Los Angeles Injury Attorney Blog

Timothy Howard, 48, a former middle school administrator from Valencia, went to his doctor in October 2007 with intermittent blindness in his right eye. His primary doctor referred him to an ophthalmologist, who found no abnormalities. For several weeks, Howard continued having vision symptoms, as well as headaches and pain in his neck. On thanksgiving evening two years ago, Howard experienced complete vision lost in his left eye. Howard went to Urgent Care, where a doctor diagnosed him with an ocular migraine, but agreed to run a CT scan. While waiting for the results of the scan, Howard suffered a stroke. Doctors at the emergency room diagnosed a carotid tear (dissection) as the cause of the stroke. Last week arbitrators ruled that Kaiser Permanente will pay Howard $5 million for the misdiagnosis.

According to a suit filed by Howard, Kaiser physicians did not properly diagnose the cause of Howard's episodic blindness, headaches and other symptoms. Instead of diagnosing Howard's tear in the carotid artery, physicians said Howard had a migraine. After Howard's stroke two years ago, an infection related to his treatment resulted in both of Howard's legs being amputated. Howard has no use of his left arm and has left-sided weakness. He has not been able to return to work since the stroke and is wheelchair bound.

Continue reading "Kaiser Permanente to Pay $5 Million to Patient For Preventable Stroke" »

Hospital officials at Glendale Adventist Medical Center said this week that 10 patients received three to four times normal radiation exposure during brain CT scans at the hospital. The hospital claims to have notified all 10 patients who were overexposed. One patient suffered hair loss as a result, a hospital spokesman told the Glendale News.

Since it was discovered in October that about 260 patients were exposed to 8x radiation at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, California Department of Public Health officials began auditing CT procedures at hospitals. A General Electric technician has since helped reprogram the CT scanner at the Glendale hospital. The scanner at Glendale Adventist was a less powerful model than the one used at Cedars-Sinai, and only exposed patients to 3-4 times the normal radiation.

Continue reading "Glendale Hospital Says Ten Patients Overexposed to Radiation During CT Scans " »