The Lawrence Firm Blog

Have you been diagnosed with cancer after taking Valsartan? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a recall on certain drugs containing valsartan, a medication commonly used to treat high blood pressure and heart failure. The recall was initiated after investigators determined that valsartan-containing products posed an unnecessary risk to patients, as it has been linked to an…

Survivors and women battling breast cancer often cope with the damaging effects of chemotherapy medications. While most chemotherapy side effects go away after the treatment is finished, many patients who were prescribed the chemotherapy drug Taxotere were devastated to discover that the drug caused permanent baldness, or alopecia. Despite knowledge of the potential for alopecia, Taxotere’s manufacturer failed to warn…

By Rob Lewis When you raise kids, you have “rules” and then you have “RULES”. I know that when my kids were little, we made them share, pick up their toys, eat what was on their plate etc. and if they failed to do it, we would give them a gentle reminder. Occasionally, though, they would do something really bad–like…

Everyone procrastinates to one degree or another. For most people, it involves minor things such as putting off raking leaves or washing the car or visiting an optometrist. Sometimes procrastination can have serious consequences, however, as a professor of pharmacy law and policy at the University of Kentucky recently made clear. Dr. Joseph L. Fink III wrote in a recent…

We hope and expect that at each hospital in the Covington and Cincinnati area, there are regular conversations about how to prevent medical malpractice. As we all know, medical negligence by doctors, nurses and hospitals leads to an unknown number of deaths each year in our nation. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association said physician…

Regular readers of our Kentucky medical malpractice blog might recall a case from a couple of years ago in which a woman south of Covington sued her dentist after he apparently dropped a small screwdriver down her throat. She later had to have the tool used on her implants surgically removed, Kentucky.com reported. We have lately read news of a…

There are several factors that come together to determine the care that a Kentucky patient receives in the hospital. Some people might automatically think about the nurse’s skills and the doctor’s training when they think of care factors. Those, however, aren’t the only factors that affect patient care. One factor that can greatly impact that care is drug labeling. When…

Making sure that medications are taken properly is a duty of people who dispense medications, such as nurses and doctors in hospitals and nursing homes. One thing that has to be considered is the best method for a patient to take the medication. In some cases, the choices are whether to swallow a pill whole or to cut it or…

When many people think of medication errors, they likely think of medication interactions or allergies. For some people, however, medical conditions are what dictates what they can safely take. In some cases, even common over-the-counter medications can prove deadly. Such was the case for one man who was arrested in Carter County. According to a lawsuit filed in the U.S.…

Going into a hospital or surgical center for surgery or any procedure that involves having to go under anesthesia is something that requires putting a lot of trust in the person administering the anesthesia. While most procedures and surgeries will happen without any issues, there is always a chance that an error will be made. Those errors can be very…

Patients who are in skilled nursing facilities expect to be cared for properly. One of the aspects of patient care that must be executed properly is the administration of medications. Almost every skilled nursing facility or nursing home can benefit from learning ways that medication errors can be prevented. Kentucky residents might like to know about some of the medication…

Many people who are admitted into the hospital assume that the medical professionals assigned to their care can provide the necessary care to help them overcome their condition. While this is what happens in most cases, there are other cases in which the medical staff doesn’t provide the necessary care due to medical negligence or other errors. For patients who…