G. Eric Nielson & Associates, LLC

According to Texas newspaper the Star-Telegram, Kourtney McGee, who experienced bleeding during her second trimester of pregnancy, went to the hospital to receive care and attention. Tragically, however, her infant was stillborn.

As if that weren't bad enough, however, the hospital literally added insult to injury by losing the little baby's body. Unbelievably, the body was sent to the cleaners along with the hospital's dirty laundry.

Surely you would expect the hospital to do the right thing. Certainly, they would recognize the gravity of their error, and the nightmare that they had put this poor mother through.

But the hospital's lawyer said it all: "[W]e deny that the hospital has done anything inappropriate."

People like to joke about "ambulance chasers," and many are concerned about the perceived "malpractice crisis" and "frivolous lawsuits." But this tragic example out of Texas illustrates the real crisis--health care corporations and insurance companies that refuse to do the right thing; that refuse to be accountable for their mistakes.

Mistakes happen. And when we as citizens commit a mistake, we are responsible for its consequences. That's the reason that medical malpractice attorneys who represent injured persons are necessary--to fight the big companies on behalf of people that have already lost so much, and to hold them accountable for their negligence.

Our sincerest condolences go out to Ms. McGee for her loss.

Today the Salt Lake Tribune reported that State Rep. Stephen Urquhart (R. St. George) will be presenting a new proposal that would attempt to close the doors of the courts to victims of medical malpractice.

Mandatory medical arbitration involves taking a patient's claims out of the courthouse, where a neutral judge and jury adjudicate the merits of the case, and places the issues before paid arbitrators, whose decision is binding. Under Rep. Urquhart's proposal, parties could appeal an arbitrator's decision, but would be forced to pay the opposing parties' costs and fees if unsuccessful.

When mutually agreed to by both parties to a dispute, arbitration can be a valuable form of alternative dispute resolution. Compulsory arbitration, however, forces patients to waive numerous constitutional rights, such as the right to a jury. Additionally, the practice forces patients--many of whom are already struggling under the wight of lost income, disability, and unpaid medical bills--to pay the costs of the private arbitrators out of their own pockets. While this isn't a problem for huge health care companies, this additional cost can be financially devastating to someone struggling to make ends meet.

Rep. Urquhart is an insurance defense lawyer with Snow Christensen & Martineau, a law firm that defends negligent hospitals and doctors. He knows that big businesses, including the health care industry and its insurance companies, favor arbitration as a remedy for "frivolous" lawsuits and the health care "crisis." The truth, however, is that corporations and insurance companies favor arbitration for one simple reason: it gives them an advantage.

As Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren recently remarked, "Arbitration may seem like the Andy of Mayberry form of dispute resolution--folksy, cheap, and fair. The data suggest, however, that it is Darth Vader's Death Star--the Empire always wins."

Health care corporations can easily outspend injured victims in an arbitration setting. Additionally, health care arbitrators know that if they rule against the health care companies, they will be "blacklisted" from ever arbitrating another case. This gives them an incentive to rule in the companies' favor, something known as the "repeat player bias."

This new legislation is just the latest in a series of attempts by the insurance and health care industries to make it more difficult for people to recover for their injuries. Thankfully, Utah's constitutional framers deemed it appropriate to protect citizens' access to judicial relief. Article I, Section 11 declares:

All courts shall be open, and every person, for an injury done to him in his person, property or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law, which shall be administered without denial or unnecessary delay; and no person shall be barred from prosecuting or defending before any tribunal in this State, by himself or counsel, any civil cause to which he is a party.

Thankfully, this provision should protect Utah's citizens from compulsory arbitration of their medical negligence claims.

And hopefully, Utah's legislators will not try to push through a law that violates the state's guiding charter.

It seems that we can't go for ten minutes without seeing a television advertisement for some new medication. No matter what your affliction, there appears to be a medicine that will treat it. While advances in medical and pharmaceutical technology are saving many lives every year, medication and prescription errors can lead to serious injury, even death.

Medication and prescription errors occur under a number of circumstances:

• When a doctor neglects to take an accurate patient history
• When a doctor neglects to record medication allergies
• When a pharmacist fails to verify a prescription
• When a pharmacist incorrectly fills a prescription

While accidents happen in everyday life, medical and pharmaceutical personnel are professionals and are legally held to a high standard of care. Negligent medication and prescription errors fall below this standard of care.

A recent client of ours at G. Eric Nielson & Associates experienced the horrors that can result from prescription error when her medication was negligently switched with anxiety pills. An overdose of anxiety pills nearly put her into a coma and her experience and recovery was painful and expensive.

Because our focus at G. Eric Nielson & Associates is medical malpractice we are skilled at medical issues and familiar with the appropriate standards of care. If you, or a loved one, have been the victim of a medication or prescription error a skilled medical malpractice attorney can help you.

The medical lobby has gotten many politicians to campaign on platforms of "solving the malpractice crisis." The real crisis, however, is not caused by legal actions for medical errors. The real crisis is the increasing amount of medical negligence.

The New England Journal of Medicine recently published a study that illustrates just how bad the crisis is becoming, particularly in cardiac care cases. The study, entitled Delayed Time to Defibrillation after In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest, reveals that hospitals regularly take too long to respond to critical heart conditions, including heart attack and cardiac arrest.

When a patient's heart stops beating, the standard of care requires hospitals and doctors to promptly administer an electrical shock to restore function. The NEJM study shows, however, that many providers take far too long, resulting in patients that suffer brain injuries or even wrongful death.

Even worse, according to Dr. Paul S. Chan, one of the study's authors, the sample probably reflects situations that are better than average. According to the New York Times, "Dr. Chan said that because all the hospitals in the study had joined a national registry on cardiac arrest, meaning that they were already putting special efforts into trying to meet resuscitation guidelines, they probably performed better than average."

That means that substandard care is becoming increasingly common. As more and more studies debunk the myth that "frivolous" lawsuits have caused the "medical malpractice crisis," it is becoming clear that the real crisis facing Americans today is the growing instances of medical negligence.

If you or someone you love has suffered as a result of poor health care, you need someone to help restore your legal rights and recover for your injuries and medical bills. You need someone that will hold the medical establishment accountable for their negligence. Call the Utah medical malpractice attorneys at G. Eric Nielson & Associates today. You'll speak directly with an attorney, and your consultation is absolutely free. Additionally, at G. Eric Nielson & Associates, there is no fee unless you win.