New York Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog

An eighteen year old girl has suffered all her life due to a doctor’s negligence, and finally will receive some recompense. Her doctor has been ordered to pay the family three million dollars for the injuries he caused. The young girl has many health issues, including cerebral palsy, explains an expert . The money will cover past, present, and future medical expenses that the family will incur, as well as pain and suffering and rehabilitation.

When the girl’s mother went into labor, the doctor was called to the hospital to perform a Caesarian Section. It took the physician three to four hours to respond to the call and start surgery. This delay, believes experts and friends, is what caused the problems that the girl has faced for 18 years. The compression of the umbilical cord resulted in “fetal asphyxia”. It is against hospital policy for the doctor and the midwife to be off the premises for several hours at the same time. One should have remained at the hospital. The midwife was also charged and brought to trial, but found not responsible for the malpractice injuries the girl suffered.

The physician claims that the mother’s obesity or genetics are to blame for her daughter’s condition, but the jury found otherwise. According to court documents, the doctor found no signs of umbilical cord compression. The physician and his attorney refused to comment to a reporter about the verdict. The doctor’s malpractice insurance will cover $2 million, and he will most likely be responsible for the remainder. Hospitals in New York City and Westchester are studying this case.

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A man has filed a lawsuit against Teton Valley Hospital, stating that their lack of care and medical errors resulted in the death of his wife. He reported to doctors that there were numerous errors and omissions which caused her demise. He also alleges that the hospital and its associates are guilty of racketeering and falsifying medical documents and records.

The man has also accused a physician of not performing an adequate autopsy and failing to properly preserve some of the viable organs. The certificate of death was also allegedly inaccurate. The suit has been filed in federal court and seeks to recover over $35 million in damages. The hospital and affiliates have declined to comment to attorney.

The lawsuit not only blames physicians and hospital staff for the death of the woman, but claims that their actions were torturous and deliberately indifferent. It has not been indicated why the woman was initially hospitalized at the Teton Valley Hospital. There are several parties named in the lawsuit, including doctors, nurses, facilities, and other medical groups. Hospitals in Brooklyn and The Bronx try to prevent these mistakes.

A lawsuit is the only course of action when a loved one has suffered at the hand of someone else. Physicians and medical staff are held to an especially higher standard when caring for our friends and loved ones. Medical malpractice and wrongful death are serious issues. Substandard and inadequate medical care should not be accepted. It is not clear how long this case is expected to take for resolution.

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Is too much money being spent on dying patients? 60 Minutes on the CBS News recently aired a segment called "The Cost of Dying," which was a breakdown of events that happen with patients in hospitals in the Intensive Care Units and the high costs associated with keeping them alive, said a new study.

75% of our nation’s deaths occur in hospitals, and it was estimated on the show that patient’s lives are prolonged in some cases for up to $10,000 per day and that in America the last two months of patient’s lives is costing Medicare $55 billion. According to a report, this might be unnecessary 30% of the time.

In one of the cases mentioned on the show, 25 additional doctors were called in as consultants on a dying 80 year old woman. Each doctor received $100 or more for five minutes of their time, said a representative, and added that Medical Insurance Companies make it difficult for these doctors to do much else.

Doctors are increasingly fearful of medical malpractice lawsuits for misdiagnosis so they are calling in as many other consultants as they can to share the blame if something should go wrong or is overlooked. Studies speculate that this problem isn’t going away anytime soon. Hospitals in Nassau and Suffolk are aware of this study.

Many doctors are simply doing what they can to stay afloat and as a result are billing Medicare for as much as possible, because they can. Experts call this a sad situation that isn’t getting any better.

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A report shares how the unfortunate incident of a 17 year old lady’s tragic death due sparked the discussion between law makers, patient advocate groups and Congress about lifting caps for medical malpractice damages.

Many lawmakers, according to the report, are trying to cut down on the cost of health care and one of the ways that they deem necessary to accomplish this task is to put a cap on medical malpractice cases. The lawmakers and groups of physicians seem to agree that if a cap is not put on such medical malpractice cases, it will result in unnecessary lawsuits.

However, the expert along with families of the patients disagrees with this stance. They feel that doctors and hospitals should be held accountable for their negligence.

The hospital where the death of this young woman occurred were quick to note that they were sad about her death and indicated that they have worked to conduct an intensive investigation that would give definitive answers about her death. Hospitals in Manhattan and Queens also strive to eliminate mistakes like this.

One hospital official said, “We take pride in our policy of informing the family and the patient about their care and the treatment that we provide.”

However, this young lady’s family has decided to take it into the court system so that they can have some closure about what happened to their daughter. The young lady’s parents had to cut through so much red tape to get the answers that they required.

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A man shared information about a civil trial of a woman who says that she was wrongfully committed to a psychiatric institution after she vented angrily about how she felt about her church’s pastor.

The woman hired a medical malpractice lawsuit and sued the psychiatric hospital along with other staff members. The woman has claimed that the psychiatrists did not follow the acceptable standards of psychiatric care as she was committed to their institution without her consent and was held there for ten days.

However, the hospital’s attorney is defending the medical malpractice because their defense is that they had every reason to believe that the woman was a danger to society at the time. A source reported, the woman had been volunteering at the church as a treasurer and after a while, she turned against the pastor of the church. The woman asked if she could speak to a psychiatrist because she felt that the pastor was not making it easy for her to do her work. According to the report, the woman talked about killing the pastor and that is what got her taken away to the psychiatric ward.

Although, she used those words, the woman claimed that she would not have carried out the threat. The woman testified in court that she was not a threat to society, but the defendant’s lawyer said that the woman would come to the church even after her working hours to harass the pastor. Hospitals in Manhattan and Long Island face these situations all the time.

A souce indicated that the pastor felt as if his life was in danger and may have had reason to feel threatened.

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Many professionals including a doctor think that if doctors had a surgical checklist, it would help to prevent many medical malpractice cases. This conclusion was reached after looking at numerous data from one of the biggest medical liability insurance company. What was found proved alarming – almost a third of all the claims made were from errors that happened in the medical arena. Had the doctors have a checklist, a doctor thinks that these cases could have been avoided.

The doctor also agrees that it is very challenging and hard to place a price tag on how the system works with medical liabilities. However, a recent study showed that the cost could add up to an excess of $55 billion each year or a small chunk of the health care expenditure in the United States.

Additionally, many experts including a representative believe that many citizens in America die each year because of medical mistakes and most of these are in relation to surgery.

Other medical studies done earlier prove that when there is a surgical checklist, there is a reduction in the amount of deaths that take place. In addition, more money is saved by avoiding complicated treatment and lawsuits.

According to one hospital, “These studies are important to seeing how professionals can come together and fix this problem, but no one wants to come to the table.” The medical field needs to corporate as many health professionals may think.

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In a civil court in the country of Cambria, a man received an award of over $633K to compensate him in a medical malpractice case, according to a report. The man claimed that the care that he received was negligent and as a result he had to have his right leg amputated.

The man sought the help of a good medical malpractice lawyer who filed the lawsuit on behalf of his client against the doctors that he claimed committed this act against him. The source was quick to agree that the man did have a legitimate claim.

The case went before a jury that took two and a half days to deliberate the case and come to a desirable verdict for the man and his wife. They agreed with the man and the report that the man received unsatisfactory care that was definitely below the standard of medicine.

Of course, according to the expert, the defendants in question took the imitative to appeal the case. Hospitals in Nassau and Suffolk try to avoid these situations.

According to news report, the man went to the doctor with an extensive medical account of vascular disease after he felt excruciating pain in his right leg. The man was sent to another Medical Center where he became a patient and was care for by two other doctors. The man’s lawyer indicated that there was a considerable delay in diagnosing his client and therefore, surgery took a long time, which eventually resulted in the inevitable amputation.

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According to a report, a woman who was a former nurse’s assistant filed a lawsuit in Circuit Court against her former employer. The complaint alleged that the woman’s employer fired her when she spoke and criticized a surgery that she did a specific Medical Center. Her claim exceeded $350,000 in medical malpractice and $200,000 in the job firing claim.

An advocate agreed that the woman did have a case. The suit indicated that the woman was not given the follow-up treatment that was necessary for her to recover after the surgery. She underwent excruciating pain and suffering because of the ordeal. She had to go to the emergency room hours after the surgery to have the damage repaired. This resulted in additional pain and suffering.

Her employer warned her that she would be fired if she discussed her experience with anyone else. When she did, she was given a pink slip and lost her job as a result, stated a friend.

Her employers said that they complied with the Family Leave Act by granting the woman time off to recover from her surgery. However, the woman disagreed and said that when she asked for an extended period of time for sick leave, it was denied. Her employer suggested that she did not have additional accrued sick leave for that period.

She was denied benefits and so the woman decided to file a lawsuit for the ordeal that she had experienced. Courts in Queens and Staten Island have had similar cases occasionally.

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A reporter was quick to point out that a Federal Judge permitted a legal motion to add a medical malpractice claim to one filed against the country Sheriff, the county and other jailers of a wrongful death case.

“The Judge made her ruling and granted permission for changes to the filed complaint,” said a media representative to an advocate .

The defendant’s sister filed a lawsuit against the county Sheriff, the jail nurse and the county for a wrongful death claim. The defendant died at a hospital after he suffered a heart attack in jail where he was incarcerated. The sister of the defendant felt that her brother was misdiagnosed and did not receive the medical care that he should to save his life.

An expert who deals with cases like this in Staten Island and Westchester agrees that the defendant’s family has every right to seek full retribution for the brother’s wrongful death. Apparently, the county was in opposition of the motion that the Judge permitted, but they were quick to withdraw their resistance when the sister of the defendant filed a modified complaint and a sworn statement supplementing what she had already submitted.

The modified claim suggested that the jail nurse was in violation of the appropriate medical standard of treatment by not allowing the deceased to do a follow up doctor’s visit when his condition began to deteriorate. The claim also added that it was the County that was responsible for the way that the nurse behaved. Of course, the County has denied such claims.

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Nearly 70 percent of doctors over the age of 50 have been sued according the American Medical Association, reported a study. He went on to say that many of these claims are dismissed but 95 out of 100 doctors will be sued at some point in their career.

These staggering numbers will likely harm doctor’s ability to provide their patience with quality care claimed a representative for the American Medical Association. He added that our country continues to work hard to reduce unnecessary health care costs and these statistics just don’t help.

In a survey conducted by the AMA, it was clear that certain types of doctors or surgeons were much more likely to be sued than others. General Surgeons, OBGYNs men doctors, and practice owners were most likely to be sued, whereas Pediatricians, women doctors, younger doctors and Psychologists were least likely to be sued. Only about 5 percent of doctors are sued per year, a study pointed out.

While more than half of these claims are dismissed, advocates estimate the average defense costs between $22,000 and $100,000.

"Even though the vast majority of claims are dropped or decided in favor of physicians, the understandable fear of meritless lawsuits can influence what specialty of medicine physicians practice, where they practice and when they retire," the advocate added.

In an effort to improve patient care and decrease the number of malpractice lawsuits, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality donated $25 million, which includes grants that should help cover these costs

The survey was funded by the AMA and more than 40 national medical specialty associations including many in Westchester and New York City.

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According to a reporter, a woman claims to have had a sponge left in her abdomen after surgery. She claims to have gone to her OB/GYN and that her doctor had left something foreign in her abdomen after she did a Caesarean section operation.

The woman claimed medical malpractice against the doctor who performed the operation. She claimed that the obstetrician performed the operation without having the proper medical assistance. She thinks that this is what probably caused the problem of her having to suffer a potential hernia.

The expert agreed that the woman had a viable complaint and that the doctor was negligent. When the woman began to feel pain in the abdomen, she sought medical attention and discovered that the lower part of her left abdomen had a sponge marker. She had to have it removed surgically claims the advocate.

The lawsuit complaint consist of the unreasonable notice that the complainant was afforded and that she was not give adequate medical follow up care after surgery. The complainant is seeking an undisclosed monetary damage. Her medical malpractice action is seeking retribution for her and feels that the doctor should have maintained the appropriate relationship with the patient in order to give her the best advice and best treatment possible in this situation.

The woman, according to the facts, has a chance to receive a settlement award for her pain and suffering; both physically and mentally. Hospitals in Nassau and Suffolk do their best to avoid these situations.

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When this medical malpractice case first went to trial, the doctor was found negligence and the jury awarded $1,500,000, a low amount considering the nature of the birth injuries and the fact the child could never be left alone for the rest of its life. The damage award was based on a 47% negligence ratio assessed against the defendant doctor.

The case was appealed on the grounds that the damages were far too low given the egregious nature of the doctor’s actions, explained the source. The Appellate court agreed that the damages were far too low and directed a new trial to deal with damages only. They had no problem ordering a new trial, as there was ample evidence on record that indicated the residents at the hospital and the on call physician, who subsequently died, were negligent.

The on call physician didn’t supervise any of the treatment provided to the mother in this case and his lack of oversight resulted in severe brain damage to the baby. In other words, there was a direct link between the doctor’s negligence and the baby’s brain damage – referred to as proximate cause.

The Appellate court further found that the initial damage award was too low considering what would be reasonable compensation in light of the severe nature of the baby’s permanent brain damage, said the court. The other argument advanced was that the jury award was low due to juror confusion and ambiguity. The court did not see this as being a valid reason to hand out a low amount when the issue could have been addressed at the lower court level. A similar decision would have been handed down in The Bronx and Westchester County.

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