By John Bisnar on March 8, 2013 -
Use of the Da Vinci Surgical System has quadrupled in the last four years, according to a recent Los Angeles Times article. Da Vinci is a multi-purpose robot with four metal and plastic arms that can lend a hand with surgeries including heart bypass, hysterectomies and prostate removal.
It is important to understand that this robot is not actually performing the surgery. It is only mirroring the movements of the surgeon’s hands. But according to Dr. Marty Makary, a surgeon at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the robot is more of a marketing tool to attract patients and doesn’t really do much to improve the quality of care.
The disturbing fact is that 12 years after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved the Da Vinci, there is still no industry standard for training and credentialing doctors to use the robot, beyond a basic course by manufacturer. This leaves patients wondering as to whether their surgeon is experienced enough to perform the surgery using a robot.
Many Da Vinci lawsuits claim that hospitals allow surgeons without sufficient experience to use the robots. Some surgeons and hospital officials say the robots are being overused, even when there is no clear benefit.
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By John Bisnar on December 14, 2011 -
The America College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Urogynecologic Society have issued a joint Committee Opinion stating that there is an “urgent need” for the development of a national registry to track outcomes for all current and future patients who receive vaginal mesh implants. There have been serious concerns regarding the safety and efficacy of these synthetic mesh products that are placed vaginally to treat a condition known as pelvic organ prolapse (POP). Given the horrific side effects thousands of women are experiencing as a result of receiving these transvaginal mesh implants, these groups now recommend that use of these mesh implants should only be reserved for high-risk women “for whom the benefit may justify the risk.”
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By John Bisnar on January 24, 2011 -
During a recent 60 Minutes investigative report, GlaxoSmithKline, a major worldwide provider of prescription drugs, was exposed for their cover up in the early 2000s of mixing up drugs at a Puerto Rico plant, and whistleblower Cheryl Eckard was awarded a sum of $96 million of the total amount of $750 million due to the pharmaceutical litigation and financial settlement.
The plant was mixing up drugs, putting different dosage sizes and different medications together in mislabeled bottles, and shipping them all over the world, including the United States. A grandmother of an 8-year-old boy found that the pills of Paxil that her grandson had been taking the entire month were 25mg pills, not the regular 10mg pills he’d been previously taking. The child was very sick from taking the pills, which had been colored pink instead of the regular, yellow-colored pills.
GSK Denies, Denies, and Denies
When Eckard brought this to the attention of quality control, they all but ignored her and told her it wasn’t really happening. She wrote up report after report, but her warnings were falling on deaf ears. She even suggested shutting down the plant completely, but to the executives at GSK, that wasn’t financially possible, and simply sweeping it under the rug was a better option in their minds. Read the rest »
By John Bisnar on November 24, 2009 -
The California personal injury lawyers at BISNAR | CHASE are extremely concerned about this news report that 10 stroke patients were overexposed to radiation when they got CT scans at Glendale Adventist Medical Center. According to an article in the Glendale News Press, the patients received three to four times the normal dose of radiation during a triple imaging brain exam using a General Electric manufactured CT scan machine.
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By John Bisnar on October 26, 2009 -
The California personal injury attorneys of BISNAR | CHASE recently prevailed in a jury trial against Lynch Ambulance, convincing a Los Angeles jury that a negligent ambulance driver and the company that employed him were liable for serious personal injuries sustained by two passengers –Tracy Mucklevane and Shawna Alonzo. Mucklevane’s case had already been settled. Jurors awarded Shawna Alonzo, who was then a respiratory therapist at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, $164,000 for her serious injuries.
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By Brian Chase on October 5, 2009 -
The nursing home abuse and negligence attorneys at BISNAR | CHASE have been constantly concerned about the poor oversight of California nursing homes. Earlier this year we noted that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger cut funding significantly for nursing home ombudsman programs across California. These programs consist of volunteers who may go into nursing homes and conduct sudden inspections or follow up on complaints from families of nursing home residents relating to abuse, negligence or fraud.
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