Recently in Medical Malpractice Category

Silicone injections have been getting a bad rap as of late. There was the man who died after receiving a penis injection. And then there was the group of women whose botched butt injections required hospitalization.

There's no doubt that silicone injections can lead to complications. But amongst all of this talk, there is one question that has yet to be answered:

Are silicone injections legal?

Recent studies have diagnosed a growing problem in operating rooms: Distracted doctors and surgical staff are often texting or surfing the web while performing patient procedures. It's led to medical errors and lawsuits.

"My gut feeling is lives are in danger," a doctor and author of one of the studies told The New York Times. "We're not educating people about the problem, and it's getting worse."

Case in point: a patient in Colorado who was left partly paralyzed, allegedly by a distracted doctor. The neurosurgeon made at least 10 personal calls on his cell phone during the operation, the patient's lawyer told The Times.

A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Jenny Olenick, a 17-year-old girl who died after wisdom tooth surgery this past April. The teen's parents have accused the oral surgeon and anesthesiologist of negligence and medical malpractice.

The two doctors reportedly failed to resuscitate the teen after her heart rate slowed to a dangerously low level. Emergency personnel were not called until she began losing oxygen.

Apparently, dental-related deaths are not that rare.

Federal authorities arrested Dr. Meera Sachdeva in August and indicted her on 15 counts of Medicare and Medicaid fraud. She's accused of diluting cancer drugs and reusing needles at the Rose Cancer Center in Summit, Miss.

When the clinic was closed in July, the Health Department urged patients to get screened for Hepatitis B and C and HIV. There have been no reports of positive results -- until now.

The family of James Ralph Patterson Sr. has filed a lawsuit against the doctor claiming that he contracted HIV from the clinic.

A woman who sought treatment for an eating disorder is suing her therapist, claiming he hypnotized her into falsely believing she was raped and belonged to a satanic cult.

Lisa Nasseff, 41, of St. Paul, Minn., accuses psychotherapist Mark Schwartz and the Castlewood Treatment Center in St. Louis, Mo., of medical malpractice, Courthouse News Service reports.

Nasseff received 15 months of anorexia treatment, which included “careless and negligent” use of hypnosis that took advantage of her frail mental state, her lawsuit alleges. The hypnosis allegedly led to false memories such as Nasseff’s membership in a satanic cult, her participation in satanic rituals such as eating babies, and being the victim of multiple rapes.

If there's anything that injured plaintiffs and hospitals can agree on, it might be that medical malpractice lawsuits are time consuming and costly. Medical care providers, patients, and policy makers have all argued for medical malpractice reform.

Their wish may be granted soon, if a pioneering new approach by a New York judge takes hold.

Judge Douglas E. McKeon, an administrative judge in the Supreme Court of Bronx County, started his approach in 2002 when he made an agreement with the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. The corporation operates 11 public hospitals. The program has been funded in part by a $3 million grant from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

His method is called "judge-directed negotiation," and at is relatively simple at its core.

There are times when you or a loved one will need emergency medical treatment. This means that most Americans will need to know some basics about emergency room laws and your rights.

The first thing you should know is that under federal law, most hospitals cannot deny you treatment even if you can't pay.

This law covers most medical facilities because it extends to all hospitals that participate in Medicare. This includes a vast majority of healthcare facilities. But just because they cannot deny you care does not mean you are freely given all services.

Faced with pictures of 3-year-old Bryan, a little boy who was born without arms and only one leg, a jury in a wrongful birth lawsuit awarded parents Ana Mejia and Rodolfo Santana $4.5 million last week.

The West Palm Beach couple asserted that OB/GYN Dr. Marie Morel and her ultrasound technician were negligent in detecting Bryan's missing limbs. The couple argued that had they known about his disabilities, they would have saved him "a life of physical and psychological pain" and terminated the pregnancy.

Cosmetic surgery deaths are on the rise, and it may have something to do with the lack of proper training.

As a result of doctors' ability to perform most procedures with a general medical license, a large number of non-specialized medical professionals are reportedly moving into the more lucrative field of cosmetic surgery.

Your face lift or liposuction procedure may be in the hands of an ophthalmologist, pediatrician, or even an oral surgeon.

The father of a man who stabbed his own mother has been permitted to sue his son's psychiatrist for stopping his son's medication. Victor Bruscato was mentally ill when he stabbed his mother to death in 2002.

In 2001, Bruscato was assigned to Dr. Derek Johnson O'Brien, a psychiatrist at the community health center in Gwinnett County, Georgia. There, O'Brien prescribed Bruscato powerful anti-psychotic medication that helped control his violent impulses, reports the AP.

O'Brien discontinued the medication in May 2002. He wanted to ensure that Bruscato wasn't going to develop a dangerous syndrome from the drugs, the AP reports.