Columbus Personal Injury & Wrongful Death Legal Blog

Every year, men in Ohio and around the country are diagnosed with prostate cancer. When determining the stage that the cancer has reached, doctors often use positron emission tomography (PET) scans to determine whether the cancer has spread elsewhere in the body. These scans often measure levels of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) found in the body. Because this enzyme is particularly expressive, it can be especially useful for imaging technology used to diagnose cancer and determine treatment regimens.

However, some researchers have warned that relying solely on these scans could lead to misdiagnoses that could negatively impact men with prostate cancer. There are benign tissues in the body that also show signs of elevated PSMA during a scan, including areas of the bowels, kidneys, salivary glands and ganglia. These can be mistaken for advanced metastases of the lymph nodes when a physician is examining PET scan results. If the wrong stage of cancer is misdiagnosed, patients could receive unneeded and even damaging treatment, given the side effects that can accompany radiation and chemotherapy.

All it takes is one medication oversight to trigger an adverse reaction that may seriously affect a patient's health and quality of life. Realistically, not all medication errors that may occur in Ohio are entirely preventable. Oftentimes, it's not until a serious or fatal reaction affects a patient that risks previously overlooked become clear. For this reason, increasing the awareness of less-obvious medication safety risks may lead to improvements with the management of patient and drug information and communications among staff and medical professionals.

Patient information is required to be kept in electronic health records (EHRs). Even so, medical malpractice injury lawyers sometimes have cases where orders are placed on the wrong patient's EHR. According to one study, more than a dozen wrong-patient EHRs are placed daily in larger hospitals. Such errors sometimes occur when health care professionals are interrupted or if multiple EHRs are open at the same time. Possible solutions suggested include requiring the re-entry of the patient's ID to confirm that the correct record is being accessed.

Motorized and electronic scooters offer a means for efficient, inexpensive transportation through the streets of Columbus. However, these devices -- which generally consist of two small wheels, a standing platform, a pair of handlebars and a rechargeable electric motor -- are extremely dangerous in the event of a collision.

The users of motorized scooter -- just like like motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians -- are extremely vulnerable to suffering catastrophic injuries in a serious collision. For this reason, the City of Columbus might want to consider the institution of scooter regulations.

When Ohioans drive while drowsy, they make the roads more dangerous for others. The symptoms of fatigue can interfere with a motorist's reaction times and ability to focus.

In a study by the American Sleep Foundation, 50 percent of adults admitted to consistently driving while drowsy and 40 percent admitted to having fallen asleep behind the wheel at least once. The Governors Highway Safety Association reports that an estimated 5,000 people were killed in 2015 because of drowsy driving.