A hospital discharge may feel rushed, with patients sent home before they are ready. Discharge should occur only when there is a medically sound plan for medications, follow-up, warning signs, and support, based on the patient’s actual condition rather than hospital logistics. For many families, that trip home is when the real trouble starts. Confused, weak, in pain, or...
Continue ReadingYou expected soreness, fatigue, maybe a rough week. Instead, things feel wrong, and you are now trying to figure out whether this is normal healing or something that should never have happened. In cases of post-surgical complications in New Mexico, the hardest part is often the uncertainty: Is this just bad luck, or did someone miss something preventable? If...
Continue ReadingA procedure is only routine until you wake up in pain and hear, “We need to go back in.” When you or a loved one needs a second surgery after a routine procedure, it can feel like the floor drops out. Confusion, anger, and the nagging question: Was this unavoidable, or preventable? New Mexico law distinguishes between preventable surgical...
Continue ReadingWhile shift changes are routine, they are also among the most vulnerable moments in a hospital stay, as responsibility for your loved one’s care transfers to another team. When teams fail to communicate critical information during shift changes, patients may experience preventable harm. Many New Mexico medical malpractice cases arise when families notice discrepancies between the medical chart and...
Continue ReadingInjuries suffered to the large and small bowel are painful and usually result in extended hospital stays, permanent disability, and sometimes death. Learning that you or a loved one’s bowel injury was due to a doctor’s negligence can be devastating. You may be dealing with substantial pain and suffering, coupled with a long road to recovery. Even minor surgeries...
Continue ReadingHospital patients depend on staff to respond when something feels wrong. A call button is not a minor convenience. In many situations, it is the only way a patient can alert caregivers to pain, distress, or danger. When repeated requests for assistance go unanswered, the consequences can be serious and sometimes life-threatening. If a hospital ignored repeated calls for...
Continue ReadingSurgery places significant trust in medical professionals. Most patients expect discomfort during recovery, but certain symptoms raise legitimate concerns. When pain intensifies, infection develops, or fever appears unexpectedly, patients and families often question whether something went wrong during treatment. Experiencing pain, infection, and fever after surgery can be due to a surgical error. It is frightening, especially when recovery...
Continue ReadingSurgical recovery requires close observation and timely medical response. While discomfort can be expected after a procedure, internal bleeding is a dangerous complication that demands immediate attention. When warning signs are overlooked, patients may suffer serious harm that could have been prevented. Concerns about missed internal bleeding after surgery often arise when symptoms worsen instead of improving. At Poulos...
Continue ReadingFamily members are often the first to notice when something is wrong. They observe changes in alertness, breathing, pain, or behavior that may not be immediately obvious during routine hospital checks. In many cases, those observations are critical to patient safety. When a hospital ignored family concerns and a patient later suffered serious harm, that failure may raise questions...
Continue ReadingMedical malpractice cases typically fall into one of the following categories: (1) failure to diagnose, (2) improper treatment, and (3) medical errors. Malpractice claims across the United States cost insurers billions of dollars, not to mention the harm suffered by the patients in these cases. One injury that can occur from negligence or malpractice is radiation sickness due to...
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