Tag: personal injury

Retained Surgical Items

The stories are frequent enough; surgical sponge left inside patient. Surgeon leaves forceps in abdomen. 3 foot guide wire found in patients’ chest. Retained surgical items can include sponges, towels, medical device components, surgical instruments, needles, scalpel blades and entire instruments.

They can be discovered months or even years after the initial procedure and cause significant morbidity, serious infection and mortality. The risk is higher for obese patients, during abdominal surgery and lengthy operations involving multiple surgical teams. The risk for retained items is 9-fold higher during emergency surgeries and 4-fold higher when an unexpected change of procedure takes place.

10 Tips for a Successful Hospital Stay

You’ve got chills — they’re multiplying. It’s 3 a.m. and you’ve been tossing and turning for hours. An extra blanket could put the shivers to rest, 
but where’s the nurse? And the chorus of snores from the next bed is competing with the attention-seeking rumble from your hungry stomach. Aren’t hospitals supposed to be places of rest and recovery? Fear and uncertainty can amp up your stress levels and ruin your stay, but don’t let them run the show. Our hospital insiders give you the behind-the-scenes scoop on how you can feel more comfortable and in control.

Acquired Brain Injury – Anatomy of a Traumatic Brain Injury Part 2

This white paper is the second of three parts on the complex functions of brain, what happens when an injury is acquired and how to care for and manage a life-changing brain injury.

BY LINDA SIMMONS, RN BScN

Consultant and Cost of Future Care Expert, Connect Medical Legal Experts

TBI refers to any injury to the scalp, skull (cranium or facial bones) or the brain. Injury to the brain can be focal or diffuse. Focal injuries result in contusions, lacerations, or hemorrhages. The hemorrhages that can occur are epidural hematoma, subdural hematoma, intracerebral hematoma, and subarachnoid hemorrhage. The diffuse injury can cause a mild to severe concussion or diffuse axonal injury.

Acquired Brain Injury – How the Brain Works Part 1

This white paper is the first of three parts on the complex functions of brain, what happens when an injury is acquired and how to care for and manage a life-changing brain injury.

BY LINDA SIMMONS, RN BScN

Senior Nurse Life Care Planner, Connect Medical Legal Experts

This document will increase the health care professionals understanding of Acquired Brain Injury (ABI). ABI is defined as damage to the brain that is acquired after birth. It can affect cognitive, physical, emotional, social, or independent functioning. ABI is an umbrella term used to describe all brain injuries. ABI can result from traumatic brain injury (i.e. accidents, falls, assaults, etc.) and non-traumatic brain injury (i.e. stroke, brain tumours, infection, poisoning, hypoxia, ischemia or substance abuse).

The motor vehicle related accident clients that we at Connect Experts see with ABI have often resulted from a Traumatic Brain Injury and thus ABI’s that have resulted from a TBI will be the focus of this document.

Acquired Brain Injury – Care and Management of Traumatic Brain Injury Part 3

 

This white paper is the third of three parts on the complex functions of brain, what happens when an injury is acquired and how to care for and manage a life-changing brain injury.

BY LINDA SIMMONS, RN BScN
Consultant and Cost of Future Care Expert, Connect Medical Legal Experts

The prehospital care of a patient with a brain injury has a profound impact on the subsequent course of events and outcomes. Prehospital management refers to the initial resuscitation and interventions that stabilize the patient at the scene of the accident and on route to the hospital. Prehospital management requires timely and effective brain resuscitation, as the brain only has minimal reserves to meet ongoing metabolic needs. If resuscitation is insufficient because of reduced cerebral blood flow (CBF) and decreased oxygen delivery, ischemia and hypoxia develop and can lead to secondary brain injury.

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