Legally Speaking: The mystery of the incomplete history
August 1st 2007Despite the inherent unfairness of viewing a physician's actions through the proverbial "retrospectoscope," in cases involving catastrophic brain injuries, a jury will invariably scour the events of the past to ensure that there was nothing the doctor could have done to potentially avoid them.
Oh, by the way . . . Should I take aspirin to prevent preeclampsia?
August 1st 2007Much hope has been placed on the potential preventative effects of low-dose aspirin, which selectively inhibits thromoxane, a vasoconstrictive prostanoid overproduced by the placenta and platelets of women with preeclampsia.
Legally Speaking: Who perforated this bowel?
June 1st 2007Sometimes even the simplest cases take on a life of their own. When a patient suffers a postoperative complication, but she's had two surgeries by two specialists in a short period of time, the disagreement between those specialists as to how the complication occurred, and in which surgery it occurred, can turn a straightforward "risk of the procedure" case into a medical mystery.