From the Wall Street Journal:

BP Doesn’t Deserve a Liability Cap
By RICHARD A. EPSTEIN

Our national frustration continues to rise with each new drop of BP oil that leaks into the Gulf of Mexico. Everyone knows we can’t legislate away environmental risks without consigning ourselves to the Stone Age. What’s needed going forward is a comprehensive legal strategy that addresses the risks though a combination of regulation before the fact and tort liability (and criminal sanctions where appropriate) afterwards.

Tort remedies are essential to protect people (and their property) who do not have contractual relations with defendants from harms such as air and water pollution. The legal system should never allow self-interested parties to keep for themselves all the gains from dangerous activities that unilaterally impose losses on others—which is why the most devout defender of laissez-faire must insist, not just concede, that tough medicine is needed in these cases. The fundamental question here is one of technique: What mix of before and after sanctions will do the job at the lowest cost?

The first element in the mix is a no-nonsense liability system that fastens full responsibility on the parties who run dangerous operations, no excuses allowed. Accordingly, we have to be especially wary of statutory caps on tort damages, including the current law, under which, in the case of the oil industry, the “total of liability . . . with respect to each incident shall not exceed for an offshore facility except a deepwater port, the total of all removal costs plus $75,000,000.” That $75 million is chicken feed. Fortunately, the law removes that cap if the incident was caused by “the gross negligence or willful misconduct” of any party, or its failure to comply with any “applicable Federal safety, construction, or operating regulation.”

To truly have a “system of justice”, you can not have liability caps–for BP or any other negligent actor.

Infection Control Gaps Seen at Outpatient Surgical Centers

The role of hospitals in spreading infections has been the subject of a lot of research. But increasingly, attention is being paid to infection-control practices at outpatient surgical centers — especially given the high-profile 2008 endoscopy-center catastrophe in Las Vegas, which may have exposed 40,000-odd people to the risk of hepatitis and HIV.

Researchers at the CDC surveyed 68 of these ambulatory surgical centers in three states, looking to see how well they complied with infection-control guidelines in five areas, including hand hygiene, injection safety and environmental cleaning practices. In a study published in JAMA, they report that state inspectors noted at least one lapse at 68% of the centers and saw lapses in at least three areas at 18% of the facilities. At 28% of facilities, medications in single-dose vials were used for more than one patient.

Of the 68 facilities, 39 eventually received state citations for infection control deficiencies and 20 for medication administration lapses.

This is all pretty important because, as an accompanying editorial notes, more than 75% of all operations performed are now done on an outpatient basis . . . .

If you or a loved one have been injured due to medical malpractice at an outpatient surgical center, call 888/234-0621 for a free consultation.

The ‘July Effect’: Worst Month For Fatal Hospital Errors, Study Finds
Study Finds More Fatal Medication Errors in July, Just When New Residents Arrive
By LAUREN COX
June 3, 2010

There is an old saying among some doctors — do not let your friends and family schedule a surgery in July.

July is the month when graduates, fresh out of medical school, report to residencies in teaching hospitals. Anecdotally, at least, it’s been a time when medical errors peak.

A new study decided to see if the so-called “July Effect” was real.

Researchers from the University of California at San Diego investigated more than 62 million U.S. death certificates between 1979 and 2006. Of those, 244,388 deaths were caused by a medication errors in a hospital.

Month to month, the statistics showed a relatively equal chance for a fatal medication error — except at teaching hospitals in the month of July.

The study found that fatal medication errors spiked by 10 percent in July in counties with a high number of teaching hospitals, but stayed the same in areas without teaching hospitals.

The findings appear in the current issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine . . . .

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a medical error, call the Keating, O’Gara Law Firm at 888/234-0621 for a free initial consultation.

You can watch the ABC report here:

Girl dies after medication error
By Juan Perez Jr.
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Alicia Coleman was born relatively healthy, her mother said, even though she was three months’ premature and weighed little more than 2 pounds at birth. Things grew worse when Alicia came down with a bowel infection at 12 days old. The infection quickly spread through her intestinal tract and wreaked havoc on her tiny body.

Alicia’s doctors initially gave her a 5 percent chance of survival, said her mother, Dominique Coleman.

Yet Alicia fought through 15 surgical procedures and the battery of medications that marked the first year of her life. She improved to the point where doctors wanted to wean her off her medications. She was learning how to walk.

“We were very optimistic,” said Coleman, 26, of Omaha.

The 19-month-old child suddenly died Saturday while in the care of Children’s Home Healthcare’s World, a pediatric care center at 7815 Farnam Drive. Coleman and hospital authorities said medical staff erroneously injected some of Alicia’s medication into a catheter connected to her jugular vein.

The infant was struck by a seizure and stopped breathing, forcing rescuers to perform CPR as they rushed her to the emergency department at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center. She died after doctors spent an hour trying to revive her, her mother said.

Alicia’s death was at least the second associated with a medication-related error in the city in recent months. In early April, Nebraska Medical Center officials attributed the death of a 23-month-old girl to an overdose of blood thinner.

“One minute I’m fine, the next minute I’m crying,” Coleman said Sunday. “I really don’t know how to start thinking about what life is like without her.

“That was my purpose in life, to be her mom.”

Children’s Home Healthcare’s World is operated by Children’s Hospital & Medical Center. The facility, according to its website, is the area’s only full-service home health care agency focused exclusively on pediatric patients.

In a statement, Children’s officials confirmed that Alicia’s seizure occurred after medication was “improperly routed into the child’s system.”

“Children’s Hospital & Medical Center and Children’s Home Healthcare’s World share deepest condolences with the child’s family,” hospital officials said. “Words fail us at a time like this. Nothing can adequately express the sadness surrounding the loss of a child.”

Coleman knows the feeling. Alicia was her third child, she said. The first two were stillborn.

“She was my last hope,” Coleman said. “She’s made it through so many things and she bounced back, and for something stupid to take her so fast … .”

Coleman’s voice trailed away for a moment, then she said: “I guess I feel cheated.”

Our heart-felt condolences go out to the family of Alicia Coleman.

Actor Dennis Quaid sues drug maker

Actor Dennis Quaid and his wife Kimberly have filed a lawsuit against a drug maker alleging similar labels for the blood thinner Heparin and a less potent drug caused a mix-up at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center threatening the lives of his newborn twins in 2007.

Quaid filed the lawsuit Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of his children against Baxter Healthcare Corp. The suit seeks unspecified damages.

Both Heparin and the lower dose version, Hep-lock, are packaged in similar vials with blue backgrounds and very small print on both labels, according to the complaint.

Quaid’s twins, who were born in November 2007, were both administered multiple near-fatal doses of Heparin to treat staph infections, according to the lawsuit.

The children, Zoe Grace and Thomas Boone, were given 10,000 units of Heparin, rather than the 10 units of Hep-Lock they were prescribed, according to the complaint.

Baxter Healthcare should have recalled the vials of Heparin containing 10,000 units because the company knew infants had died because of similar medication errors, according to the lawsuit.

The company also was obligated to warn healthcare providers of the previous medication mistakes, the suit states.

The children suffered internal injuries and shock, but the extent of what happened to them will probably not be known for years, according to the suit.

Newborns and infants are often given Hep-Lock to flush their prevent clotting because their intravenous lines are so small . . . .

The twins’ overdose is just one of the estimated 100,000 fatalities stemming from medical errors that occur every year in American hospitals and from pharmaceuticals. If you or a loved one have been injured by medical malpractice or through a medication errorand would like to talk with an experienced Nebraska defective drug lawyer, call the Keating, O’Gara Law Firm at 888/234-0621 for a free consultation.

Keating, O’Gara attorney Jefferson Downing, who along with Jim Bartimus and Mike Rader of the Bartimus, Frickleton firm in Kansas City, represented the Manes said, “This is a very, very good settlement. Both sides worked hard to achieve it.”

The settlement was approved by the State Claims Board today based upon the Department of Health and Human Service agency’s recommendation: “The Department believes that there was negligence in this case, and requests that the claim be approved in this amount.”

David and Tina Manes remain committed to seeing something positive come from their daughter’s death. “The Manes will continue to work for constructive change at BSDC. They are committed to seeing something positive result from their personal tragedy,” said Downing.

Since it is a matter of public record, the settlement agreement can be viewed here.

From the Lincoln Journal Star:

Parents sue state to get answers in daughter’s death
By DEENA WINTER
Lincoln Journal Star
Friday, Feb 13, 2009

At first, she was known only as Client 1.

An 18-year-old Beatrice State Developmental Center client had died.

Three hours after going into a seizure, she was dead.

She hadn’t had a seizure since 1999, when she began taking Klonopin to control them.

Her parents didn’t know it, but three days earlier, Beatrice staff had stopped giving her the medication, triggering what their attorney calls “a cascading series of medical errors.”

At about 3 a.m. on Jan. 16, her parents were awakened by the Pawnee County sheriff.

Client 1, as she was referred to in a state investigation, was dead.

But she had a name: Olivia Manes.

On Thursday, Tina and David Manes filed a $1.75 million claim against the state for wrongful death and the “pre-death terror, pain and suffering” of their daughter Olivia. They alleged at least 10 errors in her care.

A spokeswoman for the state declined to comment on the filing.

Tina and David learned Olivia had Dandy-Walker Syndrome when she was 2 months old. She was blind and mentally retarded. She never walked. She had 15 to 20 seizures per day.

They kept her home until she was 6 and it became clear they could no longer care for her. She had difficulty swallowing. Feeding her took a couple of hours. She wasn’t getting enough fluids.

Immediately, they knew where they wanted her to live.

David’s older brother, Mark, had Down Syndrome and lived at the Beatrice center.

“I grew up out there,” said David, a Beatrice native.

Tina said she felt guilty because she had “selfishly” kept Olivia at home longer than perhaps she should have. When she went to Beatrice, she was so small and possibly malnourished they could carry her like a toddler.

In Beatrice, she learned to eat, drink and swallow properly. She came to love eating.

She thrived, particularly after she began taking one tablet of seizure medicine daily. It was her lifeline.

She loved music especially Shania Twain and Christmas songs. She loved feeling the breeze on her face when someone pushed her wheelchair outside.

The Maneses and their son and another daughter live 39 miles away from Beatrice, in Steinauer. They visited Olivia at least weekly.

When she heard their voices, her mother said, she would light up and reach her hands out for a bear hug that could give you whiplash.

She loved to nestle her cheek next to yours, Tina said, crying at the memory.

They felt like she was meant to spread joy at Beatrice.

When they got the call telling them she’d died, they couldn’t understand how their girl, who hadn’t had a seizure since 1999, could be gone.

Two weeks after burying their daughter, the Maneses learned some of the heartbreaking details of Olivia’s death while watching the evening news.

“Nobody bothered to let us know,” Tina said of a report released to the media.

Nobody had told them staffers had stopped giving Olivia her seizure medicine. And although normally they’d get a call even when she had the sniffles or scraped her hand, nobody called when she began having seizures at 11:30 p.m. Jan. 15.

They weren’t told an ambulance picked her up two hours after the episode began. Once in the hospital, she was found to have pneumonia and a fever of 106 degrees.

Nobody had told the Maneses that no one checked Olivia’s vital signs while she was thrashing and seizing at the developmental center.

Tina breaks down when she thinks of her daughter suffering for hours “fighting for her life.”

Nobody called them to be with her daughter.

Nobody told them any of those things.

“We have never once gotten a call from BSDC,” Tina said. “Olivia was happy and healthy and besides having her syndrome, hasn’t had a seizure for 10 years.”

Last weekend, they got a phone call from Gov. David Heineman. He apologized that they had to learn the details of their daughter’s death on the news.

David said he talked to Heineman for about 90 minutes, explaining how he doesn’t blame the staff. He blames administrators for not properly training staff or being qualified to run the center.

He doesn’t think Heineman realized how severely disabled some of the people in Beatrice are.

“It seemed to me that he was out of touch,” David said.

He told the governor he thinks Beatrice should stay open and that group homes cannot provide the kind of services people like Olivia need.

The Maneses didn’t know until after Olivia died that the center had cut nursing staff on the night shift. They didn’t know, until they read a state investigation into her death, that not all staff was trained to handle seizures, even though 17 of the 18 people in Olivia’s unit had a history of them.

Despite all the negative publicity surrounding the Beatrice center “especially in recent years” the Maneses say they never saw the kind of abuse and neglect alleged by advocacy groups and inspectors.

The center is on the verge of losing $29 million annually in federal Medicaid funds due to abuse and neglect and failure to meet federal standards.

The Maneses used to pop in unannounced to make sure Olivia was being properly cared for and never saw problems.

“They were like family to us,” Tina said. “They’ve lost their little girl just like we have.”

And although they were often asked if they’d like to transfer Olivia to a group home or other community program, they always declined. They didn’t feel she would get the therapy and services she needed.

They believe the state made another mistake by removing 45 “medically fragile” Beatrice residents in the wake of Olivia’s death. Now those residents aren’t getting the kind of non-medical services they need, the Maneses say.

David’s brother still lives at the Beatrice center where he’s lived for 42 years. And that’s exactly where they want him to stay.

From the Lincoln Journal Star:

Sides settle in abortion lawsuit
BY CLARENCE MABIN / Lincoln Journal Star
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 – 06:39:34 pm CDT

Planned Parenthood of Nebraska & Council Bluffs and a Nebraska woman have reached a confidential settlement in a medical malpractice lawsuit against the organization.

Attorneys for Planned Parenthood and the woman, identified in the lawsuit as Jane Roe, filed papers in Lancaster County District Court last week seeking dismissal of the claim with prejudice. Dismissing a case with prejudice means the plaintiff cannot raise the claim again.

James Snowden, attorney for Planned Parenthood, said the settlement was a compromise and involved no admission of liability or fault.

The woman’s attorney, Jefferson Downing of Lincoln, declined to elaborate.

“All I can say is, the case has been resolved,” he said. “I really can’t make any comment beyond that.”

In the lawsuit, the woman said she had an emergency hysterectomy because of an abortion at the Lincoln Planned Parenthood clinic on Aug. 16. According to the suit, she lost four liters of blood and experienced intense pain.

She sued Planned Parenthood and Dr. Meryl Severson in Lancaster County District Court last year. Earlier this year, attorneys in the case agreed to dismiss Severson as a defendant.

The woman was seeking $38,850 for past medical expenses and unspecified damages for physical pain and mental suffering, permanent injury and lost income.

Lincoln Right to Life spokeswoman Sandra Danek said the settlement will spare Planned Parenthood and Severson from public scrutiny of what she contends are unsafe medical practices at the clinic.

“I will say, Lincoln Right to Life would be concerned that Planned Parenthood of Lincoln and Mr. Severson are not being held to public scrutiny in this case,” Danek said Tuesday. “There are women going in there believing it’s safe.

“My question is, is it safe?”

Chris Funk, Planned Parenthood president and chief executive officer, said it is.

“For over 60 years, Planned Parenthood has provided high- quality contraceptive and reproductive health care to tens of thousands of men, women and teens in Nebraska and Council Bluffs,” Funk said.

“Contrary to what Lincoln Right to Life would like people to believe, the health and safety of our patients is always a top priority.”

Planned Parenthood suspended abortions several weeks ago, but is expected to resume offering the procedure in the coming weeks, Funk said.

Danek questioned the timing of the suspension, but Funk said it was unrelated to the malpractice claim.

“It had nothing to do with the lawsuit,” she said.