Boston Medical Malpractice and Workers' Compensation Blog

When you are a patient in a hospital or a resident of a nursing home, the last thing that you want to worry about is whether the nurse in charge of providing your care is sleep deprived. After all, patients are both vulnerable and dependent upon their nurses for the most basic tasks when they are hospitalized.

But sleep deprivation in the medical community remains a significant problem in the United States. Research shows that Americans sleep fewer hours than ever, with the average night's sleep netting roughly 6.8 hours, as reported by bettersleep.org. It should be noted that most doctors recommend that their patients get an average of seven to eight hours of sleep each night.

Most people understand that if they break a leg on the job while carrying out their duties that they can file for workers' compensation benefits. They may realize that they also qualify for injuries and conditions that occur over time, like mesothelioma from asbestos exposure or repetitive stress injuries from an assembly line job.

But fewer know that they may be covered for certain psychological illnesses that they are diagnosed with due to their jobs. Conditions that might make a worker eligible for cash and other benefits include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety or depression.

Hospital patients are vulnerable to negligence because their debilitated states make them less able to discern whether there is a problem with their treatment. It's estimated that annually up to 440,000 hospital patients succumb to hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) and medical errors in the United States. These two categories combined comprise the number three cause of death in America.

If you are a hospital patient, don't be afraid to ask questions about your care, medications, treatment plans and prognosis. Tell your family members to ask and intercede on your behalf should they notice anything unusual or potentially harmful.

One woman in another state proved that dogs can be women's best friends, too. Her Siberian husky's odd reactions to her led the woman to seek treatment for abdominal pain. However, the doctor at the Emergency Room only prescribed a narcotic painkiller after diagnosing her condition as an ovarian cyst.

Spooked by her dog's response to her — extended sniffing of her lower abdomen followed by the dog recoiling and retreating in fear — led to the woman insisting her gynecologist do lab tests and give her a pelvic ultrasound.