Get new information on medical negligence.

The ATLA Exchange has expanded and updated its series of medical negligence litigation packets with a new packet on the failure to diagnose pulmonary embolism and an update of its gastric bypass packet.

Pulmonary embolism is a common and lethal condition that is often undiagnosed, making it a leading cause of death. The new packet, "Emergency Room: Failure to Diagnose Pulmonary Embolism"--which addresses the standard of care and direct and vicarious liability--includes depositions of ER experts, hospital administration experts, and members of state medical review boards. ATLA Education speaker papers, a medical literature survey, and a bibliography of Internet resources supplement the depositions.

Surgical treatment of obesity, particularly gastric bypass surgery, has dramatically increased. [See related article, page 28.] The "Litigating Gastric By-pass Cases" packet educates members about the surgery and its risks. The Exchange recently augmented the packet's court documents, depositions, medical illustrations, consensus statements, and practice-guideline summaries with additional expert and defendant depositions.

Because this surgery is sometimes performed using laparoscopic techniques, the "Laparoscopy: Minimally Invasive Abdominal Surgery" packet is a useful companion to the gastric bypass packet. The laparoscopy packet contains court documents, depositions, case abstracts, medical illustrations, a glossary of medical terms, surveys of medical literature and textbooks, consensus statements, practice-guideline summaries, Internet resources, and ATLA Education speaker papers and articles.

Other medical negligence litigation packets include "LASIK" and "Life Expectancy and Neurological Injury: Debunking the Defense 'Experts.'"

For more information on these and the Exchange's 45 other litigation packets, visit www.exchange.atla.org and click on "Litigation Packets," or call the Exchange at [phone].