Posted on February 21, 2014 in Medical Malpractice

As a medical malpractice lawyer, I have successfully handled a number of cases involving failure to timely diagnose and treat heart attacks. As more of America’s baby boomers are reaching the retirement age, more are suffering from medical conditions that require adequate treatment and care by competent physicians and medical staff. Individuals rely on these medical professionals to act properly and render the appropriate care to reduce the chances that a significant medical problem occurs.

A physician’s first and most crucial step in helping a patient suffering from any type of medical problem is a proper diagnosis. Once a proper diagnosis is made, the physician and medical staff can determine the appropriate steps to take to ensure the patient receives the necessary and adequate treatment and care for their condition. Unfortunately, when a doctor fails to diagnose and treat a patient properly, the patient can suffer serious and sometimes permanent injuries.

Recently, this was the case for a Louisiana man who has filed a medical malpractice suit against his doctor. The patient’s medical malpractice claim alleges that his physician’s failure to take the proper steps following discovery of severe heart conditions led to the patient suffering a heart attack and, as a result, becoming permanently disabled.
In the fall of 2009, the patient began experiencing problems with angina and numbness in his hands. He subsequently sought treatment from his physician, who recommended an angiogram and heart catheterization. The physician also advised the patient that if he determined stents would be necessary those procedures would occur at this time. On November 6, 2009, the patient underwent the heart catheterization procedure for two blockages in his arteries.

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 Posted on February 19, 2014 in Medical Malpractice

Over the years, I have represented a number of families who have suffered catastrophic consequences of childbirth. A recent news report discusses two cases that very similar to cases that I have successful handled.

In the recent matters, a Massachusetts hospital launched an internal review following the tragic deaths of two young mothers during childbirth. One mother died in mid-January, leaving four children, including her newborn baby girl, after suffering an amniotic fluid embolism. The other mother died just one month earlier after giving birth to her first child, a healthy baby boy, due to complications from a Caesarean section. The Massachusetts Department of Health also is investigating these deaths as part of a standard protocol. A copy of the article regarding the investigation can be found here.

Amniotic fluid embolism is a terrible complication of pregnancy and childbirth. When an amniotic fluid embolism occurs, fluid from the mother’s amniotic sac enters the mother’s circulatory system carrying fetal debris which can migrate throughout the mother’s organs, sending the mother into serious bodily shock. When this occurs, the results can be extreme for both the mother and the unborn baby. Several risk factors may help to predict amniotic fluid embolisms before they occur, including sudden and traumatic labor, advanced maternal age, placental abruption, and delivery using forceps or vacuum extraction. The failure to anticipate and protect a patient who may have one or more of these risk factors may constitute medical malpractice.

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 Posted on February 03, 2014 in Medical Malpractice

Nearly twenty years ago, a patient in Missouri underwent a hysterectomy with lymph node dissection. Shortly after this procedure, she developed lymphedema, or swelling of the legs. This condition required her to undergo physical therapy and medical monitoring for more than a decade. Several years after she was released from monitoring, the patient began experiencing pain in her left leg and foot again. She proceeded to consult several doctors about the pain, and eventually saw an orthopedic surgeon. The patient described her symptoms as numbness, tingling and redness in her foot. The orthopedic surgeon diagnosed her with lymphedema again and other related neurological issues, and recommended she follow up with her neurologist.

The patient followed instructions and underwent several neurological studies and continued to see numerous physicians regarding her condition. However, after about one year, the pain did not subside and she visited the hospital again. At this time, she was diagnosed with phlegmasia cerulean dolens, a severe form of deep vein thrombosis – commonly known as a severe blood clot in her leg. Due to this condition, and the length of time that had passed without treatment, the patient’s left leg required amputation from above the knee down several days after this diagnosis.

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 Posted on January 31, 2014 in Medical Malpractice

The parents of a child born with severe brain damage at a military hospital in Fort Hood, Texas recently settled their medical malpractice lawsuit against the United States government for $6.5 million. The medical malpractice lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin, alleged physicians ignored evidence that the mother’s contractions were over-stimulated by the excessive use of oxytocin, which caused severe distress in the baby and forced the mother to deliver by emergency Cesarean-section.

According to allegations made in the medical malpractice suit, the mother’s pregnancy had been normal until near the end of her term. At about 37 weeks, the baby’s growth slowed down, and the obstetricians opted to induce labor on September 11. While in labor, hospital staff frequently turned off the oxytocin after fetal monitoring showed decelerations in the baby’s heart rate. However, hospital doctors continued to resume the oxytocin doses, even after monitoring showed the baby was in distress. After being forced through a long labor, the baby suffered hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation to the brain, during the delivery process. As a result, the newborn suffered severe brain damage, which caused cerebral palsy and other lasting physical injuries.

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 Posted on January 22, 2014 in Medical Malpractice

When you hear the words "medical malpractice," what is the first thought that comes to mind? For most people, it probably is that a hospital or physician made a serious medical mistake. However, medical malpractice does not just cover physicians and their medical team, but dentists, too. And sometimes dentists can make tragic mistakes.

Just a few weeks ago, the family of a three-year-old girl filed a medical malpractice suit against their daughter’s dentist after a routine root canal procedure caused her to sustain permanent and severe brain damage and eventually die in hospice a month later. A copy of the article regarding the case can be found here.

Last November, the mother took her daughter to a pediatric dentist in their native town of Kailua, Hawaii. Although only three years old, the young girl needed several fillings and root canals. On December 3rd, the young girl returned for her procedure. At that time, her dentist administered a strong mix of five different sedatives and anesthesia. However, the girl’s vitals were not monitored afterward; rather she was left unattended for more than 25 minutes. This medical negligence caused the young girl to go into cardiac arrest and ultimately lapse into a non-responsive state. Additionally, because the dental staff was not prepared for it, the young girl did not receive immediate CPR and had to be rushed to a neighboring pediatric practice for emergency assistance.

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 Posted on January 17, 2014 in Business Counseling, Litigation & Transactions

Plaintiffs rarely enjoy having their case jettisoned from court and onto the arbitration table – whether right or wrong, arbitration has a decidedly pro-defense rep that makes plaintiffs’ attorneys do just about anything to avoid it. But as shown in the recent Court of Special Appeals of Maryland case of Gordon v. Lewis, No. 1505, Sept. Term 2011, arbitration isn’t always a graveyard for meritorious claims, and plaintiffs can even score punitive damages that are quite hard to overturn. Simply put, courts are loath to revise an arbitrator’s decision, even when it involves an exemplary award.

In Gordon, appellant Kathy Gordon, a financial advisor, advised the appellees, her clients, to invest a quarter of a million dollars in a Somerset County real-estate venture that, coincidentally, just happened to be owned by her son. The clients received supposedly secured promissory notes that assured repayment, but that never actually happened, even while Gordon repeatedly stated that high rates of interest were being earned. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the investors, the development company had actually gone belly-up into bankruptcy. When the clients eventually discovered this important little detail, they weren’t too pleased that their notes were – despite what they had been told – completely unsecured. In other words, it was nice knowing you, 250 grand.

The investors sought relief in court, but, over their objection, the case was kicked to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (an independent nonprofit authorized by the U.S. Congress to oversee the securities industry and resolve disputes) for arbitration. The alternate venue didn’t much help our wayward wealth (mis)manager, however, as the panel found that she and other defendants owed her clients a full refund of their investment, plus interest, plus filing fees, plus another $25,000 in punitive damages. But before the plaintiffs could let loose a celebratory "boo-yah!" Gordon ran back into court to try to get the award tossed, particularly the punitives.

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 Posted on January 11, 2014 in Complex Civil Litigation

More than 100,000 households and businesses have been left without potable water because of a large-scale chemical spill discovered Thursday on the Elk River near Charlestown, West Virginia. The spill occurred just north of one of the largest water treatment plants in America and as many as 480,000 residents may be affected.

Officials believe methylcyclohexene methanol, a chemical used in the coal washing process, leaked into the Elk River from a 48,000 gallon containment tank at a site run by Freedom Industries, Inc. The Governor of West Virginia has declared a state of emergency for nine counties and countless businesses have been ordered shuttered. Reports indicate that federal law enforcement and the U.S. Attorney for West Virginia are exploring federal criminal charges in connection with the spill.

Experts warn that ingesting or inhaling the chemical poses potentially severe health risks. Residents near the Elk River have already complained of a strong licorice-type odor that has produced eye and skin irritations, headaches, difficulty breathing and other health issues and at least five people have been hospitalized for symptoms related to the leak.

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 Posted on January 09, 2014 in Medical Malpractice

A family, whose daughter died as a result of an untreated brain aneurysm, recently has settled their wrongful death lawsuit against a medical group comprised of more than 400 doctors, prior to the case going to trial.
More details of the case can be found here.

For years, the woman suffered from frequent migraine headaches and had been receiving treatment from a particular medical group. In December 2006, the woman visited another medical center complaining of an unusually severe headache. She received a pain shot and was sent home from the medical center shortly after. Over the next several days, the woman visited doctors at both the medical group and the medical center and was treated with medication for a sinus infection and given additional pain shots. At no time during these visits did she receive any radiographic studies or undergo any further tests to determine if a more serious condition may have been involved. Several days later, the woman was rushed to the hospital where she was diagnosed with an untreated aneurysm. Tragically, six days later, she died as a result of bleeding in her brain.

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 Posted on January 08, 2014 in Victim's Rights

A tragic national trend continued Sunday in the latest incident of police killing an unarmed individual suffering from mental illness or disability. After allegedly stating "I don’t have time for this," a police officer shot unarmed North Carolina resident Keith Vidal, 18, in the chest, fatally wounding the 5’3″, 90-pound teen. Vidal, who suffered from schizophrenia, had been experiencing a psychotic episode and his family was unable to calm him down.

During the episode, Vidal’s stepfather, Mark Wilsey, called 911 for help and reported that Vidal had refused to take his medication and was attempting to fight his mother. Wilsey requested that police take Vidal somewhere he could receive help. According to the family, three officers from three different police departments then arrived on the scene.

The first two officers spoke with Vidal and apparently had some success in calming him down, when the third officer, from the Southport Police Department, arrived 14 minutes later. As stated in a police report obtained by a local news station, one of the officers informed the 911 dispatcher multiple times that that everything at the scene was okay. According to Wilsey, however, when the third officer arrived, he suggested that a Taser be used on Vidal, at which point Vidal attempted to run from the officers.

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 Posted on January 06, 2014 in Business Counseling, Litigation & Transactions

Companies and individuals who are weighing the "pros" and "cons" of entering into arbitration agreements consider a whole host of factors in making this complex, and significant decision. Arbitration is often a good choice for parties who have a strong desire to keep their disputes confidential. An arbitration is also typically resolved faster than a civil lawsuit, usually with streamlined discovery and motions practice, resulting in the added benefit of lower litigation costs. Parties who choose arbitration typically prioritize these anticipated benefits over what is typically more exhaustive collection of information and presentation of issues in a civil lawsuit.
When a party chooses arbitration, however, it is critical that counsel express that choice with absolute clarity in a written agreement. A new decision from Maryland’s top court holds that after a civil lawsuit is filed, and a responding party is unsuccessful in moving to compel the arbitration it thought was agreed to, there is no immediate appeal of the denial of the motion to compel arbitration. Instead, the party must add the denial of the motion to compel arbitration to issues raised on appeal after trial.

This decision is a turning of the tide in Maryland’s judiciary regarding arbitration clauses, and a retreat from prior pro-arbitration decisions. This retreat may stem, at least in part, from the growing chatter in legal circles about the perceived overuse of arbitration clauses, particularly in cases where one side imposes the clause on another who has lesser bargaining power.
In Am. Bank Holdings, Inc. v. Kavanagh, No. 21, Sept. Term 2013, two former employees of a mortgage company sued the company to recover sums they claimed they claimed to be owed after ending their employment. American Bank petitioned the Court to compel arbitration pursuant to clauses in their ex-employees’ employment agreements. When the motion to force arbitration was denied, the company appealed the ruling. The Court of Special Appeals refused to even consider the lower court’s refusal to order arbitration, finding that denial of a motion to force arbitration is not a final judgment that is ripe for appeal. Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 12-301.
Maryland’s highest court agreed to take a fresh look at the issue. The Court of Appeals notes that Maryland’s version of the Uniform Arbitration Act, as enacted in 1965, states that an appeal can be taken from the denial of a motion to compel arbitration "in the same manner and to the same extent as from orders or judgments in a civil action." The American Bank Court interpreted this language as simply reaffirming the status quo that denials of motions to compel arbitration were not immediately appealable because they were not final judgments. As such, American Bank was required to incur the cost, expense and delay of litigating the underlying suit to a final judgment before it would even have the opportunity to argue for enforcement of its arbitration in the appellate Court – at which time, the efficiencies and cost saving benefits of arbitration would have been lost.
The practical effect of this decision is that a party who loses a motion to enforce arbitration typically loses the primary benefits, if not the legal right, to arbitrate. Parties who choose arbitration thus must be absolutely certain that their arbitration provisions are as ironclad as possible. For assistance with these issues, contact Bill Sinclair, head of STSW’s commercial litigation group, at 410-385-9116 or bsinclair@silvermanthompson.com.

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