Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

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A Minnesota Appellate Court has held that expert testimony was required to prove a plaintiff’s claim that the paramedic’s negligent transfer was the cause of a patient’s ankle injury and later resulted in a leg amputation.

Mary C. suffered from various health problems and was a left-leg amputee. After she developed respiratory problems, Mary called an ambulance. When the ambulance arrived, she was being moved from her wheelchair to a stretcher. While she was being moved, she suffered a fractured right ankle. This fracture led to unsuccessful ankle surgeries followed by infection and ultimately the amputation of her right leg.

Mary C. sued the ambulance service, alleging its paramedics were negligent in transferring her to the stretcher and caused her fall and ankle fracture, which ultimately led to the amputation of her right leg. The defendant moved to dismiss, arguing that Mary had failed to serve the required affidavit of expert identification within the statutory time frame. The court granted defendant’s (the ambulance service) motion to dismiss.

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General practitioner physician Dr. Ram Thawani was the attending physician for Peter Gates during his hospitalization at Chicago’s South Shore Hospital on Oct. 23, 2009. Gates, 57, died from a brain herniation, which is a swelling of the brain, and a brain hemorrhage on Oct. 29, 2009. Gates was survived by his wife and seven daughters.

The Gates family filed a lawsuit against Dr. Thawani claiming that he was negligent in choosing not to order a CT scan of the head, despite complaints of severe headaches with pain, described as level 10 on a scale of 1-10. Gates was also taking a blood thinner, Coumadin, at the time.

The defendant doctor argued that the headaches had waxed and waned and were associated with a fever of recent onset. He also said there was no focal neurological deficits to point to any problem in the brain, and the brain hemorrhage was a sudden event that no surgical intervention could have averted.

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On June 1, 2009, the defendant surgeon Dr. Aaron Siegel agreed to assist a urologist during a urological surgery on 60-year-old Ivory Lakes at the Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, Ill. She had been a patient of Dr. Berger, the urologist, for about a year, treating for retroperitoneal fibrosis. Retroperitoneal fibrosis is a condition that causes urinary flow problems in both ureters. The surgery involved a procedure to free the ureters and encase the ureters with tissues harvested from the patient; the procedure was designed to prevent recurrence of the urinary flow problem.

Dr. Siegel’s role at the surgery was limited to being an assistant to Dr. Berger. Dr. Siegel never met the patient before she was placed under anesthesia, and Dr. Siegel did not know anything about her medical history or what specific procedure was planned.

During the surgery, Dr. Siegel held retractors, provided visualization for Dr. Berger and suctioned fluids from the operative field. However, one of the ureters tore when Dr. Berger grasped it, and it then it disintegrated when he tried to grasp it above the tear. Dr. Berger than decided to remove the kidney due to the lack of a viable ureter.

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The state of South Dakota has imposed a medical malpractice cap that leaves many who are injured or killed without a remedy. It was reported recently that a young woman who brought herself to a hospital in Sioux Falls, S.D., because she was carrying a dead fetus for removal from her uterus found things going from bad to worse.

The hospital did a procedure to remove the fetus, but things in the recovery room left the woman in shock. The doctor who examined her did not notice that the first doctor who removed the fetus had perforated her uterus during the procedure. She was literally bleeding to death.

A nurse eventually noticed that something was wrong and rushed the woman back to the operating room where the doctors performed emergency surgery to remove her uterus. She survived the ordeal, but lost the ability to have children.

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Anthony Bausal was transported by ambulance to the emergency department at OSF St. Joseph Medical Center in Bloomington, Ill., on Sept. 20, 2008. Bausal had a cellulitis infection in his left leg, increased pain and shortness of breath. He also had underlying conditions of lupus nephritis, cardiomyopathy and chronic anemia.

Bausal, 34, was admitted into the hospital, where additional testing showed that he had a dangerously low cardiac ejection fraction of 20-25% (55% is considered normal), which is the measure of how the well or poorly the heart is pumping out blood through the body. He also had acute anemia and a gastric ulcer with erosive gastritis of the stomach.

One of the defendants, a general surgeon, Dr. Darryl Fernandes, was consulted on Sept. 25, 2008 because of concern about an infectious process in Bausal’s left leg.

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At issue in this South Carolina Supreme Court case was whether the medical malpractice statute of repose applied to indemnify the claim of Columbia/CSA-HS Greater Columbia Healthcare System — also known as Providence Hospital. The trial court in the Court of Appeals in South Carolina held that it does and thus barred the indemnity action brought by Providence Hospital. Because the statute of repose barred the indemnify action brought by the Providence Hospital, the Supreme Court of South Carolina affirmed the lower court’s and the appellate court’s decision.

In 1997, Dr. Michael Hayes and Dr. Michael Taillon were working as emergency room physicians at Providence Hospital as independent contractors. Arthur Sharpe came to Providence Hospital in the emergency room on the same date. He was complaining of chest pain. Drs. Hayes and Taillon evaluated Sharpe and diagnosed him as suffering from gastric reflux. Sharpe was then discharged from the hospital; in fact, he had actually suffered a heart attack. That heart attack was determined a few days later when he went to seek other medical care.

Because of the misdiagnosis, on May 25, 1999, Sharpe and his wife filed a medical malpractice and loss of consortium suit against Providence Hospital and Dr. Hayes. The Sharpes did not name Dr. Taillon as a defendant. Providence Hospital settled with the Sharpes on June 10, 2004.

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In what appears to be a change in 100 years of law, the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta has ruled that Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines can be successfully sued for medical malpractice by passengers who have been negligently injured or killed by the ship medical providers.

The federal appeals court refused to reconsider the decision that essentially opens the doors for cruise ship passengers to sue cruise lines for medical malpractice.

In a hearing that was held in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, Ga., the appeals court rejected a bid by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines to revisit its ruling. The court noted that none of the 11th circuit judges voted in support of reconsideration.

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In Illinois, legislation has been passed three times to limit recoveries in medical negligence claims. Each time the Illinois Supreme Court has overturned such restrictions on the ground that they are unconstitutional. Missouri is going through the same exercise once again. About ten years ago, Missouri last limited some civil lawsuit awards, but the Missouri Supreme Court overturned the legislation.

Now businesses can face lawsuits with unlimited punitive damages and civil injury lawsuits after the Missouri Supreme Court struck down a $500,000 limit on awards in September 2014, two years after striking down other limits for medical-malpractice awards.

It has been reported that business groups and Republican leaders there want the decision striking down limits for medical-malpractice rewards to be reversed and now are attempting a state constitutional amendment to ensure the court cannot interfere with caps again. “Missouri will continue to be a judicial hellhole” if caps are not put in place, said Senate Majority Floor Leader Ron Richard of Joplin, Mo. Richard says his constitutional amendment effort capping punitive damages is his top priority for the current senate session.

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The Illinois Supreme Court is about to entertain two cases that may have great impact on how medical-malpractice cases are handled. In the case of Klaine v. Southern Illinois Hospital Services, the state Supreme Court will decide whether  a doctor’s application for hospital privileges to practice at a particular hospital are privileged and cannot be produced in discovery.

In this case, Carol Klaine filed a medical-malpractice lawsuit against Dr. Frederick Dreesen claiming that she was injured after a colon surgery performed by the doctor. Klaine also filed a claim against Southern Illinois Hospital Services alleging negligent credentialing of Dr. Dreesen.

During the discovery process, Klaine wanted the documents that Dr. Dreesen submitted as part of his application for staff privileges at Southern Illinois Hospital. The documents requested included information about his work history, claims history and insurance history, as well as the history of decisions and recommendations on his prior applications for hospital privileges.

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John Dux was alleged to have committed suicide because of a medical-malpractice incident at the Hines Veterans Administration Hospital in Maywood, Ill. The lawsuit brought by his daughter was filed against the United States government under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which included a claim for wrongful death.

The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment. The U.S. district judge who considered the case had to decide whether Illinois precedent on proximate causation blocked the wrongful-death claim.

With two exceptions, Illinois follows the traditional rule that “a plaintiff may not recover for a decedent’s suicide following a tortious act because suicide is an independent intervening event that the tortfeasor cannot be expected to foresee.” Luss v. Village of Forest Park, 377 Ill.App.3d 318 (2007).

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