Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Personal Injury Blog

Whether you ended up with an infection due to surgery, an injury or an illness, or from some other source, you needed medical attention for it. If not caught in time by your doctors, that infection could become quite serious, but there is yet another danger.

Your infection could lead to a condition called sepsis, which can be life-threatening if not treated quickly and aggressively. Even though you may not be able to predict sepsis, your doctors should watch for it, especially if your infection has progressed to a dangerous point. If that didn't happen, then you may not have received the care to which you deserved.

Many people in Pennsylvania worry about getting home safely when they take to the road, especially if they are traveling on highways with large numbers of semi-trucks. While truck drivers are often safer operators than the public as a whole, the size, weight and volume of large trucks mean that crashes involving them can be particularly catastrophic or even deadly. People in other vehicles are far more likely to be seriously injured in a crash involving a tractor-trailer. There are several factors that can make serious trucking accidents more likely on the road.

According to one study, in at least 44% of severe truck collisions leading to injuries or even fatalities, truck drivers were at fault for the accident. One of the most common reasons was excessive speed, noting the longer stopping distance and massive weight and size of semi-trucks. In some cases, truck drivers were violating the speed limit; in other cases, they were traveling too fast in inclement weather like rain, snow or sleet. Wet roads can make already long stopping distances even longer while ice can make it all too easy for a speeding truck to spin out of control.

Hidradenitis suppurativa, or HS, is a painful, unpleasant skin condition that affects many people in Pennsylvania and throughout the country who may have a difficult time receiving a proper diagnosis. While HS leads to lumps, boils, pain and growing wounds, up to 64% of patients with the disease needed to visit at least five different doctors before receiving a diagnosis. On average, patients wait 10 years to get a proper diagnosis and adequate treatment. HS tends to appear as small lumps in the armpits, groin and other areas with high levels of skin-to-skin contact. At first glance, HS resembles other types of boils or abscesses, common acute skin symptoms.

However, HS differs because the boils return repeatedly to the same location. They may appear the same as typical boils, developing from a sweat gland or hair follicle. Even after they go away or are lanced by a medical professional, they often return to the same location. When people have HS, boils can grow and develop through "tunnels" beneath the skin. The resulting wounds can seep fluid. While HS is often considered rare and is frequently misdiagnosed, it affects one out of every 100 people.

A trip to the emergency room or an urgent care facility is rarely a good thing. It often means you are suffering from symptoms that are too serious or worrisome to wait until you can get an appointment at your doctor's office. In an ambulatory care center, such as an ER or urgent care, you can expect to explain your symptoms to a nurse, who will pass your chart to a doctor or physician's assistant.

The doctor may examine you and order tests. Based on the results of those tests, you will receive a diagnosis and perhaps a prescription to manage the symptoms. In some cases, you may feel relief. However, you are just as likely to get worse. A recent report shows that almost half of ambulatory care mistakes involve a wrong diagnosis.