Traumatic Brain Injury or Mental Illness?
TBI and Mental Illness What if a defendant commits a crime because of being affected by either an acute brain injury or an acquired or inherited brain disease? This is called the “brain defense.” In criminal cases, defense attorneys are increasingly using clinical evidence of brain injury to either establish their client’s innocence or mitigate […]
Medical Records Review: Abbreviations
The last thing I want to cover is abbreviations. Reading a doctor’s handwriting alone is hard enough, and it is so much harder if it’s filled with unknown abbreviations. It is literally impossible to understand the medical records without knowing at least a few of the common abbreviations. For your benefit, I’ve created a list […]
Medical Records: Complications & Procedures
For more information on the hospital course, other documents to look for include: Operative reports: These are generated if the patient undergoes any surgeries, and a separate report will be generated for each operation. Look at the pre and post-procedure diagnosis. Radiological reports: Look at the “Impressions.” Again, there will be one report for each […]
Medical Records Review: Emergency Dept.
When performing a medical records review, if you’re looking for a list of injuries, as you commonly are in criminal law, you will look at the emergency department (ED or ER) reports and/or the ambulance reports. Ambulance/Fire: The vast majority of the time, I have to request that the ambulance and/or fire records be subpoenaed. […]
Medical Records: Where to Start
If you’re looking for the “story” of how the patient entered the hospital and what happened while he/she was there, go to the Discharge Summary (Caution: This is different than the Discharge Instructions, which are essentially worthless unless you practice med-mal). The Discharge Summary is a synopsis of the major events in the time that […]
Godoy Medical Forensics Gets Around
I have spoken at a number of conferences and seminars this year, as well as some online presentations. April: Medical Record Review for the NDIA conference in San Diego. June: Medical Record Review for Death Investigators at the POST certified course offered by Orange County Coroner’s Association Medical Record Review live webinar for the NAPD […]
Godoy Medical Forensics Knows Their Stuff
Currently we stand strong at 7 RN’s and 4 MD’s. Our nurses have a variety of backgrounds and live across the nation. We brought on 2 new testifying nurses – one is a sexual assault nurse so we are FINALLY accepting sexual assault cases. (YAY!) He is located near the Oregon border. The second nurse is […]
Godoy Medical Forensics is Social!
We are active on social media and use that format to educate attorneys and investigators through our blog posts and about medical topics relating to law. Don’t miss out – pick one or pick them all but be sure you’re following us somewhere! I’ve pulled the following 2015 stats: 8000 new visitors to Godoymedical.net (just […]
Godoy Medical Forensics Educates!
I’m so excited to announce that my Medical Record Workshop is now available online!!! It is a go at your own pace intensive workshop that includes 4 case studies and is eligible for 4 hours of MCLE. It kicks off with my one hour webinar on medical record review and then goes into 4 case studies […]
Hip Dislocation: Legal Implications
When considering taking legal action for possible medical negligence related to delayed reduction in a traumatic hip dislocation, there are many factors that need to be considered. There are other causes of avascular necrosis. Examples include, but are not limited to: arthritis, cancer, gout, alcohol use, joint injuries and long-term medication use involving corticosteroids, bisphosphonates […]
