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Medical Incident: Any act, error or omission during the providing of professional services.

Medical lien: The right of a hospital, doctor or health care provider to assert an interest in personal injury recoveries to the extent of the cost of the treatment or service provided.

Medical Malpractice: Improper or negligent treatment of a person under a medical professional's care, which results in injury or death.

Medical Negligence: Failure of a physician or other medical personnel to meet the standards of conduct for duties relating to the medical profession. Those standards are based on what a reasonable person with the requisite knowledge and skills would or would not do.

Mellaril: An antipsychotic drug for schizophrenics. Mellaril has been associated with causing cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death.

Mental Retardation: Significantly low intelligence and severe problems adapting to everyday life skills.

Meridia: A prescription diet drug containing Sibutramine. Sibutramine has been associated adverse cardiovascular effects and, in some instances, death.

Mesothelioma: A type of cancer found in people who have been exposed to asbestos. Mesothelioma can occur in the lining of the lungs or abdomen, and it has no known cure.

Misdiagnosis: A medical professional's failure to properly identify and diagnose a patient's medical condition. A doctor can be held liable for any damages that result from a misdiagnosis if the medical mistake was a result of negligence. Medical negligence (a subtype of medical malpractice) is defined as a medical professional's failure to exact the degree of care, skill, and prudence that a reasonable medical professional would in a similar situation.

Mistrial: An erroneous invalid trial that cannot stand in law.

Mixed Cerebral Palsy: This type of CP affects bothe the pyramidal and extrapyramidal areas of the brain. The most common mixed form includes spasticity and athetoid movements; other combinations are possible.

Motor Disabilities: Disabilities that effect a person's ability to learn motor tasks such as walking, running, skipping, tying shoes, crawling, sitting, handwriting, and others. To be considered a disability, the problem must cause a person to have motor coordination that is significantly below what would be expected for his or her age, and the problem must interfere with the activities of learning and daily living.

Muscle tone: Defines the condition of the muscles. Muscles that are affected by cerebral palsy will be either floppy and loose or stiff and rigid. Poor muscle tone limits movement.