Dedicated To Protecting What Matters Most
Have you ever had a battery-operated tool that gets finicky? The last time you used it, it was fine. You check the battery. Make sure it's installed in the device right. Hit the thing a few times with the heel of your hand. For some reason it refuses to work. Maybe...
Last week, we raised the question about who could be held responsible if a victim of robotic surgery winds up suffering complications from the procedure. A recent court case that sought and failed to hold the maker of one such device accountable suggests where the...
Bringing a child into the world is natural. It is not necessarily easy. There can be physical difficulties associated with the mother's pregnancy. Labor can be complicated by many factors. The old African adage says it takes a village to raise a child. It seems to...
If you have ever seen the play "Fiddler on the Roof" you know that one of its central observations is about tradition. Tradition can be a good thing. It makes everyday life a little less complicated because we don't have to think about the why of our action. But...
It is not uncommon to hear that the practice of medicine is as much art as it is science. That may have been the case once upon a time, but we suspect that most everyone, even doctors, would agree that the scales of that balance have tipped strongly in favor of...
How many times have you found yourself saying, "There oughta be a law." It typically surfaces when you are faced with some frustrating situation that you feel should never happen, but does. The thing is there often are laws for such issues. But the situations they...
To err is human, the saying goes. To really screw things up you need a computer. If we presume the truth of that statement, it might be another good reason to give us all pause when we find ourselves having to spend time as a patient in the hospital. As we have noted...
There is no argument from those in health care that there are still problems to overcome to make surgery safer for patients. Despite years of effort to raise awareness and reduce instances of so-called "never events," one analysis in 2012 estimated that preventable...
When anyone talks about birth injuries, the first thing that likely pops into mind is some traumatic situation that occurred in the midst of the baby's delivery. It might be easy to understand why such views tend to prevail. Conditions such as shoulder dystocia that...
The last 10 years have seen a major explosion in awareness about the hazards of brain injuries. Most of what we know has come from significantly increased research into the kind of damage that can be done when athletes participate in contact sports like football. What...