The Pennsylvania medical malpractice lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. are happy to announce that this Friday, December 2, marks the beginning of the holiday house tours taking place in Philadelphia.

Fairmount Park is putting on it’s annual Holiday Tours for two weeks during the month of December. Six historic homes in the neighborhood will be open for guided tours. The houses will have holiday decorations displayed throughout and there will be a guide at each home to take guests on the tour.

The houses included in this year’s tour are Laurel and Lemon Hill, Cedar Grove, Sweetbriar, Mount Pleasant and Woodford Mansion. Reservations for the tours are not necessary and there is parking provided at each location.

For more information regarding holiday tours in the Philadelphia area, please visit the Philly Tour website today.

A 43 year old construction worker of Nazareth, PA fell 15 feet off a ladder while installing sprinklers and was flown to a nearby hospital in Allendale.

The man fell onto concrete resulting in injuries to his back and head. Fortunately, neither injury was life threatening. The incident occurred on Whitney Lane near Chestnut Street while the man was working a new townhouse.

He was rushed to Hackensack University Medical Center.

If you or a loved one has been injured while working, it is important that you know your rights and legal options. Contact Pennsylvania personal injury lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. today by calling 610-667-7511 today.

Richard McCade, 62, was awarded $2M in a medical malpractice lawsuit against Dr. Michael Resnick and Dr. Lawrence M Wald of Wills Eye Hospital in Pennsylvania.

McCade filed a lawsuit against both doctors after each individually ruptured his colon during a routine colonoscopy. Resnick operated first and was found to be 60 percent responsible by the Philadelphia jury. Wald operated second with intention of fixing the complications of the first surgery, but punctured McCade’s colon a second time. Wald is held 40 percent responsible. McCade has had a total of 2 feet of his colon removed due to the surgical mistakes by the doctors.

If you have been a victim of medical malpractice, it is important to have experienced representation on your side. Contact the Pennsylvania medical malpractice lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. today by calling 610-667-7511.

A hospital is being sued after transplanting a kidney that was infected with hepatitis C from one person to the other.

The couple is claiming that the transplant took place even though the hospital received the medical tests determining that the kidney contained the hepatitis C disease. The tests were completed several months prior to the actual transplant and they are citing negligence in their lawsuit due to the fact that no one noticed the results of the tests.

The woman who was diagnosed with hepatitis C wasn’t notified of this condition until a month after the actual transplant at which time she was offered the option of keeping it a secret from her partner.

During the investigation of this case, the transplant division of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center was shut down.

The hospital has recognized it’s mistake and claims it to be a medical as well as human error.

If you or someone you know has been the victim of medical malpractice, please contact the Pennsylvania medical malpractice lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. by calling 610-667-7511 today.

A West Virginia hospital and three physicians are being sued because of medical malpractice that resulted in a wrongful death.

Leslie Connolly filed the lawsuit in Monogalia Circuit Court after her husband, Joseph Connolly, died last month from an overdose on methadone that was given to him by his doctors. Potomac Valley Hospital, West Virginia University Medical Corporation, and Drs. Joy E. Cousins, James Abel, and Tamer Gaber were named as defendants in the lawsuit.

As stated in the lawsuit, Dr. Cousins, who assumed Connolly was already taking methadone daily, gave the patient a 40 mg dosage of the drug. The next day, Dr. Gaber prescribed 50 mg of methadone when Connolly was transferred to Potomac Valley Hospital.

It was determined that Connolly died from an overdose of methadone which resulted in anoxic encephalopathy. According to The U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, the number of deaths related to methadone overdoses increased from 790 to 3,849 between the years 1999 and 2004.

If you have lost a loved one due to a pharmaceutical error which resulted in wrongful death, contact the Pennsylvania wrongful death attorneys of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C., by calling 610-667-7511 today.

A Maryland jury awarded $2.5 million to a family involved in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

59-year-old Lawrence Dixon went in to Montgomery General Hospital for treatment after falling and breaking his pelvis in May of 2007. Two days later, Dixon died. Dr. David Harding, who was Dixon’s primary care physician, failed to diagnose the man as suffering from hemorrhagic shock, leading to the filing of the lawsuit.

Dixon’s family believes that his life could have been saved had the doctor noticed the internal bleeding that was causing his organs to fail. According to a lawyer for the family, there were many signs that should have caught Dr. Harding’s attention, including the fact that Dixon had gone 24 hours without producing urine.

$1 million in non-economic damages has been awarded to Dixon’s wife and his estate, and each of his two children received $250,000.

If you have lost a loved one due to hospital or physician negligence, contact the Pennsylvania medical malpractice attorneys of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C., by calling 610-667-7511.

According to a study that has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, physicians can expect to be faced with a malpractice lawsuit at some point during their career.

Malpractice data for around 41,000 doctors has been examined and analyzed from the years 1991 to 2005. It has been discovered by Harvard University researchers that for doctors in high-risk fields, around 99 percent will face a malpractice claim by the age of 65. The probability drops to 75 percent for physicians in low-risk fields.

The fear of being sued has caused physicians to resort to defensive medicine and the ordering of extra tests to avoid such lawsuits. Lawmakers believe that the practice of defensive medicine is to blame for the increase in costs associated with health care.

If you or someone you love has been the victim of medical malpractice, contact the Pennsylvania medical malpractice lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. by calling 610-667-7511 today.

An Army soldier has reached a $2.15 million settlement with the federal government in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

According to court documents, U.S. District Court Judge John Nixon in Nashville on Friday approved the settlement of the medical malpractice claim made by Staff Sergeant Adam Cloer, of Missouri. Cloer filed the lawsuit on behalf of his wife Melodee Cloer, who died last year after being diagnosed with rectal cancer. The settlement is subject to final approval by the U.S. Attorney General.

According to the lawsuit, Melodee Cloer first went to the hospital at Fort Campbell with symptoms in 2006 complaining of pain, blood in her stool, and constipation. The lawsuit said she went to the hospital on multiple occasions complaining of the symptoms, but was diagnosed with hemorrhoids. A bariatric surgeon recommended the hospital perform a colonoscopy. The lawsuit alleged the hospital failed to follow-up on that recommendation or provide any rectal cancer screenings.

The U.S. Attorney representing the government declined to comment on the settlement. The settlement is not an admission of liability or guilt.

If you need assistance with a medical malpractice lawsuit involving a misdiagnosis, please contact the Pennsylvania misdiagnosis lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C., by calling 610-667-7511.

A judge in Iowa has objected to a confidentiality clause in settlements of medical malpractice lawsuits involving University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

According to court documents, District Judge Eliza Ovrum objected to a clause in settlements with the University of Iowa that requires plaintiffs to never divulge the amount they were paid and all other terms. Judge Ovrum last month initially refused to approve a $475,000 deal reached with the estate of a 57 year-old Des Moines veteran that claimed UIHC doctors mishandled a 2005 procedure, resulting in his death.

Ovrum eventually approved the settlement, but she ruled the details were public under Iowa law.

The language that Ovrom questioned in the settlement required the widow and children of Larry C. Brown and their attorneys not to reveal to anyone “any of the terms of the settlement of this lawsuit, including but not limited to the amount being paid to us by the parties released” unless they had written permission.  Similar clauses have appeared in UIHC medical malpractice settlements and typically prevent plaintiffs and their lawyers from talking about cases after they are settled.

Ovrom questioned whether she had the legal authority to approve the confidentiality clause in the Brown case because settlements with governmental bodies are public records in Iowa. She eventually approved the settlement, but wrote that “the confidentiality provision does not apply to the state of Iowa.”

If you need assistance with a hospital negligence lawsuit, please contact the Pennsylvania medical malpractice attorneys of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C., by calling 610-667-7511.

A Washington, D.C. appeals court ruled that a medical malpractice misdiagnosis lawsuit filed by a man who alleges he suffered emotional damage after he was incorrectly led to believe he had HIV.

According to court documents, 42 year-old Terry Hedgepeth believed he was HIV positive for five years because of an incorrect diagnosis made in 2000 at the Whitman-Walker Clinic. Hedgepeth has been attempting to sue the clinic for causing emotional injury, but his original medical malpractice lawsuit was dismissed because there was no physical injury. That ruling was overturned by the D.C. Appeals Court, which changed the laws in the District and ruled that emotional injury could be grounds for such a lawsuit.

According to the medical malpractice lawsuit, Hedgepeth originally went to get tested because he discovered that a former girlfriend was HIV-positive. When his tests came back positive, he alleges that he had a mental breakdown and spent time in a psychiatric ward. Hedgepeth claims he lost his homes, cut ties to his family, and moved into a facility for homeless patients.

Hedgepeth thought he had HIV until 2005, when a friend suggested alternative healing therapy. When a new test was conducted, it indicated that he did not have HIV. A third test confirmed he was HIV-negative.

The lawsuit is seeking $20 million in damages as the result of severe emotional distress, anxiety, loss of contact with family, commitment to psychiatric facilities, persistent depression, suicide ideation, damage to reputation, and the loss of years of normal life.

If you need assistance with a medical malpractice lawsuit stemming from a misdiagnosis, please contact a Pennsylvania wrong diagnosis lawyer of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C., by calling 610-667-7511.