Articles Posted in In The News

In the field of medical malpractice, there can be perceived a culture of secrecy. While hospitals may keep detailed information on specific incidents, most of the time these mistakes are kept hidden from the eyes of both the patient and from the public at large.

“People who are injured as a result of medical malpractice are almost never told that has happened by their doctors or by hospitals where it’s happened,” said Maxwell Mehlman, the Director of the Law-Medicine Center at Case Western Reserve University.

Mistakes such as surgical gauze having been left inside a 69-year-old patient’s stomach for three weeks after he had dental implant surgery. When it was discovered that the patient had swallowed the gauze, they didn’t inform him.

Four people in Texas have been charged with allegedly paying Medicare beneficiaries with funds from illegal kickbacks.

According to court documents, Ebong Tilong and Marie Neba of Sugar Land, Texas were both arrested for their alleged involvement in a multi-million dollar Medicare fraud conspiracy scheme.

The home-health agency that Tilong and Neba owned and directed was used to bill Medicare for nonexistent or medically unneeded services, according to the indictment. The Department of Justice said in a statement that this is merely a formal accusation at this time with defendants currently presumed innocent.

Sometimes the medical outcome for a patient can cause them to seek damages for the treatment they received. That is what happened when Lisa Menschik brought a malpractice suit against her doctors, Jose Alvarez, M.D., Brent Peterson, D.O., and David Kropf, M.D. after a surgery that left her an invalid. In her suit, Menschik was seeking an amount between $7.9 million and $9.9 million in damages.

The jury made up of four men and eight women took about an hour to deliberate after having heard eight days of testimony decided that Menschik would get zero dollars.

Ten of the 12 jurors voted in favor of the doctors. However, since this was a civil case, which only requires a decision by nine jurors, having a 10-2 verdict was an acceptable in the eyes of the court.

Medical malpractice lawsuits can be especially complicated. Because of legal precedent in some medical malpractice lawsuits, the courts have tended to be more deferential to the exercise of individual physician judgment in cases where judgment has been cited as a defense.

The use of the “best judgement” defense began in a case in the state of New York in 1898, in the case of Pike v. Honsinger. In the lawsuit, an extremity fracture was treated with a cast. As a result, compartment syndrome occurred, leading to a devastating outcome. The 1898 court ruled that the physician was required to “use his best judgment,” and that this, “does not hold him liable for a mere error of judgment, provided he does what he thinks is best after careful examination.”

The language used in the Pike case might suggest that a physician or surgeon is somehow immune from liability when using his or her best judgment, even if that judgment is negligent. This so-called “judgment defense” is used commonly by defense counsel in medical malpractice cases and it remains controversial to this day.

Doctors in the State of New York are required to attend a 4 hour continuing medical education (CME) if they want to recommend marijuana to their patients.

New York state’s Compassionate Care Act was signed into law in June 2014, thus legalizing the medical use of marijuana. Physician training was established by the statute and the state recently announced the availability of the course last month on October 20th.

The cost of the four-hour CME course will be $250.

Two families with wrongful death and medical malpractice lawsuits filed against Ohio State University will be receiving payments of $1.7 million in settlement to their cases filed the Ohio Court of Claims.

A judge approved the settlement agreements on Friday, though Ohio State University admitted no wrongdoing.

The family and estate of Michael McNew, 38, of Dublin, will receive $1.7 million to settle a medical negligence and wrongful-death lawsuit that was filed after McNew died in 2009. The plaintiffs allege that McNew did not receive a proper diagnosis at Ohio State’s Stoneridge Medical Center in Dublin, where he was treated for severe rectal pain.

A jury in Minnesota has awarded $9.1 million to a former auto mechanic after he suffered spinal cord damage and paralysis in a 2012 surgery. Attorneys for Joseph Lakoskey said that the actions of an anesthesiologist left him dangerously dehydrated before surgery at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale to repair a perforated bowel, the Star Tribune reported.

Lakoskey, 51, of Minneapolis, went to the hospital with flu-like symptoms and received fluids for dehydration until doctors found his injury and recommended surgery. However, the treatment Lakoskey was receiving for dehydration was stopped while he was prepared for anesthesia an hour before surgery. The cessation of treatment for dehydration caused his blood pressure to drop and his spinal cord to receive an inadequate amount of blood flow which has left him paralyzed from the chest down.

Lakoskey did attempt to keep working after losing use of his legs. However, he ended up selling his Brooklyn Park business. The jury found in favor of the defendant and awarded him $9.1 million.

The legal representatives for the family of a woman who died after open heart surgery in 2011 appeared before the Missouri Supreme Court. They are arguing that the state’s cap on how much the survivors of medical malpractice lawsuits can receive is unconstitutional.

If the family prevails in the case, it could mean that another blow has been struck to the state’s medical malpractice laws which cap noneconomic damages that can be collected by families injured in medical malpractice and medical negligence lawsuits. The law, as it stands, does not compensate victims for harm, which include lost wages, medical expenses or other economic damages that result from a case of medical malpractice.

In a personal injury case heard in 2012, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that such caps on noneconomic damages were unconstitutional. The Court said in its ruling that the limits violated the right to a jury trial that had existed under common law when Missouri’s first constitution was adopted in 1820.

A jury in Crawford County has awarded a former Pennsylvania logger and his family $2.2 million in their medical malpractice lawsuit against an area hospital.

The plaintiff, Robert Anthony, 50, and his wife and caretaker, Tina, allege that Titusville Area Hospital didn’t properly examine Robert Anthony after a 500-pound treetop slammed into Anthony’s back in the summer of 2012.

During his examination at the hospital, Anthony claimed he was in too much pain to lie down properly for a complete set of spinal X-rays and the incomplete set didn’t detect the spinal fracture that eventually would paralyze him.

According to Cook County Court documents, Brian Fahey filed a lawsuit on October 19th at the Cook County Circuit Court against Parkview Orthopedic Group, also known as Parkview Musculoskeletal Institute, and Dr. Anis Mekhail.

Fahey alleges that the defendants are responsible for injuries that he suffered during a procedure performed on May 26, 2009 by Dr. Mekhail at Advocate Christ Hospital and Medical Center.

During the spinal operation, Fahey’s colon and rectum were punctured, causing rectosigmoid fistula and a rectocutaneous fistula. As a result, these medical complications caused Fahey, who had initially seen Dr. Mekhail for back pain, to experience respiratory distress, hypoxemia and other medical symptoms.