Air embolism during a medical procedure is an event, not, by itself, a legal conclusion. Certain procedures carry a recognized risk that air will enter the circulation, and that risk exists even when every step is performed correctly. Whether a particular case involving catastrophic neurological injury warrants disciplined litigation review depends on how air entered […]
Few doctrines in tort law generate more disagreement at trial than the eggshell plaintiff rule, also known as the thin skull rule. The principle is well established: a defendant whose negligence causes injury cannot avoid liability due to the plaintiff’s preexisting condition, even if that condition made the resulting harm substantially worse than what an […]
Medical records can establish a diagnosis, and an expert’s testimony may explain physiology. Lost earning capacity may be described by economists while life-care planners can estimate future medical needs. Yet these things may not always show exactly how someone is living with their catastrophic injury. Day-in-the-life evidence attempts to provide insight as to how a […]
Serious personal injury litigation presents an unusual causation problem. A defendant’s negligence may cause catastrophic injuries that require emergency medical treatment, but the plaintiff’s condition subsequently worsens because of alleged medical negligence. The resulting litigation no longer concerns a single negligent act but the allocation of responsibility to the successive acts of negligence that may […]
Once recognized, classic galactosemia is one of the few neonatal disorders that has a straightforward treatment: the elimination of galactose from the infant’s diet. Therefore, if an infant develops liver failure, sepsis, permanent neurological injury, or dies after birth, questions about the galactosemia diagnosis rise. Given the presence of the metabolic disorder, why did this […]