Now, at last, the hard work of the many individuals and groups who worked to make this law a reality is paying off. The Patients’ Right to Know Act takes effect this week, and physician profiles will soon be available and searchable again. This marks step in the right direction for patient empowerment and safety in the state of Illinois.

Once the physician profiles go live, patients will be able to access historical information for their physician. The profiles will include convictions for crimes and disciplinary action against the physician, as well as some medical malpractice information.  Other details that will be listed include the medical schools the physician attended, any specialty board certifications she has obtained, how long she has been practicing and where, and her participation in the Medicaid program.

The Act, which had been successfully opposed by the medical lobby for years, only became a reality after the public learned that our Illinois regulators had been letting the worst offenders, including physicians convicted of sex crimes against patients, continue to practice with little or no discipline.

In the absence of the profiles, patients had no way of knowing that their physicians were dangerous. Our medical negligence lawyers are encouraged that the profiles will allow members of the public to access important information about their doctors.

Although the law became effective this week, the profiles will not be immediately available. But it does require the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to make the profiles available on its website within two months.

Within those two months, Illinois physicians will have the opportunity to review their profiles and correct any errors. After the initial assembly of the profiles, updates will be easier and “cheating” more difficult, as malpractice payments must be reported by insurance companies, and serious criminal convictions must be reported by prosecutors.

We encourage all Illinois residents to check the profiles of their physicians once they are posted, especially if they have questions about the background or qualifications of any of their doctors.

For a free consultation with an experienced Chicago medical malpractice lawyer at Passen Law Group, call us at (312) 527-4500.

The complete failure to diagnose a condition can be one of the most devastating things a patient can experience, especially where the patient is experiencing serious problems.  Furthermore, the consequences of a general failure to diagnose can be every bit as severe as any other form of misdiagnosis — as the undiagnosed condition advances undetected, it becomes less effectively treatable.

Some reasons why a physician may fail to offer any diagnosis of a patient’s symptoms include:

• Failure to take a patient’s complaints seriously;
• Failure to consider and evaluate a more serious and life-threatening condition based on general symptoms, such as persisting headaches (i.e. “differential diagnosis”);
• Multiple, simultaneous medical problems, whose dueling symptoms confuse the issue;
• Failure to account for drug interactions;
• Conditions which are unusual in a particular type of patient (for example, colon cancer in a young adult);

When there is a complete failure to diagnose, both the patient and the physician can become increasingly frustrated. This often becomes an unfortunate cycle – the patient begins to question herself and her own judgment about his condition, often while her symptoms continue to worsen, and the physician becomes increasingly hostile as the patient repeatedly returns, taking her less seriously each time.

Indeed, physicians who fail to make a diagnosis often blame the patient’s symptoms on hypochondria. If you have a physician who has failed to make any diagnosis of your symptoms, and you do not know yourself to be a hypochondriac, the best practice is to seek out another doctor, one who will take you seriously and treat you with respect. Furthermore, if you believe the physician has resorted to placating you with a “trashcan” diagnosis — essentially a fake diagnosis — it is time to find a new doctor.

Above all, be persistent.  You are the best judge of your own health; if your doctor remains unresponsive, press her. If she still will not assist you, find a doctor who will.

Passen Law Group has represented many individuals and families of those who have either been killed or have lost years of opportunity to treat their serious conditions, such as various forms of cancer, based on their doctors’ failure to diagnose their condition.  For a free consultation with an attorney Passen Law Group to discuss a case involving failure to diagnose cancer or some other serious condition, call us at (312) 527-4500, email us at info@passenlaw.com, or fill out a case evaluation form on our website.

Surgical mesh is a metallic or polymeric screen that can be implanted inside a person’s body to reinforce soft tissue or bone where weakness exists.  Surgical mesh has been used for several decades to repair abdominal hernias and, more recently, gynecologists began using surgical mesh products for transvaginal repair of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and  for surgical treatment of stress urinary incontinence (SUI).

Since that time, thousands of women have suffered serious injuries or death as a result of transvaginal mesh placement.  Indeed, according to the FDA, there have been nearly 4,000 reported cases of injury, death and malfunction related to urogynecologic surgical mesh products, 1,503 reports associated with POP repairs and 1,371 associated with SUI repairs.

The FDA recently issued a warning in a report titled, “Urogynecologic Surgical Mesh: Update on the Safety and Effectiveness of Transvaginal Placement for Pelvic Organ Prolapse.”

The FDA essentially found that the health risks associated transvaginal placement of surgical mesh to treat POP far outweigh any benefit from the procedure.

Transvaginal Mesh Injury

The FDA identified several serious safety concerns associated with transvaginally placed surgical mesh for repair of pelvic organ prolapse (POP), including:

• Approximately 10 percent of women who undergo transvaginal POP repair with mesh experience vaginal mesh erosion (also called exposure, extrusion or protrusion) within 12 months of surgery, often requiring two or three additional surgeries and continued sequelae (e.g., pain) even after mesh removal;.
• Mesh contraction, causing vaginal shortening, tightening, and/or vaginal pain;
• New onset SUI following repair with surgical mesh;
• Infection;
• Bleeding;
• Pain during intercourse;
• Organ perforation;
• Urinary problems

No Benefit from Transvaginal Repair of POP with Surgical Mesh

According to the FDA, transvaginal apical or posterior repair with surgical mesh does not a provide any benefit compared to traditional surgery without mesh.  In other words, traditional POP repair carries far less risk to women, and provide every bit as much benefit, as compared to using transvaginally placed mesh in POP repair.

The medical malpractice attorneys at Passen Law Group have a vast amount of experience representing patients and their families in medical negligence actions, and consult with the top medical professionals in their respective fields of specialty to assist with proving each case.  To speak with an attorney about a case relating to an injury from transvaginal mesh, call us at 312-527-4500 or email info@passenlaw.com.