Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

An Indiana jury recently awarded a 37 year old woman $875,000 for permanent brain damage she suffered after a physician misdiagnosed her elevated blood pressure as nothing more than a side effect of medications she was currently taking. Shortly thereafter, the plaintiff presented to a hospital and was diagnosed as having had a stroke that resulted in right hemi-paralysis and aphasia, injuries that left her unable to work. In her case, the Plaintiff alleged that she presented to her gastroenterologist for a post-operative consultation. At the time of the examination, the plaintiff’s blood pressure was elevated, and she reported that she had recently experienced dizziness, nosebleeds, blurred vision and tingling in her face and upper extremity. The gastroenterologist dismissed these signs as a side effect of the medications she was then taking. That evening, the plaintiff suffered a stroke. The plaintiff sued the physician, alleging that he should have referred her for an immediate evaluation at a hospital or with an internal medicine specialist in light of her high risk of stroke.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

In March 2010, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals upheld a trial court’s decision not to give a Plaintiff a spoliation instruction after it was discovered that a surgeon had failed to dictate a key operative note. The case arose out of a patient who came into a hospital Emergency Room complaining of abdominal pain. A surgeon was consulted. The surgeon diagnosed the patient with gallbladder disease and possible small bowel obstruction. Subsequent tests did not confirm the obstruction, radiographically. The surgeon opted performed surgery to remove the gallbladder. During the surgeon, the surgeon testified that he saw some dilitation (swelling) of the small bowel but did not observe clear signs of an obstruction. Following the surgery, the patient experienced complications that necessitated 2 additional surgeries and the removal of a large percentage of the small bowl, all because of an undiagnosed obstruction. The patient subsequently sued the surgeon for initially failing to diagnose the obstruction and causing the additional complications and surgeries. During discovery, the patient sought the production of the operative report, a report that hospital policies mandated be created after each procedure. No such report was ever located. As a result, the plaintiff sought a spoliation instruction, arguing that she was entitled to an adverse inference (i.e., permitting the jury to infer that the report contained unfavorable language against the surgeon). The plaintiff argued that the lack of a report made it nearly impossible for her expert’s to evaluate the surgeon’s actions. The trial court refused to give that instruction.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

In March 2010, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals upheld a trial court’s decision not to give a Plaintiff a spoliation instruction after it was discovered that a surgeon had failed to dictate a key operative note. The case arose out of a patient who came into a hospital Emergency Room complaining of abdominal pain. A surgeon was consulted. The surgeon diagnosed the patient with gallbladder disease and possible small bowel obstruction. Subsequent tests did not confirm the obstruction, radiographically. The surgeon opted performed surgery to remove the gallbladder. During the surgeon, the surgeon testified that he saw some dilitation (swelling) of the small bowel but did not observe clear signs of an obstruction. Following the surgery, the patient experienced complications that necessitated 2 additional surgeries and the removal of a large percentage of the small bowl, all because of an undiagnosed obstruction. The patient subsequently sued the surgeon for initially failing to diagnose the obstruction and causing the additional complications and surgeries. During discovery, the patient sought the production of the operative report, a report that hospital policies mandated be created after each procedure. No such report was ever located. As a result, the plaintiff sought a spoliation instruction, arguing that she was entitled to an adverse inference (i.e., permitting the jury to infer that the report contained unfavorable language against the surgeon). The plaintiff argued that the lack of a report made it nearly impossible for her expert’s to evaluate the surgeon’s actions. The trial court refused to give that instruction.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

Last week, an Allegany County jury returned a $1.5 million verdict against a local cardiologist after the death of Robert Kaiser, a carpenter, following a routine catheterization procedure. On June 17, 2005, Mr. Kaiser had been admitted to the hospital following a minor heart attack. Three days later, the cardiologist, Dr. Kulkarni, performed a catheterization procedure. A catheterization is a medical procedure used to diagnosed and treat certain heart conditions. During the procedure, a flexible tube called a catheter is inserted in to the patient’s arm, groin or neck and passed through the blood vessels all the way to the heart. Through the catheter the doctor can then run several diagnostic tests such as coronary angiogram in which dye is inserted into your bloodstream and travels to the heart to see if the dye gets blocked anywhere. In this case, following the procedure, Mr. Kaiser’s wife was told that her husband’s heart was strong and that he had done well in surgery. Moments later, Mr. Kaiser’s blood pressure dropped precipitiously and life-saving measures were ordered. Ultimately, Mr. Kaiser died and the Plaintiff alleged that Dr. Kulkarni had negligently punctured a vessel while performing the catheterization, causing Mr. Kaiser to suffer significant internal bleeding that went unnoticed until it was too late. Jurors in the case deliberated for 3 1/2 hours before returning the verdict, an award that included damages for Mr. Kaiser’s pain and suffering, his medical bills/funeral expenses and the loss of services to his wife.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

Yesterday, a Pennsylvania jury awarded $1.2 million to the wife of man who died following being negligently discharged to home with a life threatening condition. 55 year old Michael Scarpa, a retired railroad worker, died just 2 days after he was discharged from Tyler Memorial Hospital. Mr. Scarpa had arrived at TMH with complaints of chest pains and vomiting over a three day period. Despite these complaints, Mr. Scarpa’s doctors told him to take some cough medicine, get some rest and see his primary care physician in a few days. 2 days later he died. At autopsy, the medical examiner showed that Mr. Scarpa had an ulcerated and perforated esophagus that allowed food to enter the area around his lungs known as the pleural cavity. This led to his blood becoming poisoned and ultimately his death.

An esophageal perforation is a essentially a hole in the esophagus that allows food to pass out of the esophagus into the mediastinum, the surrounding area in the chest. This usually results in the mediastinum becoming infected. Esophageal perforations typically occur during a medical procedure, violent vomiting, trauma or injury to the chest, swallowing a foreign object or extremely caustic chemical, a tumor or a ulcerated area on the esophagus. When a perforation occurs, pain is the most common symptom. Other symptoms include difficulty swallowing, chest pain or breathing problems. Patients are also often found to have a fever (sign of infection), elevated breathing rate, rapid heart rate, low blood pressure, neck pain or air bubles under skin if perforation is near the top of the esophagus. Physicians generally order x-rays or CT scans of the chest in order to determine if there is a perforation.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

Earlier this week, attorneys for the family of Thomas Murphy won a $1.44 million verdict against a physician at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Maryland after a jury determined that the physician failed to properly diagnose Mr. Murphy with sepsis upon his presentation to the hospital. Instead, the physician erroneously diagnosed him with an infection, and thereby only treated him with broad-spectrum antibiotics. Mr. Murphy’s family argued that had he been properly and timely treated for sepsis upon his admission to the hospital, he would have survived. Mr. Murphy died just one day after his hospital admission.

Sepsis – the body’s ultimate response to a bacterial infection — is characterized by severe reaction of the body’s organs to the foreign bacteria and/or death. Sepsis is also referred to as systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). Although sepsis often results from the widespread invasion of bacteria into a patient’s bloodstream, this invasion is not essential for the development of severe sepsis since local infection/inflammation can also cause distant organ dysfunction and blood pressure irregularities. Some of the common places in the body where an infection might start include the skin (celluitis), the lungs (bacterial pneumonia), liver, gall bladder, lining of the brain (meningitis), the bloodstream, the bones, the bowel, or the kidneys. For hospitalized patients, common sources of infections include bedsores (decubitus ulcers), surgical drains, intravenous lines, or surgical wounds. Unfortunately, bacteria live and breed in hospitalized settings, and thus, many healthy people who have suffered an injury requiring a drain, or IV lines or open ports into their blood stream often contract an infection that turns into sepsis.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

An Illinois family recently a medical negligence / malpractice case against an Elgin, Illinois hospital for $9.5 million after their child was born was cerebral palsy. In 1996, the mother presented to the hospital in labor with contractions ongoing. She was seen immediately by a mid-wife. At some point during her labor, complications with the baby developed. The mother immediately requested that the mid-wife notify and get a doctor to see her. The mid-wife failed to do so. Subsequently, the child was born with cerebral palsy.

Cerebral palsy is a complex medical condition that ranges in severity from mild to severe. Typically, those afflicted with cerebral palsy have an inability to control their motor function; i.e., they lack adequate muscle control and coordination. Common symptoms that can lead to a diagnosis of cerebral palsy include: involuntary movements of limbs; muscle spasticity (tightness), inability to walk properly (gait); seizures, breathing problems or difficulty swallowing; bladder and bowel continence issues; learning disabilities, and the impairment of one or more senses (sight, hearing, etc.). More severe cases may also result in a child having difficulty speaking.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

Earlier this year, a Florida jury awarded a mother $38.75 million against a obstetrician and hospital after the physician failed to timely perform a c-section on the mother. As a result of the delay, the mother’s baby suffered a birth injury resulting in cerebral palsy. Like other types of birth injuries, cerebral palsy is avoidable. Generally speaking, cerebral palsy occurs when a baby does not receive enough oxygen to the brain and begins showing signs of distress that is seen in the fetal heart monitoring strips. In these circumstances, when an unborn baby is showing signs of fetal distress, the standard of care often dictates that an emergency c-section be performed. If not, irreversible injury to the baby, such as cerebral palsy or other types of brain damage can occur.

Cerebral palsy is a complex medical condition that ranges in severity from mild to severe. Typically, those afflicted with cerebral palsy have an inability to control their motor function; i.e., they lack adequate muscle control and coordination. Common symptoms that can lead to a diagnosis of cerebral palsy include: involuntary movements of limbs; muscle spasticity (tightness), inability to walk properly (gait); seizures, breathing problems or difficulty swallowing; bladder and bowel continence issues; learning disabilities, and the impairment of one or more senses (sight, hearing, etc.). More severe cases may also result in a child having difficulty speaking.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

As recently reported in New York, the family of an infant recently received a verdict of $1.4 million following a delay in diagnosing their child’s brain tumor, a delay that caused the baby to lose his eyesight. In the medical negligence suit, the family alleged that the medical doctors failed to diagnose the tumor over a period of just 4 months following the onset of the child’s symptoms. In defense, the doctors argued that the delay itself was so brief that even if the tumor had been timely and properly diagnosed, the child would have still lost his eyesight. The defense also argued that there was no way that the tumor could have grown to the extent that it did between the time of the alleged delay and subsequent discovery.

A physician’s failure to timely diagnose a brain tumor can have potentially catastrophic consequences for the patient and his/her family. Patients can experience complications ranging from paralysis and brain damage to vision / hearing loss and death. As tumors in the brain get larger, they often cause a patient to experience various signs and symptoms. These signs and symptoms include memory loss, seizures, hearing loss, vision loss, sleep problems, headaches that last much longer than normal, other cognitive deficits, fatigue and nausea.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

A New York jury recently awarded a $3.1 million verdict to the family of a 40 year old husband and father (John Benigno) of two who died of a heart attack shortly after reporting cardiac symptoms to his cardiologist who, in response, ordered no additional tests. In January 2002, Mr. Benigno presented to South Shore Heart Associates, a cardiology group, with cardiac symptoms. Mr. Benigno also had a family history of heart disease and a history of high cholesterol. Despite these findings and his symptoms, his cardiologist failed to order a repeat nuclear stress test, a common cardiology test used to rule out a artery blockage. The most commonly performed stress test is an exercise stress test known as an ECG (electrocardiogram) or treadmill test, in which the heart is evaluated as it responds to exertion. The test usually involves walking on a treadmill (or pedaling a stationery bike for an extended period of time) at increasing levels of difficulty while the heart rate and blood pressure are being monitored. In this case, the physician relied upon a negative stress test from 2 years prior. Six months after getting a “clean bill of health” from the cardiologist, Mr. Benigno suffered a heart attack and died. An autopsy revealed significant blockages and narrowing of his coronary arteries. At trial, Mr. Benigno’s attorney demonstrated that given the 2 years that passed from the previous negative stress test, the standard of care required that a new test be performed given Mr. Benigno’s new symptoms. The jury award that followed included an amount for the loss of parental care, medical expenses, support and guidance of his children.

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