Failure To Diagnose

The term "sepsis" is pretty common in the medical field, and many people all across New Mexico have probably heard of it. But they may not know what it means. Sepsis is, quite simply, an infection of the bloodstream. When your blood becomes infected, a host of medical...

While the following story did not occur here in New Mexico, the circumstances of the story are important for anyone who suspects that they may have received poor care from a doctor, surgeon or hospital. A couple is suing a hospital after the husband of the family...

In medicine, early detection is often a life saver, and in many cases, the earliest opportunity to detect an illness is not in a hospital room, but in a clinic or a doctor's office during a routine checkup. It's disturbing to think, then, that each year as many as 12...

No matter what the setting, accurate diagnosis is crucial to effective medical care. It doesn't matter whether the doctor is serving in a small clinic or in the teaming emergency department of a major hospital. Regardless of the exact infrastructure, doctors need to...

Many Americans are familiar with certain common signs of heart attack. For example, intense chest pain and left arm pain will likely cause many Americans to suspect that they may be having a heart attack. However, stroke symptoms are not always so straightforward. In...

One of the most critical steps in effective medical care is the diagnosis. Once physicians can accurately identify and confirm the injury or illness from which a patient is suffering, they can get that person on a treatment plan. Generally speaking, the sooner a...

While it didn't occur in New Mexico, a $62 million medical malpractice verdict is worth noting. Because of a claimed surgical error for an ectopic pregnancy, a woman ended up having both legs amputated, required a colostomy, and lost most of her hearing. During the...

In part one of this post, we discussed a new variation on an ancient role that has the potential to greatly improve the practice of medicine in the digital age. As we noted, some hospitals around the country are creating the position of "scribe" to shadow doctors in...

New Mexico residents may be alarmed to learn that studies have found that up to 30 percent of the people diagnosed with asthma may not in fact be suffering from the chronic lung disease. The failure to diagnose the correct breathing disorder can sometimes be made...

Hospitals in New Mexico and elsewhere are supposed to be places for sick people to get well. But what happens when a sick person is not diagnosed and the hospital exposes others to his or her potentially fatal illness? Such an issue is at the center of a class-action...