Articles Posted in In The News

The New York Court of Appeals recently ruled that a third party may sue a doctor at a hospital that gave a pain medication to a patient who later caused an accident in which the third party was injured.

According to documents in the case of Davis v. South Nassau Communities Hospital, Lorraine Walsh came to the South Nassau Communities Hospital emergency room on March 4, 2009 with stomach pain. A doctor at the hospital administered a heavy pain medication then soon after discharged her without advising that it was not safe for her to operate a motor vehicle while she was under the influence of the drug.

Ms. Walsh, unaware that the Dilaudid she was given could impair her ability to drive, attempted to drive herself home from the hospital. On her way, she crossed into oncoming traffic. Walsh’s vehicle struck the vehicle of Edward Davis who suffered injuries as the result of the accident. Davis filed suit against the hospital and the attending physician for medical malpractice, alleging that the hospital and doctor had been negligent in having failed to warn Walsh of the dangers of driving while under the influence of Dilaudid.

A man from Walnut, Iowa who had his leg amputated in 2012 has been awarded $90,000 in a medical malpractice suit last Thursday.

Court records indicate that Tony Bailey had been seeking damages from Jennie Edmundson Hospital, Emergency Physicians of Western Iowa and Dr. Steven Feldhaus of Heart, Lung and Vascular Surgery after Bailey had gone to Jennie Edmundson with severe pain in his lower left leg in January of 2012.

Bailey was treated at the emergency room, and then Feldhaus performed surgery. Complications arose, and his leg was amputated below the knee in March 2012.

It seems hard to believe that any doctor could be allowed to make the same malpractice mistake over and over again. However, that is exactly what one doctor is facing now that nearly 300 people have accused the cardiologist with implantation of pacemakers or defibrillators when they were medically unnecessary.

Hundreds of claims are being filed against Dr. Arvind Gandhi and other practitioners at Cardiology Associates of Northwest Indiana. It could take the courts years to unwind the charges and it may change the amount of monies that are paid to the Indiana Patient’s Compensation Fund that covers malpractice claims beyond the insurance that doctors already have in place. The fund covers anything above and beyond the initial $250,000 and up to the statutory cap in place of $1.25.

On December 8th, a Lake Superior Court rendered a ruling against Dr. Gandhi, awarding plaintiff Shannon Greer $450,000 in connection to the death of husband, Ken Greer, who died after the doctor treated him for an infected pacemaker.

In a rare instance in the state of Wisconsin, two large medical malpractice claims have been paid. The settlements came, however, after significant legal hurdles.

In Wisconsin, because of laws that are designed to limit who can sue for malpractice and how much they can collect if their case is won, it can be hard for anyone in the state to find a lawyer willing to take a malpractice case. Any case that is over $1 million dollars is backed by a state funded insurance fund of $1.2 billion dollars. Such laws can make it very frustrating for patients and their families.

The first case involves the estate of a woman who died after a doctor placed a breathing tube down her esophagus and then refused to remove it. After a car accident in 2011, Colleen Daniels, 56, died because a doctor at Calumet Medical Center in Chilton refused to remove a breathing tube from her esophagus. Paramedics and other medical personnel pleaded with the doctor in the emergency room but to no avail.

The attorneys for Dr. Abubakar Atiq Durrani have filed motions requesting that the hundreds of malpractice lawsuits filed against him be moved from Hamilton County to U.S. District Court.

Dr. Durrani has been accused of having botched the spinal surgeries of more than 500 patients that were performed between 2007 and 2013. Dr. Durrani performed surgeries at West Chester Hospital, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Good Samaritan, Christ and Deaconess.

“The only reason that they are doing this is to delay trial,” said Eric Deters, a spokesperson for the firm that represents 523 former patients of a doctor who fled the country in 2013 after being indicted on federal charges.

No doctor or medical professional wants to find him or herself the object of a medical malpractice lawsuit. However, even with the best of intentions and a commitment to the profession and art of medicine, it’s possible for anyone to have an off day or to make mistakes.

Medscape recently released its Malpractice Report for 2015. The report was conducted after Medscape surveyed some 4,000 primary care physicians and selected specialists. Below are the seven most common reasons a doctor can get sued. 

Failure to Diagnose – In the case of malpractice law, the failure to diagnose comes in the highest at 31%. When a doctor fails to diagnose a patient’s condition in a timely manner or to misdiagnose their injury, illness or overall condition, it can result in a condition that could lead to worsening symptoms, permanent injury or even death.

An Atlanta psychiatrist has been arrested after 36 of his patients died. Twelve of those patients died as a result of overdosing on medication that he prescribed to them.

According to the Clayton County District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson, Dr. Narendra Nagareddy’s office in Jonesboro was raided by DEA agents on Thursday. Dr. Nagareddy has been arrested and charged with violation of Georgia’s Controlled Substance Act. The District Attorney also said Nagareddy has been charged with prescribing pain medication. Writing prescriptions is outside of his profession as a psychiatrist and not for a legitimate purpose for the patient.

Dr. Nagareddy was issued his license in 1999 and he is certified with the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Currently, Dr. Nagareddy has no disciplinary actions, no medical malpractice suits, medical settlements or criminal complaints or convictions against him.

A patient in Cook County has filed a lawsuit against a podiatrist, alleging that the physician chose the wrong course of treatment, causing the man to suffer persistent pain and limited mobility as a result.

According to documents filed in Cook County District Court that were filed on January 5th, Robert Ford-Reynolds, the plaintiff in the case, claims medical malpractice against Dr. Charlotte M. Covello, as an individual and as an agent of Pam Eernisse DPM S.C., doing business as Michigan Avenue Podiatry.

The plaintiff in the case alleges that in October 2007, Dr. Covello surgically implanted replacement joints in both of Ford-Reynolds’ feet in order to treat his flat-foot pain. The suit further states that the implants had to be removed in 2014 because they had loosened and became painful.