Once a year, the majority of people visit their primary care physician for an annual medical exam. This exam is commonly referred to as a “check-up,” and the goal is to do just that—check to make sure a person is medically heathy and to provide an early diagnosis of any health issues in which a person may not even be aware.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the top three diseases which kill more people each year are cardiovascular diseases, cancers and diabetes. However, early diagnosis and treatment for these diseases can greatly increase the chances of a person’s long-term survival.

A new study, however, shows that almost 80 percent of people in this country who suffer from undiagnosed diabetes are actually seeing their physicians on a regular basis—often at least two to three times a year. Yet, doctors are not recognizing symptoms and treating patients for the disease. This leaves about eight million people totally unaware they are suffering from diabetes.

The study reviewed over 30,000 medical patients from around the country and discovered that three in every 10 patients were suffering from diabetes, but their doctors had failed to diagnose it. Almost 85 percent of those patients had a primary care physician whom they saw at least once a year, and almost 70 percent of those patients reported seeing their physician at least twice during the preceding 12 months.

Diabetes is the number one cause of kidney failure, blindness in adults, and limb amputation. When a person is suffering from diabetes, his or her body is not using insulin correctly. Insulin is a hormone that is used by the body to process sugar that comes from food. Insulin turns that sugar into fuel, which the body’s cells need for energy. People suffering from diabetes often experience fatigue, slow healing times for scrapes and cuts, and blurred vision.

A doctor’s failure to diagnose diabetes, or any other disease, can cause a patient to suffer serious illness. If you suspect you are a victim of a doctor’s failure to diagnose, please contact an experienced Westport medical malpractice attorney to find out what legal recourse you may have for your pain and suffering.

All medical procedures have some degree of inherent risk. When things go wrong, it is not always the fault of the medial professional who is handling the situation. Sometimes an amalgamation of unforeseen events causes a patient to suffer unexpected consequences. These are what are known as adverse events. According to a paper from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), there is a big difference between such adverse events and negligence. Negligence implies that the less-than-great consequences of the medical procedure are the fault of the medical professional. Additionally, thousands of errors are made every year “resulting in injuries to patients who many deserve compensation.” Yet it can be challenging to determine what constitutes medical error and what is resultant from the standard risk inherent to medical procedures.

According to the NIH, a Harvard Public Health study found that roughly 27 percent of adverse effects from medical procedures occur because of negligence on the part of a medical professional. “Medicine is not an exact science,” the NIH states, “and complications are an inherent feature of any procedure or medical intervention.” Surgeries, across the board, typically carry a 3 to 4 percent risk of infection. While sterilizing equipment and ensuring that all professionals are held to the highest standard of cleanliness can help mitigate the risk of infection from unsterile objects during surgery, there is still this risk during a surgical procedure.

Another important distinction to make when determining medical negligence or error is that between system errors and negligence. A doctor is negligent, for example, if the patient is suffering kidney failure, needs dialysis, and the doctor fails to put the patient on dialysis. However, say the doctor does order dialysis but a nurse misunderstands and the patient does not receive dialysis. This is simple human error. A 1999 paper from the Institute of Medicine, “To Err is Human,” states that “most medical errors are the result of unavoidable human error, which can only be reduced through system changes.”

If you suspect that you have been the victim of medical error, the most important step is to seek legal counsel. Do not go through it alone. Contact an experienced Westport medical malpractice attorney today.

A recent medical study reveals an alarming increase in the amount of narcotic painkillers that are being prescribed to pregnant women. Researchers involved with the study are calling for more research to be done to determine what health risks these strongly addictive drugs may have on the women’s unborn children.

The study was conducted at Harvard Medical School by analyzing the medical data of more than 500,000 pregnant women who had been prescribed opioids for pain and discomfort. This data came from a commercial insurance plan from which the women were enrolled. The average age of the women was 31 years old.

Some of the factors the research team looked at included the most common medications prescribed, the most frequent medical complaints for which the drugs were prescribed, and what, if any, difference did geographical location make.

The most common condition doctors prescribed these narcotics for was back pain—almost 40 percent. Other medical complaints that doctors felt necessitated opioids were joint pain, abdominal pain and fibromyalgia.

The most common drug prescribed was hydrocodone (Vicodin), which was given to 6.8 percent of the women. Six percent were given codeine, 2 percent were given oxycodone (Oxycodone), and propoxyphene (Darvon) was given to another 1.6 percent.

The heaviest concentration of prescriptions were given to women who lived in the southern part of the country, with Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi each having rates at 20 percent or more.

The lead researcher, Dr. Brian Bateman, wrote, “Nearly all women experience some pain during pregnancy. However, the safety of using opioids … remains unclear. Ultimately, we need more data to assess the risk/benefit ratio of prescribing these drugs to women and how it may affect their babies.”

If you have been prescribed medication that has caused serious side-effects, or a medication has caused your condition to worsen, contact an experienced Westport medical malpractice attorney to find out what compensation you may be entitled to for pain and loss.