Las Vegas Injury & Accident Attorney Blog

Since the Mexican American War when Nevada, California, Utah and Arizona were ceded to the United States, the West has been plagued by charlatans selling all manner of healing tonics and elixirs. The travelling medicine show came to small towns with hucksters selling cure-alls that were promised to rid the taker of arthritis, lice, eczema, hangovers and more. While some of the snake oil sold contained now-illicit drugs like cocaine, heroin or marijuana, most of the drugs were panaceas, which never cured the patient and possibly reduced symptoms due to placebo effects. While many modern Americans laugh at the thought of being taken by a travelling snake oil salesman, there are many in our midst who sell miracle claims even today. Sure, these miracle cures are not sold in rural towns at travelling road shows, instead today, they are prescribed by unscrupulous physicians not interested in healing, but instead separating the sick, infirm and desperate with their hard earned cash. If you have been a medical malpractice victim in Las Vegas, contact Benson and Bingham for a free legal consultation today.

Modern-day snake oil salesmen use miracle drugs like human growth hormone, anabolic steroids and even stem cells to dupe their unwitting and often ill and desperate victims. While HGH, Steroids and Stem cells are purported to possessing miraculous healing qualities, their illegal nature necessitates their sale on the black market. When drugs are sold on the black market, the user can never be sure of what they are receiving is safe, effective or even as advertised. If you have been a victim of medical malpractice in Nevada, contact Benson and Bingham today.

In a recent case, a Henderson pediatrician has been accused of selling patients fraudulent stem cells. The 51-year old physician, Ralph Conti, bilked patients and investors of over $ 1 million for his stem cell treatments, treatments that were not tested on animals, licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration or with a control group. If you have been involved in a Clark County Medical malpractice case, Benson and Bingham can represent you.

Benson and Bingham,  a premiere Las Vegas personal injury law firm, has been representing Nevadans and visitors to Nevada in personal injury cases since 2003.

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For much of 2007, the Endoscopy Clinic of Southern Nevada was administering tests and providing information to doctors on the gastroenterology problems of their patients. In the process of performing the procedures, workers at the clinic reused needles and even vials of the anesthetic Propofol as they prepared patients. This practice of not following generally accepted safe injection practices resulted in the possible exposure of nearly 40,000 Southern Nevadans to Hepatitis B. Investigations, tests and interviews by the Nevada and Clark County health departments found seven individuals who were infected with Hepatitis B. If you have been infected by unsafe needle procedures in Nevada, Benson and Bingham can represent you in a Las Vegas medical malpractice case.

It has recently been announced that one of the victims of the Hepatitis C outbreaks has died. Mr Rodolfo Meana passed away from complications from the disease on April 27^th. Fearing he was going to die soon, Mr. Meana traveled to the Philippines where he was originally from to see the country and be buried there. His attorney, Nia Killebrew, now alleges that Mr. Meana died due to his exposure to Hepatitis. Mr. Meana’s official cause of death was liver cirrhosis and kidney failure. If you or a relative was sickened or killed from a Southern Nevada Hepatitis outbreak, the personal injury attorneys at Benson and Bingham can represent you in your quest to recover money spent on medical bills, lost work and pain and suffering.

Obviously, there were significant legal ramifications from the Endoscopy Clinic of Southern Nevada Hepatitis C cases. The manufacturers and distributors of the anesthetic propofol, Baxter, McKesson and Teva were ordered to pay $500 million and $162 million in Southern Nevada personal injury awards from the case. Many in the Clark County District Attorney’s office predict that Dr. Desai from the clinic will be indicted for murder.

Benson and Bingham are a Southern Nevada personal injury law firm that represents people injured in Las Vegas injury accidents, back and spine damage and even Southern Nevada casino injuries. Our strength comes from developing significant and trusting relationships with those we represent.

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A state supreme court recently upheld a jury decision assessing over twenty million dollars in legal judgments against a surgeon after a liposuction gone wrong. The tragic botched surgery ultimately took the life of an 18-year-old woman, dealing a crippling blow to her family as well as blindsiding the career of the doctor at fault. The surgeon allegedly failed to seek medical attention for his mistake, and the woman suffered for two days before dying in the hospital.

In the original case, jurors determined that the doctor had accidentally ruptured a blood vessel and body fat entered the bloodstream. This condition lead to a blood embolism that ultimately resulted in a fatal respiratory failure. Jurors found that the surgeon failed to seek medical attention for more than two hours following his surgical error, and they also judged that he was not properly certified to perform the procedure he undertook.

The jury awards included $3.5 million for the survival action, $2 million for the woman’s mother’s emotional suffering, $20,000 for wrongful death, and $5,000 in punitive damages for the doctor’s lack of proper credentials. These awards were in addition to punitive damages of $15 million. The surgeon appealed the decision but lost at the state supreme court level. Details that influenced the jury’s decision included the facts that the surgeon allegedly attempted to minimize — if not cover up — the visibility of his error in the hours after the fatal mistake.

Advances in medical science have equipped our doctors with remarkable tools that allow them to undertake myriad procedures that were unimaginable only decades ago. But with this power comes responsibility, and the sad truth is that devastating errors caused by medical malpractice persist in Nevada and throughout the country. If you or a loved one have suffered from a doctor’s mistake in Las Vegas or anywhere in Nevada, contact us today for a free consultation.

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Although medical science has reached startling levels of precision and possibility, surgery remains a risky endeavor. Operating on the body means creating a new wound, interacting with vital organs, and leaving as small of a footprint afterward. For many medical malpractice victims, it is the last step that causes the most dangerous problems.

Because doctors are so well trained and many daring procedures are now routine, a surprising number of complications from surgery derive from errors that are so strange they would be humorous if not for their harmful effects. Take the case of a man who recently settled a case for injuries after a gall bladder surgery. The man was placed under surgical anesthesia and the operation began. Days after he left the hospital, he was rushed back in pain and a subsequent CT scan revealed that 1) his gall bladder had not been removed as planned and 2) a surgical sponge had been left in his abdominal cavity.

The first error is hard to explain, given that the surgery failed to accomplish its one goal. And the second mistake sounds like a punchline, until you think about it more. Surgical sponges are used to clean up the incision areas and other “work spaces”; thus they harbor all the bacteria and contaminants that are supposed to be kept out of the sterile surgical space. Leaving a germ-infested object in the body is a big no-no — the man is lucky that his body alerted him (albeit painfully) to the mistake before a full-blown infection took hold. Abandoning foreign objects in the surgical space is, strangely enough, a very common form of surgical error.

From a legal standpoint, this case is an interesting one. The patient worked with personal injury lawyers who advised him to sue both the lead doctor in the surgery as well as the hospital itself. Both entities were accused of negligence resulting in the man’s injuries, which were serious and which required follow-up procedures to correct. The surgeon had left an extensive paper trail that showed, among other things, that he had consulted multiple times with his nurses to ensure that no sponges or other materials were unaccounted for after the surgery concluded. The surgeon was ultimately cleared of the charges of negligence because he had demonstrated care in his actions, but the hospital was found responsible for allowing multiple double-checks and protocols fail. The man was awarded $4 million in damages.

As you can see, identifying that you have been a victim of medical malpractice is only the first step. If you or your family have suffered from harm due to a medical error, you need an experienced malpractice attorney in your corner. We have experience working with Southern Nevada malpractice clients, and we have a record of winning large settlements for our clients. Call us today for a free consultation to learn what our team of Las Vegas personal injury lawyers can do for you.

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