Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

An Arizona man and his wife were recently awarded $16.5 million against a neurosurgeon who negligently failed to timely treat the man for a fractured spine following an ATV accident. The man, Trent Hughes, suffered a fractured spine after falling from the ATV, an injury that necessitated that he be airlifted to Desert Regional Medical Center. Despite this injury, the neurosurgeon on call, Christopher Pham, M.D., failed to see Mr. Hughes that day, and after seeing and recognizing the extent of his injuries, failed to operate on Mr. Hughes for 2 days. As a result of this negligence, Mr. Hughes became paralyzed from the waist down. Although it was established during trial that Dr. Pham was present at the hospital when Mr. Hughes arrived via airlift, he failed to adequately explain his whereabouts or why there was a delay in evaluation/surgery. As part of the jury’s award, the Hughes were awarded monetary sums for past and future lost wages, past and future medical expenses and pain and suffering.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

Article posted on: 08/03/2009

On July 27, 2009, the landscape of Maryland’s informed consent doctrine was changed in favor of Plaintiffs when Maryland highest court, the Court of Appeals decided the case of McQuitty v. Spangler. In McQuitty, a mother who had been hospitalized for a partial-placental abruption (premature separation of the placenta from the wall of the uterus that carries with it the risk of injury to the unborn child) alleged that her doctor failed to inform her of the risk and available alternatives related to this change in her pregnancy. As a result, the mother was forced to choose between two options: allow the pregnancy to go forward with the known risks or deliver the baby early. At trial, the mother argued that the doctor breached Maryland’s informed consent doctrine by failing to disclose to her material facts about the degree of placental separation, facts upon which a reasonable person in her position could have, or would have, made a different decision. At the first trial, the jury was unable to reach a verdict on the question of informed consent. Two years later, in a second trial, the jury awarded the mother/family over $13 million. The defendant doctor appealed. Maryland’s intermediate appellate court, the Court of Special Appeals, held that Maryland’s doctrine of informed consent applied only to affirmative violations of the patient’s physical integrity, i.e., there has to have been treatment that was engaged in by the doctor that would not have been in order to bring an informed consent claim. In reaching this decision, the Court of Special Appeals relied upon the long-standing case of Reed v. Campagnolo, 3323 Md. 226, 630 A.2d 1145 (1993), in which the court concluded that lack of informed consent is similar to criminal battery, requiring an “affirmative violation of the patient’s physical integrity.” This decision was appealed to the Court of Appeals by the McQuitty family. In a landmark decision, the Court of Appeals concluded that the Reed case was erroneous and found that an informed consent lawsuit in Maryland can be properly maintained in circumstances in which a doctor withholds material information about a proposed course of treatment that causes the patient to make a decision about that treatment that he or she would not have made if the withheld information had been disclosed in the first instance.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

As was reported recently in the New York times, a paralyzed father of three recently was awarded 19.2 million dollars in a negligence suit against Montefiore Medical Center in New York for its doctors’ failure to timely treat a spinal abscess that led to permanent paralysis. Wilfredo Figueroa, 58, presented to the Montefiore Medical Center on September 22, 2004 with a chief complaint of severe back pain. Despite this complaint, plaintiff alleged that health care providers failed to order and take a diagnostic MRI or CT scan until nearly 2 weeks after his admission, and well after irreversible damage had already been done. As a result of this negligence, plaintiff alleged that Mr. Figueroa suffered paralysis from the chest down and will incur a lifetime of medical expenses, pain, suffering and emotional distress.

Spinal cord abscesses are a rare condition caused when inured tissue becomes infected. White blood cells rush to the area of infection to help fight off the infection and begin to fill up the damaged tissue, causing pus to build up. Risk factors for the development of a spinal cord abscess include long term use of blood thinners, a weak immune system such as can be found in older or sick individuals, Crohn’s disease or a ruptured gallbladder. Some of the more common symptoms associated with spinal cord abscesses include a sudden onset of pain, sharp radiating pain into the extremities, sudden and progressive weakness, numbness / tingling of the skin or a fever. Physicians who suspect spinal abscess should order numerous tests to confirm the same, including but not limited to a complete blood count (CBC), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), a CT scan of the spinal cord, an MRI of the spinal cord or a lumbar puncture to remove a sample of the cerebrospinal fluid and test for infection.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

Article posted on: 01/21/2009

An Illinois mother recently settled a medical malpractice case against a hospital, their family practitioner and a nurse for $15,350,000 after the family practitioner attempted 18 times, unsuccessfully, to deliver her child using a vacuum extractor. During the course of these unsuccessful attempts, the baby became distressed and ultimately an emergency cesarean section was required to deliver the boy. Following delivery, the boy was diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy and mental retardation. He requires the use of a wheel chair as well. In the lawsuit, the mother alleged that the family doctor negligently caused brain damage to the child through his repeated use of the extractor; that a nurse who was present failed to properly serve her role as a patient advocate by insisting that the physician stop using the vacuum extractor; and that the hospital failed to exercise reasonable care in evaluating the doctor’s competency to perform safe vacuum deliveries at the hospital.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

Article posted on: 11/18/2008

An Indiana jury recently awarded $1 million dollars to the husband of a woman who died after physicians failed to timely determine to the source of her bleeding. The 55 year old woman was hospitalized in the ICU for treatment of breathing difficulties. Upon extubation, a nurse noticed bleeding coming from her mouth. The woman’s blood pressure began dropping as a result of the ongoing bleeding, ultimately causing hypovolemic shock. Physicians then attempted to urgently place a catheter in her jugular vein, but unfortunately, in the process, punctured her lung, causing it to collapse. The patient subsequently was then required to be placed back on a ventilator where she developed pneumonia and died. Plaintiff alleged that the source of the bleeding was a partial denture that cut into his wife’s throat and that the physicians could have discovered this by merely checking the patient’s mouth. The partial denture was also apparent on an x-ray taken before the bleeding began, something the physician failed to appreciate.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

Article posted on: 10/10/2008

The family of a New York woman recently settled a case arising out of a radiologist’s failure to properly read and interpret a mammogram. The decedent, a 46 year old woman with a husband and two children, underwent a routine mammogram which was read as normal. A few months later, the woman detected a lump in her breast and was referred for a second mammogram. The second mammogram was interpreted as normal by a radiologist. Several months after that, however, the breast became inflamed and doctors performed a biopsy. The biopsy revealed Stage III breast cancer that had metastasized/spread to three quarters of her lymph nodes. A mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation were all unsuccessful and the woman died of her cancer 20 months after the diagnosis. The case ultimately settled for approximately 3 million dollars.

As with most illnesses, early diagnosis of cancer is the best ammunition that a patient has toward defeating the disease. If, however, the cancer was missed by physicians for an appreciable amount of time or simply not timely diagnosed, a patient can face dire consequences. Sadly, these delays in diagnosis can result in more invasive treatment, extended physical and emotional heartache and even death. Most cancers are either graded or staged in terms of their severity. The lower the grade or stage (i.e., the earlier the diagnosis), the better a patient’s chances are of survival. Conversely, the higher the grade or stage, the worse a patient’s chances are of survival. Importantly, a delay in diagnosis can increase the likelihood that the tumor will metastasize (spread) to the lungs, thereby significantly decreasing a person’s chances of survival. In Maryland, failure to diagnose cases can only be pursued if the negligence caused the patient’s cancer to progress from a stage in which the patient had a probability of surviving the cancer if he or she received proper treatment to a circumstance in which they now face a probability of death due to the growth / spread of the cancer inside the body.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

Article posted on: 09/24/2008

As was first reported in the Chicago Tribune, a woman from the Chicago recently agreed to a $5.5 million dollar settlement with the doctors and hospital who delivered her son. According to the Tribune, the baby boy was delivered with severe brain damage after he was deprived of oxygen for an extended period of time during the delivery. In the lawsuit, the mother alleged that she was admited to the hospital on March 1, 2002. After she was given a drug to induce her contractions, the baby’s heart rate started to drop. A family medicine physician attempted to deliver the baby but failed. Subsequently, another doctor delivered the child by C-section. Unfortunately, by that time, the baby had been deprived of oxygen for such a period of time that he sustained irreversible brain damage that will require lifetime of support. He also suffers from cerebral palsy as a result of the negligence.

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

Article posted on: 09/18/2008

An Arizona jury recently awared the family of an 81 year old $6 million dollars following her death from morphine toxicity. The victim, a dialysis patient, was originally treated for sciatica at a hospital and was receiving 30 milligrams of morphine a day. When she was transferred to a nursing home, her dosage was doubled to 60 milligrams a day. Unfortunately, at the time of transfer a nurse negligently wrote an order for the victim to receive 90 milligrams a day. A day after her first dosage of 90 milligrams, she began suffering from confusion, twitching and became delirious. She died the following day. The victim’s family sued the nursing home and hospital on the grounds that they should have realized that 90 milligrams was an excessive amount of morphine for a dialysis patient, that the hospital was inadequately staffed and that the nursing home’s workers should have realized the signs and symptoms of morphine toxicity and treated her the day before she died.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

Article posted on: 09/18/2008

A Louisiana jury recently awarded the daughter of an 84-year-old man $1 million dollars after the man developed a bed sore while confined to his hospital bed and later died. The victim was apparently admitted to a nursing home due to his declining health. At the time of admission, he was confined to his bed, required a feeding tube and a Stage II pressure sore on his left hip. Within a month of his admission, the man’s bed sore had become infected due to exposure to feces, he had become malnourished and was suffering from dehydration. In addition, he had developed a new Stage II pressure sore on his right hip and on his sacrum. He was subsequently transferred to a hospital where he died six days later. The lawsuit brought by his surviving daughter alleged that the nursing home failed to adequately treat and prevent bed sores and failed to properly clean and bathe her father.

At STSW, we have recently and routinely secured large verdicts for patients who have died or suffered severe injuries as a result of the bed sores or infections arising out of untreated bed sores. Given the large number of nursing homes in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. area, these cases are becoming all too frequent. It is important to note that there are many advancements that have been made in the prevention and treatment of bed sores in recent years. As a result, the negligent failure to properly treat and prevent bed sores is becoming entirely unacceptable.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

Article posted on: 09/17/2008

As was reported in the Baltimore Sun last month, the family of a Baltimore County woman who drowned in a swimming pool in 2005 filed a $100 million lawsuit against the apartment complex and pool management company, alleging that unqualified lifeguards were on duty. The 23 year old victim, who was not a resident at the complex, was visiting a friend. According to the family, the victim asked and received permission to use the pool from a lifeguard on duty while she was visiting a friend at the complex. At some point, the victim, who could not swim was pushed or fell into the deep end of the pool where she drowned, unnoticed. As is set forth in the lawsuit, the victim’s family alleges that the lifeguard was unqualified to monitor the pool and, further compounding the problem, was unable to view all areas of the pool from his chair. The family further alleges that the lifeguard was first notified about the victim being underwater by children swimming in the pool but struggled to find her because the water was too cloudy. The lawsuit further alleges that the defendants were negligent by failing to keep the pool clean and safe and for failing to provide two or more lifeguards during the busy time periods.

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