Maryland Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog
A California couple have won a $16.5 million medical malpractice verdict against a neurosurgeon. The patient suffered a fractured spine while off-roading and was taken to a hospital where the neurosurgeon was on call. Despite the spinal injury, the man was not seen until the next day and not operated on until two days after his injury, cusing paraplegia. The verdict included compensation for future medical care, lost wages and pain and suffering. The couple had previously settled their claims against the hospital for a confidential amount.
Failure To Timely Diagnose And Treat Heart Attack
A Texas jury has found a hospital guilty of medical malpractice for its treatment of a 41-year-old woman who died of a heart attack within hours of an emergency room visit. The jury found that the hospital committed willful or wanton negligence” in their treatment of the woman. The jury awarded $1.3 million in damages to the woman, her mother and the woman’s two children. A copy of the article regarding the case can be found here.
Negligence During Delivery of Child, Lack of Oxygen, Birth Injury
Recently, a South Carolina jury awarded the family of a newborn $4.4 million dollars for medical malpractice/negligence stemming from the delivery of the child. In their complaint, the family alleged that a nurse failed to properly monitor the baby’s fetal heart monitoring strips — strips that show the heartbeat rate of the baby — and, as a result, did not realize that the baby was in fetal distress and required emergent medical attention and/or delivery. As a result of this negligence, the family alleged that the baby experienced prolonged periods without oxygen while in utero and during the delivery. The baby was delivered alive, but later diagnosed with cerebral-palsy like complications. At the age of 5, the baby died from these complications.
Deep VEnous Thrombosis malpractice / Pulmonary Embolism malpractice
A Georgia jury has awarded more than $6 million in medical malpractice / wrongful death case on behalf of a husband and his deceased wife’s estate after she developed blood clots and died shortly after undergoing outpatient knee surgery. The woman had knee pain and went to an orthopedic surgeon who ordered an MRI of the knee. That MRI showed something behind the knee which resulted in the the orthopedic surgeon performing outpatient arthroscopic surgery on the woman. The next day, the woman was found dead at home. An autopsy showed that deep venous thromboids had formed at the site of the surgery, and then traveled to the lung causing a pulmonary embolism. Apparently, the orthopedic surgeon ignored several risk factors that should have indicated that blood clotting could be a problem, such as obesity and birth control pills.
Negligent Colonoscopy
A Baltimore City jury in a medical malpractice case awarded more than $670,000 to a man after his colon was perforated during a colonoscopy, resulting in emergency surgery. The man underwent a colonoscopy at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, during which the doctor punctured the colon in several places. The man was subsequently taken into an operating room at Sinai, where part of his colon was removed. The man still suffers pain and limited mobility as a result of the surgery, and swelling and fatigue caused by short bowel syndrome.
Negligent Injury to the Bowel
A New York state jury has awarded a $2.4 million verdict to a woman in a medical malpractice case. The woman underwent partial bowel removal surgery that should not have been performed, causing her to spend 2 ½ months in the hospital and have three more procedures to fix the complications. During the next few months, she was admitted to three hospitals and had to undergo two other surgeries to take care of infections and complications from the first procedure. As a result of her condition, she now is unable to control her bowels, lives with severe pain and has terrible scars. The jury’s verdict consisted of $2.2 million for the woman and $200,000 for her husband. A copy of the article regarding the case can be found here.
Negligent Urology Surgery Results in Large Verdict
A Kentucky jury has award $4.6 million to a couple in a medical malpractice case. The couple claimed that a urologist performed a negligent medical procedure on the husband causing permanent personal injuries. The verdict included $3,750,000 to the husband for pain and suffering, $117,612 for medical expenses and $750,000 to the wife.
Aspiration Pneumonia Malpractice
An Alabama jury has awarded $20 million in a medical malpractice case in which a woman died after receiving negligent anesthesia care. The woman, a wife and mother of two, died in 2006 after receiving anesthesia during exploratory surgery. The woman, who had been suffering from severe abdominal pain, aspirated bile from her stomach into her lungs, causing aspiration pneumonia. The family claimed that the defendant doctors did not examine the woman’s abdomen or look at her medical records before the exploratory surgery, which would have revealed her risk factors for breathing fluid into her lungs.
Radiation Overdose of Cancer Patients
The New York Times published a detailed article this past weekend on radiation overdose malpractice in New York hospitals. The article reports a number of shocking instances of people who have been given too much radiation during treatment for various cancers. Many of them have suffered terrible health complications from this malpractice, including gaping wounds, loss of hearing, sight, the ability to heal, walk and otherwise function. A copy of the article can be found here.
Incorrect IV Site Causing Death
A Missouri woman has settled a medical malpractice lawsuit for $2.5 million. The woman was treated at University Hospital in early 2005 for dehydration, which was the result of a gastrointestinal condition. Apparently, doctors infused her with nutritional supplements through an IV in her subclavian artery, just below the collarbone, instead of the subclavian vein, where it was supposed to go. This caused fatty blockages to travel to her brain for five consecutive days, causing severe strokes and neurological and mental impairment. She is mentally and physically handicapped as a result.
Cardiac Catheterization Medical Malpractice
A Massachusetts jury has found that two doctors at Children’s Hospital Boston were guilty of medical malpractice that caused the death of a 3-year-old boy, and awarded the parents $15 million. The boy died a year and a half after he underwent surgery for a birth defect. The child was born with a severe congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot, a complicated but treatable birth defect that affects the flow of blood through the heart. He underwent eight procedures, 7 of which were cardiac catheterizations, before coming to Children’s for another catheterization procedure to widen his arteries. After the Boston procedure, the child suffered a seizure. A CAT scan revealed that that contrast dye, which is used during the procedure to better see the patient’s anatomy, had leaked into his brain. Later, an MRI revealed that a piece of metal had lodged in the boy’s brain, probably from a medical instrument. When the child left the hospital, he was unable to walk or speak. The jury awarded damages of $5 million for the child’s pain and suffering, $5 million for the parents’ loss of their child, and $5 million for the child’s wrongful death.
Failure to Properly Secure a Mental Health Patient
Washington state has agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle a medical malpractice lawsuit that was brought by one of its former hospitals by a man who escaped out of the window of a county-owned mental hospital and hurt himself jumping onto a fire-escape landing. It was alleged that, while the man was being held in a “seclusion room,” he was not adequately monitored by the hospital and that the room was not adequately secured. The man climbed out of a window, walked along a narrow area, and then jumped to the roof of an adjacent area, which enabled him to reach the roof of another building. He then jumped to the fire escape landing. The man suffered multiple fractures in the fall.
Dr. Midei and St. Joseph Medical Center – Unnecessary Cardiac Stents
There has been a lot of publicity lately about a doctor at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Maryland, that supposedly implanted cardiac stents that may not have been necessary. The publicity started after St. Joseph Medical Center sent out letters to 369 former patients stating that a review of surgeries by Dr. Mark Midei revealed that Dr. Midei may have told these people that they had severe coronary artery blockages that they actually didn’t have, and then recommend and performed stent surgery on these people when it was not necessary. Usually, such stents are only placed in people who have blockages of 70% or more.
Critical clinical and radiological features that distinguish a benign enchondroma from a malignant chondrosarcoma
One common type of malpractice concerns the failure of a clinician or radiologist to properly diagnose a patient’s musculoskeletal tumor based on the relevant clinical and radiological features. One sub-type of these musculoskeletal tumors is a cartilage tumor, a tumor that grows within a human bone.
Misdiagnosis of Enterovirus
A Florida jury has jus awarded the parents of a 15 year old girl $4.3 million in a medical malpractice case that was filed in 1996. The case arose when the girl was born, at which time doctors misdiagnosed a virus that the girl had. As a result, the girl’s brain and kidneys were permanently damages. The girl now has severe vision problems and permanent cirrhosis of the liver.