Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

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super%20lawyers.jpg Peter J. Saghir has been selected to the 2013 New York Super Lawyers Rising Stars list. Each year, no more than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in New York are selected by the research team at Super Lawyers to receive this honor.

Since joining the firm, Peter’s focus has been on the preparation of catastrophic personal injury cases, complex medical malpractice cases, construction accident cases, car accident cases product liability cases and wrongful death cases. His primary responsibilities include all aspects of the preparation of a case including taking depositions, drafting and arguing motions and trials.

Our congratulations to Peter on receiving this honor at this early point in his career. It is well deserved.

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Spyors%20Panos.jpg Accused by the Office of Professional Medical Conduct of botching surgeries,faking surgeries, performing unnecessary surgeries and prolonging the ailment of hundreds of patients, Dr. Spyros Panos, an Upstate New York surgeon formerly practicing at Mid Hudson Medical Group in Poughkeepsie, N.Y was ordered to surrender his medical license by the state Board of Professional Medical Conduct. DR. Spyro is facing over 200 medical malpractice lawsuits.

Read more in the Poughkeepsie Journal

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A surgeon can be sued for Medical Malpractice if he or she failed to properly communicate care instructions to a patient after the surgery.

Recently Web M&M analyzed the case of a woman who needed arthroscopic surgery after she tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee.

The surgeon talked to the patient before the surgery and gave her postoperative instructions for ACL repair that included 50% weight bearing immediately after the surgery

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Thyroid.jpgThyroid cancer may be over diagnosed and over treated and many patients may have been exposed to unnecessary treatment and dangerous procedures according to a new study lead by Juan Pablo Brito, M.B.B.S. an endocrine fellow and health care delivery scholar at Mayo Clinic, Minnesota and published in BMJ.

New technologies such as MRI and CT scans and ultrasound, allowing the detection of very small and slow cancerous thyroid nodules contributed to triple the number of thyroid cancers detected in the past 30 years. However the number of deaths stayed the same.

According to the study this gap suggests that low risk cancers may be over treated and that patients may be subjected to unnecessary, expensive and risky procedures such as thyroidectomy (complete or partial removal of the thyroid) or dangerous treatments using radioactive iodine.

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Failure to diagnose ovarian cancer at an early stage frequently happens because there are no specific symptoms and no early detection tests have been available so far. It is the deadliest of all gynecological cancers with a mortality rate that has not improved in forty years since the “War on Cancer” was declared.

A new screening strategy that looks at the change of carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125) levels over time and age may bring new hope for earlier detection.

Karen H. Lu MD, H.E.B. Professorship in Cancer Research, Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine, Division of Surgery, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX and her team tested 4051 women over a period of 11 years. Each participant had an annual CA 125 blood test and then based on a Risk of Ovarian Cancer Algorithm (ROCA) women would be scheduled for a test the following year (low risk) , a test in 3 months (medium risk) or a transvaginal ultrasound (high risk).

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Failure to diagnose Marfan Syndrom (MFS) may be medical malpractice that can have severe medical consequences and sometimes lead to death. It can also destroy the lifestyle of individuals and their familes.

In a recent article, Sandra G. Boodman, from the Washington Post, writes about Kevin Songer, a 54 year old man from Florida who underwent heart surgery and endured 50 years of pains and anxiety before a doctor correctly diagnosed him with Marfan Syndrom.

Marfan Syndrom is a genetic condition that affects the connective tissue. It is usually passed from parents to children. Indivuduals suffering from Marfan Syndrom are usually very tall and thin with longer than usual arms legs fingers and toes. Marfan Syndrom can cause dental and bones problems, eyes problems, blood vessel changes, cardiomyopathy, aortic root dilatation, arrhytmia as sometimes lung and skin changes. Even though there is no cure for MFS, early diagnosis can significantly increase the life expectancy of individual suffering from this condition.

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New data from New York DOH unveil mortality rates for cardiac surgery by hospitals and by type of procedure. Even though some procedures are by nature riskier than others, New Yorkers suffering from heart conditions should understand that not every hospital offers the same level of safety.

Based on the data provided by The New York State Health Department here are some of the findings:

Valve surgery is the riskiest type of cardiac surgery with a mortality rate of 4.59% for New York State between 2008 and 2010. PCI or Percutaneous Coronary Intervention, sometimes also called coronary angioplasty or coronary stenting is the less risky of all types of cardiac surgeries as long as it is a planned surgery. It becomes riskier when it is an emergency procedure.

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The following graphs show the mortality rate by hospital for the various type of procedures. Because some hospitals may deal with riskier cases than others the graphs show 3 types of mortality rates:
Continue reading →

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Nine Lawyers from The New York Personal Injury Firm, Gair Gair Conason Steigman Mackauf Bloom&Rubinowitz were recently selected by their peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2014.

Jeffrey B. Bloom, Seymour Boyers, Anthony H. Gair, Howard S. Hershenhorn, Jerome I. Katz, Stephen H. Mackauf, Ben B. Rubinowitz, Ernest R. Steigman and Richard M. Steigman were recently selected by their peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2014.

The above lawyers were selected in the following practice areas:

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Severe mitral valve regurgitation is a life threatening condition that affects millions of Americans. It happens when the mitral valve doesn’t close properly and allows blood to flow backward to the heart. Most doctors treating severe mitral valve regurgitation use a watch and wait approach but a recent Mayo Clinic-led study by U.S. and European researchers published in the Journal of the American Medical Association demonstrates that patients that have surgery early after diagnosis have improved long-term survival and lower risk of heart failure.

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Complications during or after surgery are happening too often at New York City, St Luke’s Hospital. The Hospital scored a low overall surgery rating on the new Consumer Reports surgery safety rating. The safest hospitals in the city to have surgery are Mount Sinai, NYU Langone Medical Center and New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Consumer Reports looked at medicare claims data from 2009 through 2011 for patients undergoing 27 categories of common scheduled surgeries. For each hospital, the results for all procedures are combined into an overall surgery rating.The global ranking is based on who died in the hospital or stayed longer than expected for their procedure. More detail by type of surgery as well as a hospital ranking by state can be found on the Consumer Reports website.

Most common surgery complications are bad reaction to anesthesia, heart problems or surgeon nicking a blood vessel, leaving an instrument inside, or even operating on the wrong body part. Complications can also happen after the surgery. Nationally, 30 percent of patients suffer infections, heart attacks, strokes, or other complications after surgery and sometimes even die as a result.