Our own Medical Paralegal Corine Mogenis writes a regular piece for the South Brunswick Patch. This week’s was titled “Ebola, Enterovirus and Errors…Oh My!” This is an excerpt:

Medical errors, such as that which “may” or “may not” have taken the life of Joan Rivers, are a hot topic in the news regularly. Why? Because an error now happened to a famous person. However, I can assure you, this, and many similar incidents happen every day across the country. It has been reported that Melissa Rivers is filing a wrongful death lawsuit, because she simply wants answers. She wants to understand what happened and for whatever reason, she feels she has not been given the explanation. This occurs all too frequently. The code of silence goes into full effect when something does not go as planned in the medical community. Instead of giving you, or your family, an explanation of what went wrong and why, many run away – never to be seen from or heard from again. Often others get defensive and argue or avoid the questions all together. This is simply unacceptable, but all too common. People should not have to hire lawyers to try to have their medical condition or surgery explained to them, yet they do. Let me tell you, it’s much  more frequent than you know!

In this season of fear and fright in haunted houses and scary mazes, just remember that the healthcare arena is very much the same. You should use the same caution when dealing with medical professionals and medical facilities of any kind. Don’t fall into a blind sense of safety. Be smart, know that something unexpected could pop up at any time around any corner. Try to be prepared and ready.