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The Complicated Orthopedic Case: Warning Signs
Sarah Stiner was a star soccer player in high school. During one game early in the season, a fellow player kicked her in the knee with sufficient force to break her knee cap. The wound did not heal, despite many courses of antibiotics to treat brewing osteomyelitis. After ordering 18 months of treatment, Sarah’s orthopedist…
Read MoreThe Power of Headlines
Many features can make or break the power of headlines to draw in a reader. How do you capture the attention of your reader? Length Matters Google usually displays 50-60 characters of a headline, so, regardless of a headline’s length, the beginning needs to be compelling. In general, for English-language headlines, 60-100 characters is the…
Read More11 Years, 700+ Episodes: What Legal Nurse Podcast Taught Me
On September 6, 2016, I hit publish on the first episode of what would become Legal Nurse Podcast. I remember how daunting the technology felt back then. A business coach I’d hired walked me through the steps, piece by piece, and I honestly wasn’t sure anyone would listen. Eleven years and more than 700 episodes…
Read MoreAltered Medical Records: What LNCs Need to Know
You receive 3,000 pages of hospital records for a medical malpractice case. You organize them, build a chronology, identify significant clinical events, and start comparing the documentation with the allegations. Everything seems to be there. But are you looking at the whole story? Or is one hidden in the records? With electronic health records, the…
Read MoreAcute Head Injury: What the Bedside Nurse Sees Before the Scan Confirms It
A nurse is doing a routine neuro check on a patient admitted after a fall with impact to her head six hours earlier. She sustained fractures of both arms. The head CT scan was within normal limits. The patient was oriented, moving all extremities, pupils equal and reactive. She complained of a mild headache and…
Read MoreWhy Postpartum Hemorrhage Cases Hinge on Timing: The Warning Signs Nobody Charted
Sarah had delivered a healthy baby girl four hours earlier. She was tired, a little shaky, and told the nurse she felt “off.” The nurse charted “patient resting comfortably” and moved to her next assignment. Ninety minutes later, Sarah’s blood pressure had dropped, her pad count told a story nobody had tallied, and her nurse…
Read MoreHigh-Risk Issues in Long-Term Care: What LNCs Should Look For
Long-term care cases can involve vulnerable residents, complicated medical histories, multiple caregivers, and thousands of pages of records. When allegations of abuse, neglect, or elopement arise, the legal nurse consultant has an important role in determining what happened, what the staff knew, and whether they recognized and addressed warning signs. Federal nursing home regulations give…
Read MoreAnalyzing a Bowel Emergency Case: Why the Timeline Can Make or Break the Case
The plaintiff attorney calls you to say she has a new case involving what she thinks is a delay in diagnosing a bowel emergency. Her client lost 9 feet of bowel. She wants you to evaluate the case for possible negligence. When you get the records, you note the patient complains of abdominal pain. The…
Read MoreDrug-Facilitated Sexual Assault: What Every LNC Should Know
A plaintiff attorney calls you with a case that doesn’t fit the usual pattern. The client remembers arriving at a party. She remembers one drink. Then nothing, until she woke up hours later, nude, in an unfamiliar bed. She does not recall a struggle or screaming, but she is lying next to a man she…
Read MorePediatric Airway Emergencies: What LNCs Should Look For
A pediatric airway emergency can become life-threatening within minutes. Children have smaller airways, higher oxygen demands, and less reserve than adults. A delay in recognizing respiratory distress, a missed change in assessment findings, or poor communication among healthcare providers can have devastating consequences. For attorneys handling these cases, the medical records tell the story of…
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