The Faerber Law Firm Blog

By Attorney Jared Faerber of The Faerber Law Firm, P.C.

Many types of cancer are curable- particularly if caught early.  For example, if a breast cancer diagnosis is made at Stage 0 or I, the five-year survival rate is close to 100 percent.  However, if the diagnoses is missed, the chances for a better outcome decline.  At Stage IV, for example, the five-year survival rate is typically less than 20 percent.  Early diagnosis is therefore key.  A missed or delayed diagnoses of cancer due to medical negligence is therefore often actionable in Utah and other states.

Delayed or misdiagnosed cancer cases in Utah often involved common causes.  These include the misinterpretation of chest x-rays, mammograms, PAP smears, and other tests.  Other negligent causes of a delayed diagnoses might include a physician minimizing or ignoring your complaints, relying on a less than definitive means of diagnosis when a definitive test, such as a biopsy, is available.  Sometimes doctors might improperly assume your complaints have a “benign” cause.  For example, they might attribute rectal bleeding to hemorrhoids when your symptoms might warrant further testing and investigation.

Missed diagnoses of cancer cases involve a loss of chance for a better outcome.  These are real and tragic injuries.  My firm has successfully handled delayed cancer diagnoses medical malpractice lawsuits on behalf of people in Utah and Salt Lake City and can help you or your loved one seek justice.  We work with oncologists and other experts nationwide to prove your claim.  Feel free to contact us online or call (801) 990-3225 directly for a free consultation.

By Jared Faerber of The Faerber Law Firm

No one expects to report for an abdominal or knee surgery and come out of the operation with a permanent nerve injury or burn to a completely different part of the body.  Yet this occurs more often than necessary in Utah hospitals and surgical centers.  It is often the result of malpractice.

Improper positioning and padding during surgery can lead to compression neuropathy, A condition wherein nerves become compressed or entrapped due to trauma, pressure, inflammation, or entrapment.  The result can be permanent loss of nerve function, numbness, pain, and weakness.  Although procedures such as carpal tunnel release can improve symptoms, many nerve injuries are permanent and disabling.  Surgical patients also occasionally suffer burns during procedures due to the misuse of heating pads which are used to prevent vasoconstriction.

How can a patient’s lawyer in Utah prove a compression neuropathy or burn resulted from negligence during a surgical procedure rather than from some other cause?  After all, the patient is completely unconscious and has no way of knowing exactly what occurred during the procedure.

Utah law is uncharacteristically favorable to injury victims in these cases.  The legal doctrine of res ipsa loquitur may allow the injured party to raise an inference of negligence.  Simply put, res ipsa applies when the injury is the kind of thing that usually doesn’t happen unless someone made an error, the defendants had control of the situation, and the injured patient did not cause their own injury.  See Baczuk v. Salt Lake Regional Medical Center, 8 P.3d 1037 (Utah Ct. App. 2000).

As a Utah medical malpractice attorney, I have successfully brought these types of claims for injured plaintiffs. I have helped those who suffered from ulnar neuropathy, compartment syndrome, and other injuries during surgery.  They are not easy claims, even with the favorable law, as defendants will sometimes contest the severity of the injury even if they admit liability.  Yet injured patients deserve a fair opportunity to recover for situations they did not create or deserve. I enjoy helping them reach this worthwhile goal.

By Utah Injury Lawyer Jared Faerber of The Faerber Law Firm

“This shouldn’t have happened. It was needless. It was senseless and it’s changed lives forever, not just Jessie, but there are other people who love him and his future.”

- Laurie Scott

This is from the mother of 18-year-old Jessie Scott, a resident of Draper, Utah, who has been in a coma since the end of April because of a medication error which occurred at a Walmart Pharmacy. His doctor prescribed 5mg of Oxycodone Hydrochoride in a liquid solution to help him with the severe pain of his strep throat. What he received from the pharmacy was a concentrated solution which was supposed to have been diluted before being dispensed. Jessie ended up receiving 20 times the prescribed dose for a total of 100mg of the concentrated solution. Within hours his organs began to fail and he was placed on a ventilator.

Jessie spent 16 days in ICU, was moved to intermediate care for another four days, then to HealthSouth for intensive therapy. He has recently started speaking again.

The words of Jessie’s mother really say it all about this horrific situation. Medication errors are some of the most common medical mistakes. Click here for more information.

Our thoughts are with the family in this difficult time.

By Utah Attorney Jared Faerber of The Faerber Law Firm

No one thinks it will happen to them.  That’s why it is easy to ignore it and think someone else will fix it.  We are talking about medication errors like the one which nearly killed the children of actor Dennis Quaid.  This near fatal drug mix-up involved administering nearly 1000 times the regular dose of a blood thinner to Quaid’s newborn twins.  This demonstrates even famous actors are not immune from this devastating, and common occurrence.

Medication errors are among the most common medical errors, harming at least 1.5 million people every year, according to a 2006 report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. The extra medical costs of treating drug-related injuries occurring in hospitals alone conservatively amount to $3.5 billion a year.

Errors are common at every stage, from prescription and administration of a drug to monitoring of the patient’s response. It estimated that there is at least one medication error per hospital patient per day, although error rates vary widely across facilities. Not all errors lead to injury or death, but the number of preventable injuries that do occur is troubling.

New computerized systems for prescribing drugs and other applications of information technology show promise for reducing the number of drug-related mistakes. Studies indicate that paper-based prescribing is associated with high error rates. Electronic prescribing is safer because it eliminates problems with handwriting legibility and can automatically alert prescribers to possible interactions, allergies, and other potential problems. Many providers have already switched over to electronic systems.

Confusion caused by similar drug names accounts for up to 25 percent of all errors reported to the Medication Error Reporting Program http://www.usp.org/hqi/patientSafety/mer operated cooperatively by U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP). In addition, labeling and packaging issues were cited as the cause of 33 percent of errors, including 30 percent of fatalities, reported to the program.

As a Utah medical malpractice lawyer, I’ve seen the devastating effects of medical negligence first hand.  A seemingly small mistake can lead to a lifetime of problems.  Over the years, I have enjoyed helped many people recover financially and emotionally from their injuries. If you or someone you know has been injured by a medication or pharmacy error, contact a Utah medical malpractice lawyer today at The Faerber Law Firm for a free, no obligation consultation.