Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

In 2014, an Alabama jury awarded the widow of a man who died from a heart attack nearly $4,000,000 in damages after emergency room physicians negligently failed to diagnose him as being in the midst of a heart attack, and instead, sent him home with a diagnosis of a common stomach bug.The case, filed against the emergency room physician and hospital, centered on the fact that the decedent developed classic signs and symptoms of heart trouble, including chest pain, sweating and general discomfort on the morning of January 11th.Over the course of the next day, he continued to feel ill.The following day he presented to the hospital with the same signs and symptoms.While in the hospital’s emergency room, the emergency medicine doctor who evaluated him failed to question and/or rule out the possibility that the decedent was experiencing a heart attack, and in fact, dismissed him after just 4-5 hours in the ER.Perhaps more significantly, the emergency room physician failed to order the requisite blood tests that are commonly done to rule out a heart attack and to check to see if there has been any cardiac damage or ischemia.The decedent subsequently returned to his home where he died later that same day.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

Some of the most unsettling cases that we as medical malpractice attorneys handle are cases in which health care providers have failed to timely diagnose a patient with a treatable form of cancer until it is too late. Whether it is due to a radiologist misreading a CT scan or and MRI and failing to see a cancerous tumor or a doctor failing to follow up upon recommendations for further testing to rule out the presence of cancer, each instance of negligence is heartbreaking because the negligence has foreclosed the likelihood that the patient will ultimately survive the cancer.

It is common knowledge that in most instances, the earlier the cancer is diagnosed, the greater the chance of survival is. A recent Chicago case is illustrative of this point. In that matter, a 46 year old women presented to her primary care doctor complaining of a painful lump in her left breast. A CT scan was ordered and performed and revealed the presence of a 1.9 cm mass in the patient’s left lung. The radiologist who interpreted the report also indicated that the lump could be malignant. The surgeon subsequently recommended to the patient that she undergo a breast biopsy to rule out breast cancer, and if that study was negative, then a lung biopsy to rule out lung cancer. The breast biopsy turned out to be negative, but the physician never performed the lung biopsy, and instead, dismissed the woman from his care. Over the course of the next year, the woman expressed frequent complaints of a cough and chest pain to her PCP. No follow up studies were done for an entire year. Finally, her PCP ordered a lung biopsy. By that point, the woman had developed Stage IV (end stage) lung cancer. Despite undergoing chemotherapy and radiation, she was given a 5% chance of surviving just 5 years.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

The over-prescription of powerful painkillers is quickly becoming one of the fastest-growing areas of physician liability as unscrupulous physicians elevate patient retention, and therefore, profits, over the well-being of patients with chronic pain or long-term injuries. While there is significant concern over the thousands of patients who become addicted to these medications each year, the potential liability for these physicians can often extend well beyond addiction, as many patients also suffer permanent injuries or even death as the result of over-prescription. Sadly, it is not altogether for some physicians to prescribe patients with shockingly high quantities of pain medications in combination with one, two, three or even four other types of other pain medications, often at the maximum dosage. For example, in some instances, these doctors might prescribe a patient with Oxycontin along with prescriptions for Oxycodone, Flexeril (a muscle relaxer), and Neurontin. By prescribing hundreds of pills at a time and directing patients to take the maximum dosage for these pills, these doctors time the consumption of pills precisely to the date of the patient’s next visit and then repeat the process the next month. As a result, these physicians can charge tens of thousands of dollars to their patients and the patients often become addicted in a matter of months.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

Like most other businesses, the practice of medicine is moving toward the digital and virtual worlds. Health care providers now have the ability to see and treat patients from miles away and do such things as read radiology studies (x-rays, CT scans, MRIs, CTAs) remotely, while sitting at home hundreds of miles away. Surgeons can control surgical robots in hospitals across the country and thus perform surgery on patients that they cannot physically touch. Many people have questioned whether a traditional physician-patient relationship exists during such encounters and whether a patient’s rights are impacted by these changes. For example, many have asked whether physicians still have the same type of duty to their patients as they do when treating the patient in person. Others have asked which state’s laws would govern an allegation of medical malpractice: the laws of the state where the patient was at the time the care was rendered or the laws of the state where the physician was located at the time he provided the care/consultation? In many instances, this distinction can prove to be critical for the patient.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

Our medical malpractice team has read of successful medical malpractice cases brought by patients who recorded (sometimes surreptitously) their own procedures and/or placed recording devices in loved ones’ hospital or nursing home rooms, and subsequently captured evidence of neglect. Many states such as Illinois and Indiana, as a result, are now introducing legislation that would give patients the right to elect to have their surgeries recorded. The arguments in favor and/or against doing so are many. On the one hand, patient advocates believe such recordings will keep doctors accountable and help them learn from mistakes. These individuals argue that because much of what is in dispute in a lawsuit is what really happened during the surgery, that such recordings would clear up this confusion. On the other hand, doctors and health care providers are concerns about invasions of privacy and believe that such measures will only increase the number of lawsuits and financial burden on the health care system. Of course, a natural response to this argument is that if a doctor or health care provider truly acted within the standard of care, then a recording should demonstrate that and only serve as a benefit to their defense. In addition to state laws, many hospitals have adopted their own policies and procedures for recordings, choosing to be proactive and not what for their state’s legislature to act.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

One of the most challenging and heart-breaking areas of medical malpractice law is that involving alleged birth injuries causing a catastrophic outcome such as cerebral palsy, a permanent brain injury or other cognitive and motor deficiencies. It is not just the injuries to the child that are devastating, but also the impact that these physical injuries have on the parent(s), siblings and other loved ones.

One of the most common questions we receive from prospective clients with an injured newborn is “what kind of birth injuries give rise to medical malpractice cases?” This is a difficult question to answer and explain because parents are understandably upset over the deficits that their child is experiencing. In our office, we attempt to explain to our clients the difference between birth defects and true birth injuries. Birth defects are deficits caused by things such as an inherited genetic/chromosomal abnormality or perhaps a toxin that the mother was exposed to sometime during the pregnancy. Examples include Down syndrome, Trisomy 13 abnormalities, spina bifida, cleft palates and congenital heart abnormalities. Birth injuries, however, are those are caused by such circumstances as a doctor’s excessive use of force in attempting to deliver a child, the failure to properly identify signs of fetal distress on a fetal heart monitor, the failure to timely deliver a baby with identified signs of fetal distress or the failure to perform required testing in a timely fashion during the pregnancy. In many of these instances, the negligence results in what is known as “hypoxia” (a lack of oxygen to the brain) and it is this lack of oxygen that causes the permanent physical or cognitive injury to the baby.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

Among the most common surgeries performed in the United States each year is the laporoscopic cholecystectomy (removal of the gallbladder). Indications for a cholecystectomy include inflammation of the gall bladder (cholecystitis), biliary colic, pancreatitis. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy has replaced the “open” cholecystectomy as the first-choice treatment for gallstones and inflammation of the gall bladder. In a laparoscopic procedure, the surgeon usually makes 3-4 small incisions in the abdomen to allow the insertion of operating ports through which surgical instruments and a video camera can be placed. The surgeon watches the monitor and performs the operation by manipulating the surgical instruments through the ports.

Typically, a surgeon begins the procedure by inflating the abdomen with carbon dioxide to create a working space. The gallbladder is identified, grasped and retracted. The gallbladder neck is then retracted to open up what is known as the Triangle of Calot or Triangle of Safety. The Triangle of Calot is the area bordered by the cystic duct, cystic artery and common hepatic duct. The cystic duct and cystic artery are identified and clips are placed on the ends of the cystic duct and cystic artery where they connect with the gallbladder and where those structures connect to the common bile duct. The surgeon then cuts the cystic duct and cystic artery between those clips, dissects/shells out the gallbladder from the liver’s edge and removes the gallbladder. Typically, the procedure takes an hour.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

A recent University of Michigan Medical study recently examined the disparity between the number of doctors who are disciplined or pay a malpractice claim from state to state within the United States. In many instances, the study concluded the percentage of physicians who are disciplined or pay to settle a malpractice claim is 4x higher in some states than in others. Concluding that there was unlikely to be a “4-fold difference in the behavior of doctors from state to state,” the study found that the “the reason for this difference lies in the wide variation between states’ regulations, procedures and resources for punishing physician wrongdoing.”

The study, published in the BMJ Quality and Safety Journal, relied on information/data from the National Practitioner Data Bank, which covers all 50 sates and the District of Columbia for the years 2000-2014. The data that was analyzed included information concerning actions taken by state medical boards against doctors for wide-range of wrongdoing, including settlements, fines, suspensions of medical licenses or periodic monitoring.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

Millions of Americans visit emergency rooms across this country every year. Whether it be to an illness, the sudden onset of a new condition or disease, or due to trauma, the health care providers who are charged with staffing these emergency rooms are called upon to identify and treat often urgent medical issues. We as patients put our trust in these individuals, believing that their expertise will result in us getting the very best treatment. Emergency rooms in the United States, however, are often not the best place for us to get care. Substandard care in the emergency room is often the byproduct of overcrowded ERs, rushed physicians, tired physicians or simply an overwhelmed system. All of the factors contribute to missed or erroneous diagnoses.

There are a number of common errors that our attorneys see in emergency room cases. For starters, the symptom of chest pain is often overlooked or minimized. Chest pain is a non-specific symptom, but one that is consistent with several imminently life-threatening conditions such as a heart attack, pulmonary embolism or aortic dissection. Doctors confronted with chest pain must subject a patient to a battery of tests to determine the origin of the chest pain and attempt to rule out the potentially life threatening conditions first. These tests can include EKGs, CT scans, X-Rays, MRIs, MRAs, ultrasounds, bloodwork and other laboratory studies. In fact, many hospitals have what is known as a chest pain algorithm that spells out what steps and studies health care providers must take when confronted with chest pain to rule out potentially serious conditions. Failure to follow these algorithms can subject these doctors to liability.

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 Posted on January 01, 2017 in Medical Malpractice

Well over half of all of the potential new case calls that our office receives start out with the caller stating that they are not sure that they have a case, but they want to just talk to a lawyer to see if the care that they received constitutes medical malpractice. We understand. What constitutes medical malpractice is often times difficult for people to understand because they are focusing on primarily on the fact that they believe a bad outcome must necessarily be equated with malpractice. Unfortunately, that is not the case. In Maryland, medical malpractice is generally defined as a negligent act or omission by a health care provider that caused an injury to the patient. This negligence can be from something as simple as a medication error or failing to monitor a patient with a known history of falls, to an improper or delayed delayed diagnosis and/or negligent treatment following a surgery or other procedure. A recent study at Harvard found that more than 200,000 deaths each year are caused by medical mishaps, but only 25,000 to 120,000 of those are due to actionable medical malpractice/negligence.

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