Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

The death last year of a patient at the Oregon State Hospital has led to reprimands for five hospital employees. According to the Salem Statesman-Journal a state official and “hospital leaders” decided that reprimands were a sufficient punishment for the five employees. The legal system, however, has yet to have its final say on this serious situation. Oregon wrongful death and Oregon medical neglect lawsuits remain a possibility.

The reprimands were occasioned by the death last fall of 42 year old Moises Perez. Perez died of coronary artery disease, according to The Oregonian, but “lay in his room across from the nurses station for several hours before his body was discovered.”

The paper reports that three nurses and two aides have now had letters of reprimand placed in their personnel files following an investigation by the OSH’s human resources department. The reprimands are not accompanied by any loss of pay or suspension from work. The Oregonian reports that one of the nurses failed to make monthly nursing summaries on Perez’s chart from June until the patient’s death in October. One of the aides was disciplined for failing to alert nurses when Perez did not “show up to take his 3:30pm medications” on the day of his death. A separate investigation of a doctor, being carried out by a medical board, is still under way.

Patients in a mental hospital are particularly dependent on hospital staff for their care and well-being. The issuance of the reprimands causes one to ask what would have to happen at OSH – and how widely the system might have to fail – for more serious disciplinary action to be meted out to hospital staff?

Beyond the obvious question of whether Perez’s demise constitutes an Oregon wrongful death, it is also essential to consider whether this case also fits the definition of Oregon medical neglect. Such questions involve complex interpretations of law, and are best addressed with the help of a Portland medical neglect lawyer with extensive experience in the laws relating to Oregon wrongful death. Professional sanctions are important but cannot, by themselves, make up for the loss of a loved one through Oregon hospital negligence. An Oregon wrongful death attorney can be a bereaved family’s most important ally when they approach the courts seeking justice in the wake of a tragedy such as this.

The Oregonian: Five Oregon State Hospital employees reprimanded for care to patient Moises Perez, who died last fall

Salem Statesman-Journal: Oregon State Hospital reprimands five in patient’s death

Posted by Matthew D. Kaplan | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Hospital Deaths , Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect , Wrongful Death

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If you arrive in a hospital emergency room unconscious and suffering from an Oregon traumatic brain injury can the doctors use you for a medical experiment without your consent? You might have thought the answer to that question was pretty obvious: absolutely not. According to a recent article in the Portland Tribune, however, you would be wrong.

The Tribune reports that researchers at Oregon Health & Science University, beginning this week, are using a loophole in federal regulations governing medical studies on humans to move ahead with an Oregon brain injury study. Under the so-called “community-wide study exception” the hospital has staged about 20 community meetings to explain its proposed brain injury study and may now presume that any unconscious person brought into the emergency room with an Oregon traumatic brain injury has consented to involvement in the study unless they are wearing a bracelet that declares otherwise, or family members arrive at the ER within one hour of the patient’s admission and refuse to consent to the injured person’s enrollment in the program.

The study in question involves use of progesterone, a hormone that may help severely injured patients recover from brain injuries. It raises, however, a broader question of what ‘informed consent’ ought to mean in the real world. Can an entire community legitimately be said to have agreed to be involved in a study on the basis of a series of public meetings, some of which, according to the paper, were attended by only a handful of people? What about people from elsewhere in Oregon or from out of state who are unlucky enough to be involved in a Portland auto accident and just happen to be taken to OHSU?

This development is particularly troubling for the precedent it sets. Indeed, the Tribune article notes that other studies have been conducted here in Oregon under the “community-wide” exception.

Situations like these are a reminder of the important role a Portland traumatic brain injury attorney can play in protecting your rights when you are unable to speak for yourself. Medical studies are important, but that does not mean a severely injured person’s consent to participate in a serious medical experiment ought to be presumed on the basis of where they live or what hospital first-responders happened to transport them to. An Oregon brain injury lawyer can work with your loved ones to ensure that your wishes are honored – not merely inferred.

Portland Tribune: Brain injury study hopes to overcome ‘consent’ concerns

Posted by Matthew D. Kaplan | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Hospital Deaths , Medical Malpractice , Traumatic Brain Injuries

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As a recent report in The Oregonian details, Adventist Medical Center has witnessed a dramatic drop in Portland hospital deaths from bloodstream infections in the three-plus years since it instituted a new set of simple, but effective, safety procedures. The development is obviously good for patients, but it also has implications for Oregon wrongful death and medical malpractice claims related to our state’s hospitals.

The paper explains that in 2006 Adventist began implementing a set of relatively simple procedures developed at Maryland’s Johns Hopkins University. These involve medical professionals carefully checking each other to ensure thorough hand-washing before care-givers have contact with patients, greater attention to the use of antiseptics to clean patients skin and more extensive use of “full surgical regalia”.

As the paper reports, data collected by the state shows a dramatic drop in mortality and infection rates once the new procedures went into effect – especially when compared with other Portland area hospitals that do not follow the Johns Hopkins guidelines. The newspaper, citing Adventist’s director of quality resources, reports that there have been no ICU infections at the hospital since the spring of 2007.

These dramatic results also raise troubling legal questions. If Oregon deaths or debilitating injuries result from infections that could have been easily prevented does this constitute Oregon medical malpractice, particularly if the want of simple sanitary precautions leads to a Portland wrongful death?

The specifics of every case are different. That is why consultation with an experienced Oregon medical malpractice attorney is so crucial if a loved one has died or if you have suffered a serious injury or infection in a Portland-area hospital where the Johns Hopkins procedures were not in place. A Portland wrongful death lawyer can offer valuable advice regarding the legal options that may be open to you, and fight the medical industry to get the justice you deserve.

The Oregonian: Preventing hospital infections: How Portland hospitals compare

Posted by Matthew D. Kaplan | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Hospital Deaths , Medical Malpractice , Wrongful Death

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Oregon State Police are reopening their investigation into the Salem Hospital Death last week of a patient at the Oregon State Hospital. Moises Perez, 42, was found dead in his bed earlier this month, according to a report in the Salem Statesman-Journal.

A county medical examiner initially ruled that Perez’s Oregon hospital death was from natural causes, but late last week the authorities announced they would be revisiting the issue. “We are going to look at it a little bit more and make sure that we haven’t missed anything,” a state police spokesman told the Statesman-Journal. The spokesman added that the move is “not necessarily that uncommon,” but the paper noted it came only in the wake of pressure from mental health advocates and some hospital patients around the state.

Though Perez was a convicted criminal – he had been confined at the state mental hospital since 1995 when he was convicted of murder but judged insane – the Oregon hospital death raises questions about conditions and treatment that are unrelated to the crimes that had landed Perez in a mental institution. Patient advocates expressed satisfaction with the state’s decision to reopen the case.

Hospital deaths often merit special attention, and are a circumstance in which consultation with a Salem wrongful death lawyer is often a prudent move once a family’s initial period of grieving is past. An Oregon hospital death attorney can help determine whether a tragic Oregon hospital death might also have been avoidable and recommend a course of action for surviving family members.

Salem Statesman-Journal: State hospital death receives second look

Posted by Matthew D. Kaplan | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Hospital Deaths , Wrongful Death

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