Of the patients who suffer infections during Charleston hospital stays, 40%–four out of every ten—contract the infections in the hospital.

Strep infections are especially common among hospital patients, and they are potentially deadly.  Left undiagnosed and untreated, they can lead to amputation, congestive heart failure, or death.  Patients, who go to the hospital for rest and cure, ironically find themselves sicker because bacteria and viruses thrive in hospitals.  Tired nurses and doctors never mean to skip steps for disinfecting equipment, changing protective equipment, or avoiding direct contact with infected patients; but it happens anyway.  Well-meaning volunteers never mean to ignore procedures and warnings, but it happens.  And well-meaning visitors don’t mean to keep school-aged children away from patients whose immune systems are compromised by disease and drugs; but it happens.

If you have suffered a serious infection during an extended hospital stay, and if you suffer lingering disability from the infection, you may be entitled to significant damages from the hospital and its staff.  Huntington medical malpractice law protects you and your rights, and it outlines procedures for filing claims against healthcare providers.  Among Charleston medical malpractice attorneys, Underwood & Proctor Law Offices are the best.  They know medicine, they know the law, and they know about your pain and suffering.  We win significant awards for patients whose conditions have worsened because of their hospitalization. (more…)

Fans of medical dramas often see young physicians going without sleep for days on end, devoting hour after hour after hour to diagnosing and treating their seriously ill patients.  Do House’s resident fellows ever rest?  Do the residents on “E.R.” and “Gray’s Anatomy” ever get more than a few hours’ sleep?  Like traditional medical educators, we always have assumed that sleep-deprivation was just part of the rigorous training, part of the dues a young physician had to pay.  We often have extolled their virtues and praised the young doctors’ stamina.

Although the dramas exaggerate many features of medical residency, they hit the problem of sleep-deprivation spot-on.  But foregoing sleep for the sake of patients’ needs is neither wise nor virtuous.  A recent Harvard Medical School study indicated that (more…)