Posted on November 04, 2016 in Medical Malpractice

A Pennsylvania jury this month awarded $12.7 million to a woman who suffered brain damage after her physicians prematurely removed her breathing tube at the conclusion of a routine tonsillectomy.  At the time of the procedure, the woman was a 33 year-old special education teacher.  The crux of the allegation was that the surgeon, anesthesiologist and nurse anesthetist did not properly evaluate whether the anesthesia had worn off enough for her breathing tube to safely be removed.  After the breathing tube was removed, it was alleged that the health care providers did not monitor the woman’s oxygen levels for sixteen minutes and when they finally did, it showed an oxygen lever of 81 percent, which her lawyers described as "dangerously low."  She was re-intubated but was unresponsive and exhibiting seizure-like involuntary limb movements.

The defendants’ position was that the woman did not suffer an anoxic brain injury but instead had an abnormal reaction to the anesthesia, which could not have been foreseen.  They also argued that the woman’s symptoms were the result of a psychological conversion disorder, in support of which they pointed to her history of depression.

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 Posted on October 21, 2016 in Medical Malpractice

After a five week trial, a Connecticut woman has been awarded $25 million to a woman whose leg was caused to be amputated due to negligent treatment of a blood clot.  In November of 2009, the young and athletic woman sought treatment at a local hospital for an asthma attack.  While at the hospital, the physicians voiced concern regarding the woman’s additional complaints of numbness and pain in her left leg.  Diagnostic testing revealed a blood clot however because the hospital that the woman had presented to was a small, community hospital, there was no vascular surgeon on duty.

When the on-call vascular surgeon was consulted by phone, he ordered another test and then ultimately ordered that she be sent home with instructions to follow up with him in person in three days.  After she was released, her condition worsened and she ultimately ended up requiring the amputation of a portion of her leg.

In addition to suing the vascular surgeon who was consulted, the woman also named the hospital emergency room doctors as defendants.  Those doctors, who are considered generalists, pointed the finger at the vascular surgeon claiming he was the one with the expertise regarding how to treat this condition.  The jury found that the vascular surgeon was sixty percent responsible and that the emergency room physicians and hospital were forty percent responsible.

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 Posted on October 14, 2016 in Medical Malpractice

Earlier this month, a Baltimore County, Maryland jury awarded $4 million as the result of the alleged wrongful death of a 28 year-old man whose heart disease went undiagnosed.  The man was referred by his primary care physician to a cardiologist due to constant chest pain that had been ongoing for more than a year.  The cardiologist in March of 2012 diagnosed him with "atypical chest pain" and sent him on his way without conducting any further studies, according to the lawsuit.

The family alleged that the standard of acceptable medical care required that when the man presented with chest pain, a standard stress test be administered to evaluate for cardiovascular disease.  He returned in April for an echocardiogram and at that time still was experiencing ongoing chest pain.  The man died of a heart attack in July.  A subsequent autopsy concluded that the cause of death was cardiovascular disease.

The jury’s award included $3.75 million for non-economic damages for pain, suffering, mental anguish and emotional distress suffered as the result of the loss of a loved one.  That amount will be reduced to $887,500 under Maryland’s cap on such damages.  The award also included $162,00 for lost household services to the man’s seven year-old child and $9,000 for the cost of his funeral.  If you or a loved one were the victim of a medical mistake, call our experienced medical malpractice lawyers for a free consultation at 410-385-2225.

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 Posted on September 23, 2016 in Medical Malpractice

This week, a Baltimore City, Maryland jury in a medical malpractice lawsuit awarded $10 million to the estate and surviving family members of a pastor who died after treatment for liver and kidney problems at a Baltimore City hospital.  The 63-year-old man presented to the hospital for dialysis and treatment of rhabdomysolysis, a condition that is caused by the death of muscle fibers and release of their contents into the bloodstream which often causes kidney failure.  During his admission to the hospital, the man experienced heart problems as the result of elevated potassium levels causing his physician to administer the medication "Kayexalate."

The lawsuit alleged that the Kayexalate resulted in irreversible colon damage and that the physician who prescribed it was unaware of the risks of that medication.  The defense took the position it was the man’s comorbidities – including his underlying kidney and liver problems – that caused his death, not the administration of the medication.

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 Posted on September 16, 2016 in Criminal Defense

In July I finally resolved a murder case that I have been working on for the better part of 3 years. I received a not guilty on the case in spite of the fact that my client gave a recorded "confession" to the crime.  I am convinced that in spite of his confession, he was indeed an innocent man – and 12 jurors agreed in just over 4 hours of deliberation that he was.  Here are the facts – as I often do I will leave out specific names and locations to protect the privacy of those involved:

In the early morning hours of one day in March of 2013 the police were called to the scene of a single car accident in Baltimore City. Once on the scene, they found an unresponsive adult male slumped over the steering wheel.  They removed him from the vehicle and quickly determined that he had suffered from a single gunshot to the back.  The paramedics worked on him at the scene but  were unable to revive him and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The police inventoried the contents of the vehicle and found $1200 in cash (mostly in $20 bills) a gold watch, a half consumed bottle of soda and a few other items. The vehicle in question was a 10 year old Mercedes Benz.  It was determined in the initial stages of the investigation that the victim was unemployed and had been for some time.  It was also determined that he had been involved in the distribution of narcotics.  In fact this information was confirmed by his girlfriend.  Finally, a bulletin was very recently circulated to the officers and detectives working this part of the city, that there was a significant uptick in gang related activity (in particular Crip activity) in the area.  I will let the reader draw your own conclusions about the likely circumstances of this shooting but it look fairly obvious to me that it was drug related.

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 Posted on September 16, 2016 in Medical Malpractice

In late May of 2012, a 75 year-old woman presented to the hospital with a deep vein thrombosis blood clot in her leg.  She was treated and discharged days later with instructions to take blood thinners.  Less than a week after she was discharged, she awoke in the middle of the night with excruciating pain in the hip and groin area.  She was taken via ambulance to the hospital where she came under the care of two separate physicians over a period of ten hours during which time no diagnostic tests were ordered or performed.  She subsequently was discharged to a nursing home with a diagnosis of musculoskeletal pain which the physicians had attributed to the woman’s deep vein thrombosis blood clot a week earlier.

A day later, the nursing home staff found the woman to be in hemorrhagic shock.  She was rushed back to the emergency room but ultimately died six weeks later.  The lawsuit alleged that the Defendant physicians failed to timely diagnose and treat what turned out to be a retroperitoneal hematoma, which is an accumulation of blood in the portion of the abdomen called the retroperitoneal space.

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 Posted on September 09, 2016 in Medical Malpractice

A Texas jury has awarded $10 million to the surviving family members of an infant who suffered catastrophic injury during birth ultimately bringing her short life to an end.  During the two week trial, evidence was presented that during the delivery, the Defendant-Obstetrician repeatedly applied forceps which are instruments shaped like a pair of salad spoons to the baby’s head to try help guide the baby out of the birth canal.  It was only after a fourth attempt with forceps failed to free the infant that the obstetrician decided to convert to a cesarean delivery.

Unfortunately, it was too late.  After the infant was born, it was determined that she had suffered intracranial ischemic injuries meaning that there were period of time when the blood flow to the brain leading to poor oxygen supply.  Subsequent radiology studies also revealed a skull fracture.  Less than a week after she was born, the infant was taken off life support and passed away shortly thereafter.  The jury’s award subsequently was reduced to $750,000 pursuant to the cap on non-economic damages for pain, suffering, mental anguish and emotional distress.

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 Posted on September 02, 2016 in Medical Malpractice

This week, a jury hearing a medical malpractice case in Dallas awarded $19.7 million to the family of a woman who suffered catastrophic and ultimately fatal brain damage as the result of her healthcare providers’ negligence.  In 2013 the woman presented to a local hospital with a chief complaint of leg numbness.  Shortly thereafter she was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), a disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the nervous system.  It can diminish the ability of muscles to function which ultimately can lead to serious breathing problems.  Still, GBS usually resolves and patients can experience a full recovery once their symptoms have passed.

The patient in this case began to experience breathing problems and so she was provided a breathing tube through her mouth.  Eventually, this was changed to a tracheostomy tube through a hole in the patient’s neck.  Although she was unable to speak due to the tracheostomy, she was awake, alert and functioning.  Unfortunately, her physicians failed to realize that the way in which the trachea was inserted had caused a leak, resulting in the woman receiving less than half of the air that was intended.  The next morning, the tube became dislodged and the woman’s oxygen supply was cut off completely for more than a half hour.

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 Posted on August 19, 2016 in Medical Malpractice

At the conclusion of a recent medical malpractice trial, the jury awarded $8.5 million to an 8 year-old boy who suffered a catastrophic neurological injury while a patient at a pediatric nursing home. The boy was a twin and, while in utero, the two brothers suffered from “twin-twin transfusion syndrome” in which blood passes unevenly between the fetuses while in the placenta. The brother did not survive but the patient in this case pulled through, albeit with negligible neurological deficits.

Because he was born pre-term, he was placed on a ventilator. It was expected that he would be off the ventilator by age 5 and that he would subsequently be able to walk and use his fine motor skills. However, when a nurse at his pediatric care facility entered his room, he was found to be gray in color and unresponsive. It was determined that his tracheotomy tube had come out of its place and that his pulse oximeter – which would have alerted staff to the issue – had come off of his foot and the machine had been turned off. As the result of the incident, the boy suffered a catastrophic anoxic brain injury and will require institutional care for all of his daily needs for the remainder of his life. The principal theory of the defense throughout the litigation was that the dislodging of the tracheotomy tube did not cause or change the boy’s long-term care needs, which in their opinion were caused solely by the injuries he sustained in utero from the twin-twin transfusion syndrome. Just prior to trial, however, the defense conceded liability, resulting in a trial on the issue of damages (compensation) only.

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 Posted on August 12, 2016 in Medical Malpractice

A Chicago jury has awarded $3.3 million to the family of a man who died less than two weeks after a pharmacy error resulted in him being administered ten times the appropriate dose of the medication that he was supposed to receive. The patient, who was 55 years old at the time, presented for treatment of an infection that he was suffering from as the result of having received a bone marrow transplant to treat his cancer. As part of the treatment for the infection, doctors ordered him to receive 2,400 milligrams of the antiviral medical known as Foscarnet, a drug usually used with patients who have compromised immune systems.

Instead of receiving the prescribed 2,400 milligrams, the patient accidentally was administered 24,000 milligrams in a single hour. Immediately upon administration of the toxic levels of this drug, the patient began to feel numb, got cold and tried to vomit. In the days thereafter, his kidneys began to fail. He was placed on kidney dialysis for 12 days but eventually passed away. The defendants eventually admitted to making the error and defended the case on the theory that due to his comorbidities, the error was not what actually caused his death.

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