Author Archive

“Oops” Not Welcome Here (your Hospital…your Drug Store…)

November 20th, 2009. By Hunter West

There are some jobs that should be held to a higher standard. Like holding public office, or serving as a priest, or acting as someone’s surgeon. Maybe you’re about to amputate a limb…and the patient assumes you know the correct one to remove. 

Well, as experience has taught us—not always. 

Here’s a couple of examples of ‘oopsies’ that are unforgivable. Imagine if this happened to you… 

Oops #1: Wrong Kerry, Wrong Test

Kerry Higuera was three months into her pregnancy when she started to bleed. Fearing a miscarriage, she headed to her local emergency room. It seemed the prudent thing to do. 

According to CNN she was put in a room that February morning last year in Arizona and was told to wait until a nurse came by to get her. 

Soon enough a nurse poked her head in and said, “Kerry?” Kerry said yes, she was Kerry. Well, off they go to the CT scan room. “Is this really what I need to have done,” asks a reluctant Kerry, assuming that radiating her abdomen containing a three-month-old fetus can’t be healthy. The answer was yes. “This is what the doctor wants…” 

You can imagine Kerry’s panic when, soon after having the CT scan on her abdomen Higuera was visited by the emergency room physician, two radiologists and someone representing the Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: hospital errors, medical errors, medical malpractice, pharmacy errors
Posted in Drugs/Medical | 4 Comments »

Quaid Twin Fiasco: It’s All in the Label

November 12th, 2009. By Hunter West

This past September Hospira was approved for a heparin product that features, according to its web site, an ‘enhanced label design.’ Among the features of the label design are, “vibrant label colors to each strength, simplified text and increased font for dosing information, and differentiated warning labels”.

Sounds pretty basic. A hospital is a high-stress environment. Decisions have to be made quickly and accurately with split-second timing. Often there are parents, or loved ones in the room panicking. And while doctors and nurses are trained to focus on the task at hand and resist becoming distracted by any outside force that may take away from the direct relationship between practitioner and patient, the fact remains that people are human and things can get confusing.

Thus, the labeling of medication in such an obvious fashion as to ensure that the wrong medication, or strength is not fed to the wrong individual seems pretty obvious. In a quiet room without distraction a practitioner has the opportunity to carefully size up the vial and the label before injecting the substance into his patient.

However hospitals—and especially the ER—are far from quiet. There are a thousand-and-one things going on at once as you reach for that vial. Did I check the label? Oh, I’m sure I did. This is the right stuff…

For Kimberly and Dennis Quaid, it turned out to be the wrong stuff. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Baxter, Dennis Quaid, Heparin, Hospira
Posted in Drugs/Medical, Emerging Issues | 1 Comment »

Do Toyota Floor Mats Mask a Larger Problem for All Manufacturers?

November 4th, 2009. By Hunter West

In late August, after an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer and three passengers were killed when their runaway Lexus crashed at speeds exceeding 120 mph, Toyota triggered the largest recall in its history and placed a focus on ill-fitting, or improperly-installed floor mats that could jam the accelerator pedal and hold it down. 

But then came the statement released yesterday by the US Department of Transportation (DOT)… 

“Toyota has announced a safety recall involving 3.8 million vehicles in which the accelerator pedal may become stuck at high vehicle speeds due to interference by the driver’s side floor mat, which is obviously a very dangerous situation. Toyota has written to vehicle owners stating that it has decided that a safety defect exists in their vehicles and asking owners to remove all floor mats while the company is developing a remedy. We believe consumers should follow Toyota’s recommendation to address the most immediate safety risk. However, removal of the mats is simply an interim measure, not a remedy of the underlying defect in the vehicles. NHTSA is discussing with Toyota what the appropriate vehicle remedy or remedies will be. This matter is not closed until Toyota has effectively addressed the vehicle defect by providing a suitable remedy.” 

The one sentence is telling: “…removal of the mats is simply an interim measure, not a remedy of the underlying defect in the vehicles.” 

What is the defect? The DOT won’t say, or doesn’t know. Meanwhile the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has done six separate investigations Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Automobile, Car, Floor Mats, Toyota
Posted in Defective Products | 3 Comments »

Pet Turtles, Salmonella and the Ban No One Knows About

October 30th, 2009. By Hunter West

There’s a ban on small pet turtles? 

Really? 

Okay, so the ban is only on pet turtles less than four inches in diameter. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) enacted the ban after reports surfaced that children were putting the cute little things in their mouths. However, it wasn’t a choking hazard that seemed to drive the ban. 

No, it was the fact that children became sick after coming into contact with their pet turtle in such an intimate fashion. 

Sick with salmonella from turtles.  

Turtles carry salmonella, it seems—originating in their feces, according to a recent MSNBC report. So children, by placing the baby turtles in their mouths, were coming into direct contact with salmonella. 

So they were banned 34 years ago. 

Just the small ones, mind you. In 1975.

Oh, you didn’t know either? Join the club. Few consumers know about the ban—and fewer vendors appear to be enforcing the ban, or complying with it. According to MSNBC small turtles Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: FDA, Salmonella, Turtles
Posted in Food Illness, Personal Injury | 1 Comment »

Don’t Just Blame The Laptop Pilots

October 28th, 2009. By Hunter West

So everybody is up in arms over the Northwest Airlines flight that overshot Minneapolis airport last week because the pilots were busy with their laptops. Monday night Jay Leno had a field day, suggesting that when two guys are bored, what do they do for fun? Bring out the laptops and surf for…well, you know what comes next. 

The pilots are suspended, as they should be. The public is outraged, as it should be. The outcome could have been far, far worse.  

But let’s look at it another way. There were some things that went right. There was no alcohol abuse. And the pilots weren’t tired. There was a 17-hour break for the two men between flights, which means they were well rested. 

Too many pilots because of fatigue, or illness have made too many deadly errors.

So let’s be thankful for that. 

True, we should not allow the focus to be removed from two experienced pilots who should have known better. The New York Times reported October 27th that there were 31,000 hours of flying time between the two men. That kind of lapse in judgment, by two experienced pilots with the lives of 144 people (not to mention flight crew) in their control cannot be discounted. The New York Times quoted Robert Mann Jr., a veteran industry analyst, as saying the actions of Captain Timothy B. Cheney and First Officer Richard I. Cole, were “inexcusable.”  Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Airplane, Delta, Northwest Airlines, Pilot Error
Posted in Airlines, Court of Public Opinion | No Comments »