Six former workers of the Good Samaritan nursing home in Albert Lea, Minnesota have been charged with abusing seven dementia patients.  The home’s owner is also being sued by the families of the residents who were allegedly abused.

Four of the workers were charged as adults and two as juveniles.  The two adults were charged with fifth-degree assault, abuse of vulnerable adult by a caregiver, abuse of a vulnerable adult with sexual contact, disorderly conduct, and failure to report misconduct.

Statewide investigations and publicity of the nursing home began in 2008.

If you or someone you love has been the victim of nursing home abuse, contact the Philadelphia nursing home abuse lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. at 800-876-LAWYER to learn more about your rights.

Last Friday, the Obama administration made good on a promise President Obama made to Republicans in Congress last fall to focus on reducing medical malpractice as a form of health care reform.

The process begins with placing $25 million worth of grants aimed at reducing medical malpractice costs and lawsuits.  Grants are being divided between state health departments, universities, and medical centers.  Officials hope that these funds will first off reduce injuries and in turn minimize lawsuits, and improve doctor/patient communication to lower liability insurance premiums.

President Obama stated last November, “I don’t believe malpractice reform is a silver bullet, but I’ve talked to enough doctors to know that defensive medicine may be contributing to unnecessary costs”.

If you or someone you know has been injured due to medical malpractice, contact the Philadelphia medical negligence attorneys of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. at 215-238-1130 to learn more about your rights.

The medical misdiagnosis lawsuit against St. Luke’s Hospital of Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania by a previous cancer patient will soon be coming to a close.

On May 26th, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by the hospital, awarding the patient’s attorney the win in the suit that began in 2006.  The case began after the patient, Barbara Glasow of Effort, PA, said that the hospital failed to properly diagnose a bump on her chest as a malignant cancerous cyst.  A year later, the cyst ruptured and Glasow and her doctors realized that the bump was indeed cancerous.  Glasow later died on May 23, 2009 of breast cancer.

Glasow’s attorney hopes to win $2.9 million dollars for her family, the original amount Lehigh County Court awarded in 2006, plus interest.

In 2006, a 23-year old Temple University student, Brynee A. Schuenemann, died from injuries sustained in a car accident with a blood alcohol content of almost three times the legal limit.

Before the car accident, Schuenemann had been at the Philadelphia nightclub, Dreemz, where employees continued to serve her alcohol despite the fact that she was visibly intoxicated.  Schuenemann’s family sued the nightclub for wrongful death and won on May 14, 2010.

Schuenemann was a responsible and conscientious young woman who worked part time at a Philadelphia law firm while going to school.  She had hopes of becoming a social worker or paralegal.

The Philadelphia County Court found Dreemz 51 percent guilty, and stated that Dreemz “showed reckless indifference to the interests of Schuenemann and others”.

Renee Dayo, 47, of Franklin Township is suing the doctors and hospital who have been treating her for kidney cancer since 2007.

In January, Dayo was told she only had five months to live and is struggling to hold on.  Dayo believes that her doctors mistreated her and in doing so led her to be in the condition she is today.

Dayo found out she had a cancerous mass in her right kidney in 2007 after being treated for blood in her urine.  After a biopsy was ordered, doctors mistakenly took a biopsy and CT scan of her healthy left kidney.    It then took over 20 months for doctors to realize the mistake and propery diagnose the transitional cell carcinoma in her right kidney.

Dayo’s attorney stated, “The delay in diagnosis deprived her of what would have been a substantial opportunity to beat the cancer”.

If you or someone you love has been the victim of medical malpractice or negligence contact the Philadelphia medical malpractice attorneys of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. at 215-238-1130 to learn more about your rights.

Philadelphia has had the largest number of medical malpractice claims of any city in Pennsylvania, but over the past year, the state’s reform numbers are steadily declining.  There were 1,533 claims filed last year in Pennsylvania, a 44 percent decline since the reform went into place.  Furthermore, Philadelphia has seen a 60 percent decrease.

The reform in medical malpractice legislation requires that attorneys obtain a certificate of merit from any medical professionals who testify in malpractice cases.  Moreover, it requires that the certificate be obtained in the county that the case occurred to avoid the possibility of moving the trial to a different location.

Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille stated, “By these two rule changes, Pennsylvania is far ahead of the nation and of individual states in this arena, and we stand as a model of reform. Most importantly, justice for our citizens is still being delivered where patients are truly injured by medical mistakes”.

Pennsylvania has also refused to put a cap on the non-economic awards of medical malpractice suits in order to provide complete justice to those victims of medical malpractice.

If you or someone you love has been a victim of medical malpractice contact the Philadelphia medical negligence attorneys of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. at 215-238-1130 to find out more about your rights.

After an eight day medical malpractice trial in Philadelphia, a woman was awarded $1.5 million against two doctors.

The case against one of the physicians occurred when the woman was admitted to the hospital and the other was when during her admission to a nursing home.

The claims against the hospital doctor include failure to notice change in the woman’s condition consistent with spinal cord damage, failure to properly examine her and failure to have her examined by a specialist.

The claims against the nursing home doctor include failure to recognize a change in the woman’s condition, failure to recognize neurological symptoms, failure to properly evaluate and monitor the woman.

If you or a loved one has been the victim of medical negligence, contact the Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. by calling

A jury in Las Vegas ordered two drug companies to pay a combined $500 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit stemming from a hepatitis C outbreak in 2008.

According to Clark County District Court documents, Teva Parenteral Medicines and Baxter Healthcare Services must pay Henry and Lorraine Chanin $500 million in punitive damages. Attorneys for the Chanins argued that Henry contracted hepatitis C in 2006 during a routine procedure at Desert Shadow Endoscopy Center.

Baxter Healthcare and Teva provided and distributed the drug propofol to endoscopy clinics around Las Vegas. Health officials say the companies were reusing vials of the drug and infected as many as 114 patients with the incurable liver disease.

The jury ordered Teva to pay the couple $356 million and Baxter to pay $144 million. These punitive awards come on top of more than $5 million already awarded to the couple by the same jury.

If you or someone you know has been the victim of Pennsylvania medical malpractice, please contact the Philadelphia medical negligence lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C., by calling 215-238-1130.

Pennsylvania health officials want to shut down a West Philadelphia abortion clinic after the doctor running the facility failed to respond to their previous charges.

Citing insanitary conditions, a lack of emergency resuscitation equipment, under-reporting second trimester abortions, and failing to hire a second doctor among a longer list of violations, the Department of Health contacted the clinic’s doctor to inform him of their findings and demanded drastic changes. Each violation carries fines and the possibility of losing the clinic’s license.

The doctor was given 30 days, or by April 12, 2010, to respond. In return, the doctor and his lawyer claimed that they would meet the appropriate deadline for a response, but no response was sent. The Health Department pressed the court to hear the case as guilty by default. Given another April 30 deadline for his court judgment, the doctor failed to respond.

He has now been issued a May 20 hearing to appear before the state Board of Medicine. Failure to do so may result in the loss of his medical license.

If you or someone you love has suffered undue injuries because of medical malpractice, call the Philadelphia medical claim lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. by calling 215-238-1130 today.

A woman in Palm Beach County, Florida has been awarded $36 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit stemming from a botched steroid injection.

According to court documents, 52 year-old Kathleen Ramey saw Dr. Andew Weiss after suffering injuries in a car accident. Ramey underwent treatment from Weiss that included steroid injections in September 2000. Following the injections, Ramey was left with a four-inch hole in her spinal cord. Ramey was partially paralyzed after the procedure.

Ramey’s attorney summed up the case by saying, “instead of being pain free and on the road to recovery, Ms. Ramey was left with what amounts to a degenerative condition that is growing worse with time… She only leaves the house for doctor visits and when she does, she suffers the stares of strangers. With one injection, she lost all quality of life.”

Weiss was ordered to pay Ramey $23.6 million and her husband $13 million.

If you or someone you love has been the victim of medical negligence or medical malpractice in Pennsylvania, please contact a Philadelphia medical injury claim attorney from Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. by calling 215-238-1130.