Bergen County Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog

Many couples in New Jersey who long to have a child but cannot do so through natural means choose to use in vitro fertilization to help make their dreams of having a family become reality. One element of the process that makes many would-be parents pause, however, is the comparatively high rate of birth defects in babies who are conceived through IVF. A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine cast some interesting light on the prevalence of birth injuries in IVF babies and what can be done to bring that rate down.

Just under 4 million babies are conceived each year with assisted reproduction techniques, which includes fertility drugs and IVF. At last count, there were 60,000 babies conceived in the U.S. this way, out of 146,000 IVF attempts.

A mother was recently awarded $78.5 million after a jury found that her 3-year-old son's cerebral palsy was due to the "faulty diagnostic procedures" used by the hospital where she gave birth. Cerebral palsy is a term for a spectrum of developmental disabilities, many of which are related to retarded brain development. One cause of cerebral palsy is being deprived of oxygen during the birthing process.

The problem began before the woman arrived at the hospital, but the couple's lawyer successfully argued that brain damage to the baby was not fait accompli. Although the woman was already showing signs that the baby's delivery would be complicated, the baby might have been fine if the attending doctor had ordered delivery right away. Instead, he read an ultrasound and concluded that the baby was already dead and so did not move with haste.

English is not every New Jersey resident's first language. America is the Great Melting Pot, so many people here speak languages other than our official tongue. Across the nation, about 25 million people speak English with a proficiency other than "very well," according to estimates.

As you can imagine, though, it's not a good situation if an injured person only speaks, say, Spanish and the attending doctor only speaks English. If doctor and patient cannot communicate clearly with one another, then there is more of a chance of a medical error occurring.

People throughout New Jersey and the rest of country are carefully watching a new pilot program in Massachusetts, which is projected to decrease the number of medical malpractice lawsuits, improve patient safety, result in less defensive medicine and lower the overall cost of healthcare. It's all supposed to start with an apology.

If doctors and hospitals proactively told patients about medical mistakes, apologized and offered compensation, would there really be fewer medical malpractice claims? What might this new program mean for injured patients' rights?

A bill was recently passed in the House of Representatives and is currently being considered in the Senate. This tort reform bill essentially would cap, or limit, the amount of compensation that could be awarded in every medical negligence and medical malpractice case.

The Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare Act limits to $250,000 the amount of non-economic damages an injured person can be awarded in any claim that alleges medical error, including medical negligence and malpractice, wrongful death, and nursing home abuse and neglect claims.

We often tell Bergen County readers about the immediate effects of medical malpractice, or about the outcome of medical malpractice trials? But what is life like for the victim of medical malpractice after the trial is over?

One woman who was paralyzed by a hemorrhagic stroke after her doctor misdiagnosed the blockage in an artery in her brain as a migraine and sent her home with pain medication.

When an innocent baby is harmed by the inattentiveness or sloppiness of a doctor, there is nothing that can repair the damage that has been done. New Jersey readers can only imagine the pain and anguish the parents feel knowing that their child will not grow up to live the healthy, normal life he or she deserves.

Recently, a family in California won a significant award in their lawsuit against a doctor whom they claim was negligent in delivering their child, causing their daughter to develop cerebral palsy.

All across New Jersey, thousands of women get mammograms each year because they have been told that this test is the surest way to determine that they do or do not have breast cancer. So what would it feel like if you had been given the all-clear after a mammogram, only to find out that that was a mistake and you actually did have cancer?

That was the reality for one woman from New Zealand, who passed away in 2009 just a year after being told that her mammogram had revealed no evidence of breast cancer. Although this happened far away, it's a tale of failure to diagnose cancer that is still worth knowing because there is little difference between the mammograms given in New Zealand and those given here. Thus, the risk that the same fate could befall a woman in New Jersey is far from out of the realm of possibility.