Knee replacements have long been one of the most common surgical implants. They are also one of the most common procedures in which patients experience subsequent problems because the device used was defective or not up to safety standards (though approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)).

According to a consumer report from SafePatientProject.org, 4.4 million Americans have knee implants, the vast majority of which were prescribed for osteoarthritis of the knee. Regardless of how many such procedures are undergone every year in the U.S., replacement surgeries continue to be a serious factor in the medical industry. Reported by the SafePatientProject, “an estimated 536,000 adults currently living with knee implants have undergone revision procedures to replace their implants.”

It is not as if the implants that needed to be replaced were manufactured by smaller or lesser-known companies. Biomet, DePuy, Smith & Nephew, Stryker, Wright, and Zimmer have all recalled knee implants that were used in patient surgery and that had previously been approved by the FDA. As of September 2103, DePuy had the most recalls, and Zimmer was a close second.

This July, however, Zimmer manufacturing “initiated another sweeping recall on one of its artificial knee implants,” according to DrugWatch.com. Noted by DrugWatch, the NexGen MIS Tibial Component is being recalled because of the tendency of the pieces to loosen or fail. There is no other explanation being offered other than shoddy manufacturing.

No matter the reason, more than 40,000 of these devices have been recalled, affecting thousands of patients nationwide. If a patient does not have the device removed, he or she may face side effects that include (but are not limited to):

• Bone loss;
• Early revision surgery;
• Infection; and
• Dislocation.

In the event of bone loss, infection, or dislocation, some patients could actually end up worse off than they were before the initial implant surgery.

If you or someone you know has had a Zimmer knee implant surgery performed in Connecticut, do not go through it alone. Contact Richard H. Raphael, Attorney at Law, an experienced Connecticut medical malpractice attorney, for a free initial consultation today.

Post-hospital syndrome is quickly becoming a serious health risk that affects millions of people each year. Elderly patients are especially vulnerable to the syndrome, with one in five seniors Medicare patients needing to return to the hospital within 30 days of being charged. This represents almost 3 million patients per year.

But these returns to the hospital are not related to the patient’s original medical condition. Instead, patients develop a new medical problem that can be traced back to trauma from the original hospitalization.

According to a study done by professors from Yale Medical School, which looked at more than 3 million hospitalizations of Medicare patients, 90 percent of people who were initially admitted because of a heart attack return back to the hospital within 30 days after discharge with a different problem. For patients admitted with pneumonia, 78 percent returned. And 65 percent of patients who suffered from heart failure were back within a month.

Post-hospital illnesses often include infections, gastrointestinal conditions, heart failure, nutrition-related problems, imbalances of electrolytes, and trauma.

The lead researcher of the study, Dr. Harlan Krumholz, points out that instead of fostering a healing environment, hospitals instead expose the patients to a large amount of stressors which only may only weaken an already weak patient more. “The result is that hospitalized patients are often deconditioned, in pain, malnourished, stressed, with circadian disruptions,” he said. “And we ask why patients return to the hospital? Maybe it’s what we’ve done to them.”

Krumholz says there are things that hospitals should be doing to help promote healing in patients, such as eliminating unnecessary tests and procedures and making sure patients are getting enough rest and proper nutrition. He also recommends that both physicians and other hospital staff take a more pro-active approach in patient wellness and preventing these medical complications.

If you have suffered an injury or illness as a result of negligent medical care, contact an experienced Westport medical malpractice attorney to find out what compensation you may be entitled to for pain and loss.

Surgical errors are more common in the U.S. than one may think. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine published a report stating how just less than 100,000 people in the U.S. died every year from medical mistakes. However, according to a report issued by the Journal of Patient Safety and as reported by Propublica.org, that number is now estimated between 210,000 and 440,00 patients each year.

The estimate includes patients who suffer any type of preventable harm such as misdiagnosis, surgical error, and patient mix-up. Propublica.org notes how this “would make medical errors the third-leading cause of death in America,” third only to cancer and heart disease (the second and first leading cause of death in the U.S., respectively). Surgical errors are often the most serious of medical mistakes, because they are often irreversible mistakes that result in death.

An article in Medical News Today states how events that should never occur during surgery are known in the industry as “never events,” but these events occur far more often than never. Findings published in Surgery (as reported by Medical News Today) report more than 4,000 “never-events” happening each year in the U.S. And between 1990 and 2010, there were more than 80,000 of these across the country.

Examples of surgical error include extremely severe and identifiable mistakes such as a surgeon leaving a tool inside a patient’s body. By some estimates this happens about 39 times a week. Other surgical errors include a doctor operating on a wrong body part, or performing the wrong surgery. This happens less often, but still at a staggering estimate of 20 times each week. Malpractice claims arising from incidents of surgical error have cost the medical industry more than $1.3 billion between 1990 and 2010, according to Medical News Today.

Submitting a medical malpractice claim can be a long and arduous process. If you suspect that you have been a victim of medical malpractice or surgical error in Connecticut, the most important first step is to seek the counsel of a malpractice attorney. Contact a Westport medical malpractice attorney for a free initial consultation today.