Ohio Personal Injury Blog

Many expectant parents focus on everything they need to do prior to welcoming their child into the world. There is a nursery to prepare. There are purchases to make. There are daycare arrangements to make and car seats to install, not to mention the birth plan that must be established.

However, most expectant parents do not consider what they would do in the event of a birth injury. Rather, people typically anticipate that the birth of their baby will go smoothly, resulting in a healthy bundle of joy.

Many Ohioans believe that veterans deserve the best possible medical care due to the sacrifices that they often must make in the interest of keeping the country safe. However, a class-action lawsuit alleges that thirteen plaintiffs not only received substandard care from a podiatrist with a Veterans Administration health care system in northern Indiana but that federal government employees knowingly concealed the negligence from veterans treated at the facility.

It is not completely clear what the negligent treatment consisted of, but a 2017 internal review at the facility indicated that a small percentage of the podiatrist's patients received substandard care over a seven-year period from 2009 to 2016. After reporting the physician to the Indiana Board of Podiatry and terminating his employment, officials of the VA identified the patients affected and called them into a meeting to apologize and inform them of their options. At the meeting, the thirteen affected veterans met with the succeeding podiatrist and other Fort Wayne VA officials, who informed the one-time patients that they were victims of medical malpractice and provided them with an application form to file disability claims. 

People in Ohio might assume that the system via which human organs are donated is well regulated with strong oversight to ensure patient safety. While that is a logical assumption given the extremely delicate and important nature of organ donation, a recent incident in the Pacific Northwest indicates this is not the case at all.

As explained by The Seattle Times, an organization called the United Network for Organ Sharing oversees safety standard enforcement at the 58 organ procurement organizations nationwide. Each of these OPOs is assigned to a particular geographical region giving it essentially a monopoly on organ donation for that area. There is some governmental oversight of the program by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services but that is said to be quite light. 

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is an eye disease that occurs in premature babies. Generally, it is most common in babies who are born prior to 31 weeks and weigh under three pounds.

The disease causes blood vessels to develop abnormally on an infant’s retina, which is a tissue in the back of the eye. These abnormal blood vessels can create several issues, including severe vision impairment and even blindness.