Medical Malpractice - Law Med Blog

Paramedic Errors: Chicago Will Pay $1.75M In Death Of 13 y/o

February 17, 2012 lawmed No comments

A Chicago City Council committee has signed off on a $1.75 million settlement to compensate the family of 13-year-old Arielle Starks who died of an asthmatic attack after a series of alleged mistakes by Chicago Fire Department paramedics in 2002.

Starks died at Advocate Trinity Hospital after an ambulance carrying her to the hospital collided with a car. Another ambulance picked her up at the accident scene and took her to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Attorney’s for the girl’s family alleged 3 crucial mistakes that day. The first mistake: the child was “intubated through the esophagus that leads to the stomach instead of through the trachea that leads to her lungs,” attorney Brian Murphy said. The second mistake involved ignoring a “standing medical order” issued by the Fire Department. According to Murphy, it states that if a patient’s condition worsens, paramedics are to make a direct observation … (Continued…)

Lawsuit: Sisters Have Hospital Kill Multi Millionaire Father For Inheritence

February 10, 2012 lawmed No comments

Victorino Noval, 78, entered a Kaiser hospital in Southern California on April 28, 2010, with a diagnosis of aspiration pneumonia. He was intubated, placed on a mechanical ventilator, and sedated. His medical history included early stages of Parkinson’s, and COPD. Noval was totally independent prior to his hospitalization. He lived in his own home, drove his own car, performed his own daily living activities, managed his own finances and investments, and had an annual income of $3 Million. He was worth an estimated $60 Million.

On May 7th, 2010, despite exhibiting improvement in his pneumonia and having a positive prognosis for recovery, Kaiser staff removed Noval from his ventilator, extubated him, and then administered large doses of morphine with the sole intention being to bring about his death. They succeeded. And this was all done without consulting his son, Hector Nova, despite the fact that Kaiser had an executed durable … (Continued…)

Ark Court Rejects Tort Reform Provision On Expert Witnesses

February 06, 2012 lawmed No comments

In 2003 the Arkansas legislature enacted a tort reform law that included a provision that expert witnesses in medical malpractice liability lawsuits must practice in the same specialty as defendant doctors. The requirement that testifying experts must be in the same specialty as a defendant physician when they testify on his/her behalf or against, when that testimony goes to the standard of care in that specialty has been a long standing one in many states. The requirement is sensible to the point of being common sense, and a very important one. But, due to constitutional language specific to Arkansas, the legislature does not have the power pass such a law. That power lies within the courts of Arkansas alone as we shall discuss.

On January 19 the Arkansas supreme court ruled the requirement “violates the separation-of-powers doctrine, Amendment 80, and the inherent authority of the courts to protect the integrity … (Continued…)

Judge Rules Dr. Desai Competent For Trial In Nevada Hepatitis C Case

February 04, 2012 lawmed No comments

Citing a report from two psychiatrists and a psychologist at a state mental facility in Sparks who found that Dipak Desai is “competent and obviously exaggerating his symptoms” from strokes in September 2007 and July 2008 to avoid trial, Clark County District Court Judge Kathleen declared him competent to stand trial. Desai received six months of treatment at the facility last year after being court ordered there after state psychiatry experts declared him incompetent.

“The only impediment to competency asserted by the defendant is self-reported memory loss, secondary to two strokes, regarding facts relevant to his criminal charges,” the judge said. “Memory loss itself, even if true, is not a bar to prosecution of an otherwise competent defendant.” Desai’s lawyer, Richard Wright, contends that Desai is incapacitated by his strokes and other physical and mental ailments, to the point he is legally incompetent for trial.

The ruling cleared the way … (Continued…)

Pa Supreme Court: Physicians Can Be Sued For Emotional Distress

January 30, 2012 lawmed No comments

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has ruled a physician can be sued for causing a patient emotional distress, even when no medical negligence, physical contact or malpractice exists. The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by a woman who claims her physician did not prepare her for the shock of the severe deformities her infant was born with.

In March of 2003 Jeanelle Toney went to radiologist Maheep Goyal, MD, for a pelvic ultrasound. Dr. Goyal informed her that the results were normal and did not indicate any fetal abnormalities in her unborn child, according to her lawsuit. Rather, Toney was advised that her unborn child was normal and healthy. She gave birth in July delivering a boy who was profoundly deformed. He lacked arms below the elbows and legs below the knee joints, and an incompletely developed tongue and under-sized lower jaw, among other anomalies. Toney was awake and … (Continued…)

OH Appelate Court: Disclosure Of Errors To Family Not Peer Review

January 26, 2012 lawmed No comments

Similar to laws on the books in every state, Ohio law protects a hospital that reveals an admission of error in peer review from having that information being discovered and used in malpractice cases. In the case of medical malpractice case Smith v Cleveland Clinic, et al., the defendants attempted to prevent statements made by the hospital’s chief medical officer during a conference with the family being admitted in court claiming they were privileged as part of peer review.

Howard L. Smith, 73, underwent an uneventful knee surgery at Community Health Partners Regional Medical Center, now known as Mercy Regional Medical Center, in Lorain, Ohio, on February 17, 2010. Postoperative routine blood work orders were entered and Smith’s blood was taken on the 18th. One of the ordered tests was for serum potassium. On February 19th Smith suffered a cardiac arrest, was resuscitated, but removed from life support on March … (Continued…)

OH Supreme Ct: Expert Witness Needed In Informed Consent Cases

January 13, 2012 lawmed No comments

In a medical malpractice suit filed by Robert and Mary White against Dr. Warren Leimbach II, the Supreme Court of Ohio has ruled that a claim of a lack of informed consent is a medical claim, not an issue of battery, and requires expert medical testimony to establish the material risks or dangers inherent in a procedure, and that an undisclosed risk or danger became a reality and caused injury.

Robert White had back surgery. After surgery his back was worse than before and he was in more pain, a possibility he said his physician never mentioned. White also said he’d never been given or signed a consent form of any kind. The surgeon did not dispute the lack of a consent form, and couldn’t specifically recall notifying the patient of the surgery’s risks, but claimed he’d done so because that’s what he always did.

For reasons which defy explanation, … (Continued…)

Utah Supreme Court Rules Term “Minor Child” Includes Fetus

December 24, 2011 lawmed No comments

A 2007 wrongful death lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by a Utah couple against a government-subsidized clinic in Provo claimed doctors who provided prenatal care were negligent, resulting in the death of the couple’s unborn child. As a result of the proceedings in that case the plaintiffs filed a motion to certify a question before the Utah Supreme Court:

This case presents a single issue on certification from the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah: “Does Utah’s wrongful death statute allow an action for the wrongful death of an unborn child?” At the time the claim was filed, Utah’s wrongful death statute stated in relevant part that “a parent or guardian may maintain an action for the death or injury of a minor child when the injury or death is caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another.” UTAH CODE ANN. § 78-11-6

… (Continued…)

Hospital Propofol Policy Results In $3M Judgement In Patient Death

December 21, 2011 lawmed No comments

Here at the Law Med Blog we have mentioned more than once the minefield institutions create through their ill considered creation of various unnecessary policies and procedures. The incredible irony here is that these P&P are almost always created with the idea they will LIMIT liability and increase quality of care. Often times they serve to create local Standards of Care which deviate from nationally accepted standards. The hospital however can be held liable for violating their own policies, regardless of whether they followed national standards. Once implemented, patients are entitled to be treated under the hospitals published policies.

And this brings us to Enloe Medical Center in Chico, California. A Butte County Superior Court jury Monday ruled the hospital must pay the family of 50 year old Todd Stewart $3 million. Stewart, who died after a failed attempt to replace a faulty lead in an implanted cardiac defibrillator, underwent … (Continued…)

Wake Forest Anesthesiologist Charged With Serial Indecent Exposure

December 10, 2011 lawmed No comments

A Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center anesthesiologist has apparently made a habit of exposing his genitalia to various women on the street. And being charged with the crime has been no deterrent to repeat performances.

Police in Rock Hill, S.C., said 47-year-old John Charles Gerancher was lurking in a campus parking lot on the afternoon of Sept. 13 when he walked up to a woman, pulled up his shorts and exposed his genitals to her. The woman jumped in her car and drove off, but a police report was filed and Dr. Gerancher was charged with indecent exposure. He was placed on administrative leave on September 16 after the hospital learned of the incident. Not to be one to allow criminal charges and the potential loss of his job get in the way, Gerancher was back out in nature letting it all hang out on September 26, this time back … (Continued…)

Anesthesiologist As Expert Witness: Murray Trial Lessons How Not To [VIDEO]

November 07, 2011 lawmed 1 Comment

Expert witness testimony in both criminal and civil litigation is necessary both to explain highly technical or specialized evidence presented to a jury, and to establish the Standard of Care (SOC) by which a defendants actions are judged. In the case of the SOC, expert witness testimony alone establishes its content. However it is the jury that accepts, or rejects, the testimony and settles on the appropriate SOC. One can then easily imagine that an expert’s testimony often determines the guilt, innocence, and/or liability of a defendant. It is very important stuff which requires accuracy and an unbiased presentation.

To that end, most all professional societies have established guidelines for the qualification and testimony of experts within their profession. These guidelines tend to have common requirements: The expert must be qualified as the profession defines it, and; The expert should be neutral and unbiased in their testimony as to the … (Continued…)

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