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A Baltimore jury has awarded a man $28 million in damages in a lawsuit accusing doctors of misdiagnosing an intestinal ulcer. The Glen Burnie man filed a lawsuit last year in Baltimore Circuit Court. He alleged that pain caused by the ulcer was misdiagnosed three years prior. As a result of the misdiagnosis, a perforated ulcer resulted in being hospitalized for three years, as well as multiple surgeries. Furthermore, it left him with short-bowel syndrome, making it impossible for the man to care for himself or work. A jury came to the conclusion that two doctors from Woodholme Gastroenterology Associates caused injury and damage to the man by deviating from the standard of care. It took three weeks of trial for the jury to come to a conclusion. When everything was said and done, the man was awarded $14 million in future life care and medical expenses along with $1 million in past medical bills, $5 million in damages to his marriage and $8 million in noneconomic damages. The two doctors were negligent in diagnosing the actual condition, as they neglected to consider any other diagnosis that could be causing his problem. As a result of the negligence, the man now requires nursing care 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Furthermore, he has to receive his nutrition from a central line and he is confined to a wheelchair. When a person suffers from a medical condition, it is imperative that he or she is treated appropriately without delay. If a medical professional neglects to do so, it can cause serious harm to the patient. Source: The Baltimore Sun, “ Baltimore jury awards $28M in damages over alleged misdiagnosed ulcer,” Lorraine Mirabella, Sep. 04, 2015

It doesn’t matter who is treating you or which facility you visit, when it comes to medical advice and treatment you expect nothing but the best. Medical professionals are human, which means that mistakes can happen from time to time. Unfortunately, when a mistake occurs, it is the patient who ends up in a worse position than before. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, medical malpractice trials in state courts can go either way. There are times when the plaintiff comes out on top, and times when the defendant is victorious. While there is no guarantee of winning a medical malpractice lawsuit, if you or a loved one has been injured by a medical professional, it is best to learn more about your legal rights and how to proceed. The Bureau of Justice Statistics added the following information: “The awards in medical malpractice jury trials ($400,000) were 17 times greater than the overall median awards in tort jury trials. These high award amounts may be partially explained by the fact that allegations of wrongful death were asserted in two-fifths of medical malpractice jury trials with plaintiff winners.” This type of information shows that no two trials are the same. It also shows that there is a lot of money changing hands as a result of these lawsuits. It is hard for most people to understand what it is like to be in the middle of a medical malpractice claim. Those who find themselves in this position may not want to be alone for long, which is why they consider consulting with a personal injury attorney. Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Medical malpractice trials” Dec. 15, 2014

If you seek medical care in Maryland, you expect doctors to diagnose you quickly and correctly. In this case from across the border, a West Virginian couple has claimed that a pair of medical providers did not correctly diagnose a man who had suffered a traumatic head injury and neck injury. They believe that this lack of a diagnosis led to the man becoming a full quadriplegic. The June 4 report shows how important it is to make sure neck and brain injuries are fully investigated, because in this case, it seems like one that wasn’t diagnosed soon enough and led to a man being paralyzed. According to the story, the man suffered the neck and head injuries in a lawn mower accident in May 2012. He went to the hospital, and that was where he was placed under the care of two medical providers, a doctor and nurse practitioner. The medical staff allegedly did not find his injuries to be serious despite his complaints. The lawsuit claims he continued to suffer from movement problems and pain, and he saw a new doctor on May 16, 2012. She allegedly also reported that his injuries didn’t appear serious, but she sent him for further testing to be sure. That testing showed that he had a previously undiagnosed spinal cord injury from the lawn mower accident. It is believed that because the man was untreated for so long, the injury became worse and eventually led to his paralysis. The couple filing the lawsuit claim that the medical providers were negligent, and they claim that they did not diagnose the man’s injury in a timely fashion. That allegedly prevented treatments and recovery. Source: The West Virginia Record, “ Couple claim missed diagnosis led to man’s paralysis” Matt Russell, Jun. 04, 2014

Seven women started a medical negligence lawsuit that they aimed at Freeport Health Network and a doctor who worked at the facility. In the lawsuit, they claimed that they were misdiagnosed, being told that they had multiple sclerosis when they actually did not have the disease. Now five other women are trying to join in on the suit. They say that the same thing happened to them. One of the women said that being told that she had the disease was akin to a personal injury in its own right. She said that the feeling of thinking that she had it was horrible because of the terrible nature of the disorder. She, like the other 11 women in the case, is trying to get an amount that is greater than $50,000. The vice president of the network would not say much about the case, stating that the patients had a right to privacy that they wanted to uphold, meaning that they could not reveal any details at this stage. However, he did mention that while these types of cases are common, it is true that not all of them have merit. There are arguments for both sides about whether consolidation of the case makes sense. On one hand, one side has argued that the women do not have enough in common, other than the doctor in question, to start one case. On the other, there are claims that having 12 individual cases would be emotionally difficult for the women. Those in Maryland who are considering similar cases may want to watch how this plays out. It could set a precedent for consolidation of their own cases in the future. Source: Rockford Register Star, “ 5 ask to be included in negligence suit against Freeport Health Network” Susan Vela, May. 20, 2014

Anybody who visits a medical professional for guidance is hoping to get the best treatment available. Unfortunately, this is not always how things work out, with some people ending up in a worse position. Patients who unnecessarily received heart stents have reached a $37 million settlement with Catholic Health Initiatives. Court documents show that as many as 273 people are in position to receive a payment of at least $134,000 as the result of a lawsuit settlement between them and the Catholic Health Initiatives, which formerly owned the St. Joseph Medical Center in Maryland. In 2010, patients were notified by the hospital that they may have received a heart stent that was not necessary. As a result, Dr. Mark Midei, a cardiologist, had his medical license revoked a year later. Catholic Health Initiatives did not admit to any wrongdoing as a result of the settlement, and released a statement saying they have “reached an agreement to resolve the two pending class actions involving allegations of unnecessary cardiac procedures performed at St. Joseph Medical Center. The resolution will benefit class members who choose to participate, and once formally approved by the court, will resolve all class claims against St. Joseph Medical Center, Catholic Health Initiatives and Dr. Mark Midei.” In this case, both parties agreed to the settlement in the hope of avoiding the costs of future litigation. Despite the fact that he hospital did not admit any wrongdoing, they have agreed to pay $37 million to make things right with those who received a stent when it was not medically necessary. While no injuries have been reported, this type of action could result in personal injury. Source: WBAL TV, “ $37M settlement reached in unnecessary stents case” No author given, Apr. 07, 2014

When someone suffers a serious injury or death as a result of a medical error, a patient or the patient’s family may decide to file a civil lawsuit. One of the goals of most medical malpractice lawsuits is to see that the error doesn’t happen again to another patient. But in many cases, it does — often at another hospital far away, where doctors haven’t been warned about the potential for the error. These cases are especially troubling because they’re often easily preventable. Consider the case of a woman who donated a kidney to her brother. Kidney transplant surgery is performed thousands of times a year and is considered a fairly low-risk procedure. The problem in this case was a tiny surgical clip used to close off the renal artery. The clips are used successfully in many other types of surgery, but shouldn’t be used in kidney donors because they can easily slip off the artery. That’s what happened in this case, which caused the woman to die from internal bleeding. Transplant surgeons became aware of this problem as far back at 2004, when concerned doctors began notifying the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, presenting the problem at surgical conferences and publishing articles in journals. Yet no warning exists on the surgical clips not to use them in kidney transplant surgeries. The manufacturers said they began sending warning letters to hospitals in 2006, but the hospital where the woman in this case died didn’t start using the clips until years later. By that time, the letter it had received was long forgotten. The hospital settled a civil lawsuit filed by the woman’s family, but still, the closest the clips come to having a warning is a symbol telling surgeons to read instructions on a device used to insert the clips. These instructions say not to use the clips on kidney donors, but they’re rarely kept in operating rooms. The letters the manufacturer sent also don’t indicate that people have died from their use, rendering the letters “meaningless,” according to one transplant surgeon. After the woman’s death, the FDA issued a safety notification about the clips. But what are the chances all hospitals who use the clips now or in the future will take note of it? It’s frightening to think more people undergoing surgery to save someone else’s life will lose their own as a result. Source: CNN, “ Kidney-donor deaths linked to surgical clips raise issues of alerts, warnings,” John Bonifield and Elizabeth Cohen, June 21, 2012

Approximately one in 6,000 surgical procedures carried out in the U.S. involves the type of medical malpractice in which a surgical sponge is left inside the patient after the procedure is over. This can lead to serious and even life-threatening consequences, often from infection. But patients in Maryland and nationwide should be pleased to learn that a simple and inexpensive method has been developed which may help prevent such errors. The new technique involves the use of a simple bar code reader. Packages of sponges to be used in surgeries or childbirth are routinely scanned. But the beauty of the new technique involves scanning every sponge in the package, each of which has its own unique bar code. Medical personnel double check this by manually counting the number of sponges. In this manner, doctors, nurses and other operating room personnel have the information they need to make sure that every sponge is accounted for. In operating rooms where the method has been tried out, it has already greatly reduced the number of incidents in which a sponge was left inside a patient, enhancing patient safety. Any concern that the new procedure would be too time-consuming seems to have been alleviated, and the benefits in saving patients from injuries or death are clearly worth the few extra moments involved. Trials of the system in one area since 2009 resulted in not a single incident of a sponge being left inside a patient following the scanning of more than 1 million surgical sponges. The technology produces easily traceable information and helps to reduce possible human error in the hurried and stressful atmosphere of the operating room. Source: Mankato Free Press, “Bar coding sponges safeguards against surgery mishaps,” Robb Murray, March 16, 2012

A Maryland teenager’s death as a result of “routine” oral surgery has led her family to file a medical malpractice lawsuit against the surgeons. The 17-year-old girl underwent surgery to have her wisdom teeth pulled, a procedure her parents weren’t worried about when they dropped her off at the clinic in March 2011. But they received an emergency call 15 minutes later, and soon they were at a hospital, taking in the details of the condition that caused their daughter to die 10 days later. The surgeons explained that the girl, who was otherwise healthy, had suffered from hypoxia, or a deprivation of oxygen so severe that her brain was left severely damaged. It happened as her heart rate slowed to a dangerous degree while under anesthesia. The autopsy ruled her death an accident. Such deaths are rare during oral surgery, though not entirely unheard of. Despite its usage in millions of operations every year, anesthesia carries risks that patients often don’t consider. People scheduled for surgery or their family members should never hesitate to ask questions about the anesthesia and the overall procedure. For instance, find out if someone other than the surgeon will be monitoring the patient’s heart rate, blood pressure and breathing. You may also want to ask about the monitoring equipment and what the plan is in the event something goes wrong. Although the girl’s oral surgeon said he was “deeply saddened” by her death and that everyone involved in her case worked hard to offer the best possible medical care, her parents weren’t satisfied. They’ve filed a lawsuit against both the surgeon and the anesthesiologist. Her mother said she hopes the lawsuit and her daughter’s story sends a message about the risks of anesthesia and the importance of diligent monitoring during surgery, whether it’s considered routine or not. Source: Today, “Teen dies after ‘routine’ wisdom tooth surgery,” Linda Carroll, April 6, 2012

A surgeon who insisted he had removed a patient’s tumor, despite tests and reports to the contrary, was sued for medical malpractice by a Maryland man who lost his hearing as a result of the unsuccessful surgery. The man had a benign tumor in a very hard-to-reach area of his ear canal. The tumor was pushing against his auditory nerves and would cause him to go deaf if it wasn’t removed. A surgeon recommended a conventional surgery that had a 30 to 40 percent chance of failure. But the patient decided to try an alternative endoscopic procedure called retrosigmoid surgery, which was being performed by a doctor across the country who claimed a 98 percent success rate. The doctor did the surgery and believed he had removed the tumor, but according to his attorney, ear tumors are so tiny that it was hard to know for sure. A post-op MRI scan showed the tumor was still present, but the surgeon told his patient that what the radiologist reading the scan actually saw was normal post-surgical scarring. The patient was mailed two nearly identical pathology reports from the surgeon’s office that described the surgical procedure. One report read “No tumor seen,” but in the other report, “No” had been whited out to read “tumor seen.” The doctor denied altering the report, but the patient ordered a new MRI from his original doctor, who determined the tumor was still there and removed it. The patient, who ultimately did go deaf, would likely have retained his hearing if he’d had the proper surgery done earlier, according to an expert witness’ testimony. The lawsuit against the surgeon accused him of medical malpractice, fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The judge ruled the surgeon had used the wrong kind of surgery, failed to find the tumor, misled the patient into thinking the surgery had worked, misinterpreted the post-op MRI and misreported the pathology finding. The surgeon’s appeal was denied and his attorney said the finding of fraud could prompt a medical board investigation. Surgeons who fail to complete a surgery are not always guilty of malpractice. But using the wrong methods, misleading patients and altering their reports are very serious offenses with long-term consequences. People subjected to these types of malpractice have every right to seek compensation for their resulting medical problems. Source: Outpatient Surgery Magazine, “ Did Surgeon Cover Up His Failure to Remove Patient’s Tumor?” Leigh Page, March 6, 2012

Is anyone immune from telling a lie every now and then? According to a recently published study, even doctors lie to patients; 11 percent said they’ve told a patient or a child’s guardian something that wasn’t true in the past year, and about 20 percent said they haven’t fully disclosed a mistake because they were afraid of being sued for medical malpractice. The researchers from Harvard Medical School who conducted the study said that while it’s hard to know what the effects are of these untruths, they could make patients “less able to make health care decisions that reflect their values and goals.” Of course, the doctors who participated in the study weren’t given the opportunity to specify what types of cases they lied about, and it’s possible to give a patient more complex medical information than they know what to do with. Not only that, but giving a patient information that turns out not to be true might not be helpful anyway. But a medical ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania says withholding a mistake from a patient is inexcusable and affects the way a doctor provides care to a patient. A separate poll of 100 doctors — including neurosurgeons, cardiologists and family physicians — asked whether they had ever kept a serious mistake from a patient. Of the 34 doctors in family practice, 5 percent said they’d made a mistake they didn’t reveal, 47 percent said they disclosed it and another 47 percent said they’d never made a mistake. About 5 percent of the 33 neurosurgeons said they’d never made an error, while 25 percent said they didn’t disclose a mistake and 69 percent said they did tell the patient. Among the 33 cardiologists, 33 percent said they didn’t tell the patient about a mistake, 50 percent said they did, and 17 percent reported they’d never made one. In the Harvard study, 55 percent said they’d “described a patient’s prognosis in a more positive manner than warranted,” while about 28 percent said they had revealed health information about a patient to an unauthorized person. Aside from a fear of being sued, some doctors avoid sharing the whole truth because they don’t want to upset their patients or cause them to lose hope. This at least provides a reminder that doctors are human beings, not flawless miracle workers. Still, the researchers said, telling patients about medical errors or the whole truth about their prognosis “can reduce anger and lessen patients’ interest in bringing malpractice suits.” Source: MSNBC, “Many docs tell white lies, study finds,” MyHealthNewsDaily, Feb. 8, 2012

You don’t have to be a doctor to be familiar with one of the main tenets of the Hippocratic Oath: Do no harm. That’s one of the central issues of new medical malpractice lawsuits lodged against a handful of Baltimore County surgeons accused of performing unnecessary heart surgery on some patients. In one of the lawsuits, patients of two surgeons claim they were misled about the extent of their need for mesh stents to widen blood vessels suffering from arterial blockages. The hospital where the surgeons practiced notified more than 500 patients that they may have had unnecessary stent surgeries. And there’s concern among doctors, lawyers and legislators that the practice extended well beyond these cardiologists and their hospital. The business of stent surgery is a lucrative one, which is why health care regulators and courts are concerned about wasteful spending and fraud. Although he hasn’t been accused of any crimes, one of the doctors in the aforementioned lawsuit, a former chief of cardiology at a Baltimore County hospital, has more than 200 cases pending against him. The malpractice cases must prove two points: that the doctor was negligent, and that the negligence caused harm. That might be difficult to prove because even if a patient’s arterial blockage was exaggerated, it could be argued that the stent was still necessary. And even if it wasn’t immediately necessary, a doctor could say that eventually it would have been, and that the patient simply received it earlier than they absolutely needed it. The first 25 of the 200 cases against the former cardiology chief are scheduled to be heard in 2012. The outcome of those lawsuits could affect the verdicts of the rest of his cases, as well as those of the other latest surgeons to be accused. Of course, no two medical malpractice cases are exactly the same. Those who suspect they had unnecessary stent surgery will still be well within their rights to seek compensation if they were lied to for the sake of profit. Source: Baltimore Business Journal, “ New Midei cases ensnare three more stents doctors,” Scott Dance, Dec. 15, 2011

A recent study has shown that the cerebral palsy rates have dropped and it appears improved prenatal care is having an effect. Cerebral palsy is a common health complication that is generally found in infants who are born prematurely. Additionally, medical malpractice that causes a birth injury is a common cause of cerebral palsy. However, there has been much debate in the medical community about how to best prevent cerebral palsy. Many doctors are still unsure of the appropriate steps that need to be taken to prevent the condition. The study was conducted by Dutch researchers who looked at the medical cases of nearly 3,000 infants. The infants were born prematurely during a 15-year period that began in 1990. The study found a 6.5 percent decrease in cerebral palsy cases from 2002 to 2005 and the cases that were reported appeared to be less serious than in previous years. Researchers said that a significant decline in white matter lesions brain injuries led to a decrease in the number of cases and the severity of those cases. However, it is not clear why white matter lesions have been on the decline. Linda de Vries, one of the study’s authors, believes that the decline is due to the fact that overall care during pregnancy has improved in recent years. According to De Vries, researchers were unable to find a single factor that led to the decrease. While techniques such as Cesarean delivery and the prescribing of various medications have been used in an attempt to lower the rates of cerebral palsy, De Vries says that making general improvements to prenatal care is the most likely path to future decreases in cerebral palsy rates. Los Angeles Times, “ Cerebral palsy cases have dropped,” Shari Roan, 3/3/2011