Furthermore, according to the American Academy of Physician Assistants, from 1996 to 2009, the number of PAs working in doctors’ offices and family medicine decreased from 39.8 percent to 25.9 percent.  The decrease can be attributed to a growing number of PAs working in emergency rooms.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that PAs treat about 10 percent of people admitted to emergency rooms every year.  A study of PAs and medical malpractice found that between 1991 and 2007, 1,535 medical malpractice payments were made by PAs.

The average medical malpractice payment made by a PA was $80,003.  The types of medical malpractice that PAs were most likely to commit were misdiagnosis, improper treatment, medication error, and surgical error.

If you or someone you love has been the victim of an emergency room error, contact the Philadelphia emergency room error attorneys of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. at to discuss your case.

According to the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, in 2009, disorganization within hospital departments caused 652 errors.  50 percent of the events involved incorrect tests or procedures, 30 percent of events involved wrong patients, 15 percent of events involved wrong-side errors, and 5 percent involved wrong-site mistakes.

Clinical Director for the PPSA Dr. John Clarke stated, “Patient identification issues are well recognized as a challenge in the healthcare arena … When you’re dealing with a hospital setting it increases the risk of misidentification because of the numerous departments and healthcare personnel that are involved.”

Some other departmental errors noted by the PPSA included radiology ordering and scheduling inaccuracies and failed procedure verification processes.

If you or someone you know has experienced hospital negligence in Philadelphia, contact the Philadelphia hospital negligence lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. at to discuss your case.