New York Malpractice & Injury Lawyer Blog

A couple is suing a Torrance doctor who allegedly terminated the pregnancy of a woman without her consent because of an embryo mix-up during an in-vitro fertilization process.

According to court documents, David and Melissa Pineda have named Dr. Rifaat Salem in a malpractice lawsuit after an IVF treatment that Melissa Pineda received in February of 2014.

Melissa Pineda was implanted with embryos in Dr. Salem’s office on February 7th. Two days later, on a Sunday, the doctor called the home of the Pinedas and said he wanted to come into the office immediately, even though it was on the weekend.

A jury has found that a Basalt doctor is not guilty in a lawsuit connected to the death of a man in Carbondale following the patient’s knee surgery.

Court documents indicate that Dr. Thomas Moore was named in a malpractice lawsuit along with Ursula Ayers, mother of Hans Ayers, alleging that Dr. Moore failed to catch symptoms of her son’s fatal blood clot in 2012.

However, the jury which consisted of three men and three women, plus two alternates, deliberated for only 90 minutes before finding the physician innocent of any negligence.

A malpractice lawsuit has been settled against an orthopedic surgeon who is now also facing criminal charges in two counties.

The lawsuit filed against Dr. Jake Heinkey, 40, and his former practice, Cutting Edge Orthopaedics LLC was filed in Lucas County Common Pleas Court by Ruth and Phillip Anderson of Ottawa Lake last year. The case was dismissed last week after the litigants settled the case out of court.

The case alleged that Mrs. Anderson alleged she was left with permanent nerve damage in her left leg after Dr. Heinkey performed hip replacement surgery on her Jan. 24, 2014, at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center.

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.