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Ohio case could increase physician liability risk

A case pending before the Supreme Court of Ohio has the potential to expand the liability risk for physicians in the state.

The high court will decide whether patients can sue for additional damages in medical liability claims if they had more than a 50% chance of recovery before the alleged negligence.

Physicians are concerned that the case will encourage more litigation and give plaintiffs an avenue for recovering damages, even if the underlying negligence claim is unsuccessful, according to a friend-of-the-court brief filed in October by the Ohio State Medical Assn., the Litigation Center of the American Medical Association and State Medical Societies, and other physician and hospital organizations.

At this article's deadline, oral arguments in Geesaman v. St. Rita's Medical Center had not been scheduled.

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H1N1 more serious than seasonal flu for children with sickle cell disease

The influenza A(H1N1) virus causes more life-threatening complications than seasonal flu in children with sickle cell disease, according to research from Johns Hopkins Children's Center presented in December at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Researchers analyzed records of 118 children with sickle cell disease who were treated for any kind of influenza at the children's center from September 1993 to November 2009. Twenty-eight were infected with H1N1.

Researchers found that sickle cell patients infected with H1N1 were three times more likely than seasonal flu patients to develop acute chest syndrome, a leading cause of death among these patients. Children with H1N1 also were five times more likely to end up in intensive care and more likely to need a blood transfusion than were those with seasonal flu.

This content was published online only.

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