Maryland Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog

As an experienced Baltimore, Maryland medical malpractice lawyer, I am frequently asked to comment on malpractice cases from around the county. Recently, a Chicago hospital settled a case for $3 million after it failed to properly treat a toddler for an allergic reaction to penicillin, which had been given to her for an ear infection despite previous signs of an allergy to the medication. The suit and an Illinois Appellate Court decision tied to the case suggest that efforts by the hospital's risk manager, who is not employed there any longer, to investigate the girl's death may have been obstructed by hospital administrators. Apparently, syringes, Intravenous tubes and other medical materials, which were physical evidence of the girl's treatment that day , were tossed minutes after she died.

I have handled a number of medical malpractice cases in Baltimore, Maryland and other places involving medication errors. Most of the cases fall into two categories: giving a patient a medication they are allergic to or giving the patient the wrong medication. In fact, I am handling two such cases now. In this day and age of extensive documentation, these kind of medication errors shouldn’t happen. There is no excuse. To see some of the cases I have handled, click here .

As an experienced Baltimore, Maryland medical malpractice lawyer, I am frequently asked to comment on malpractice cases from around the county. Recently, a Philadelphia jury awarded $2.185 million in a medical malpractice case in which it was alleged that a hospital and two emergency room doctors failed to timely read x-rays. The patient came to the ER at 8:35 am after experiencing chest, back and leg pains. He was quickly seen by a doctor, who ordered x-rays. After the x-rays were done, the emergency room doctor should have reviewed them before they were sent to radiology, but that did not happen. Because no one looked x-rays that day, no one realized that they showed a dissecting aortic aneurysm, a condition in which blood gets between the layers of the aorta wall and fills up the sac surrounding the heart, tightening it until the heart is not able to pump. The patient died at 7:05 pm from the undiagnosed condition.

The key to these cases, in addition to proving that the standard of care is to timely and properly read the x-ray, is to make sure that the there would have been enough time to do the life-saving surgery that this man needed. That requires a cardiothoracic or vascular surgery expert. In this case, this man had a condition that can kill him in minutes. The doctors in this case needed to quickly act on his complaints and not let the x-rays sit around in the hospital while this man died. It is a true tragedy.

I have handled a large number of medical malpractice cases in Baltimore, Maryland and other places involving emergency room mistakes. Some of the cases I have handled have involved medical malpractice due to the failure to properly evaluate a heart attack, failure to properly evaluate a drug reaction, failure to properly perform a suicide assessment, failure to diagnose a pulmonary embolism, failure to diagnose an abdominal aortic aneurysm, and failure to diagnose an aortic dissection which is exactly what happened in this case. To see some of the cases I have handled, click here .

As an experienced Baltimore, Maryland medical malpractice lawyer, I am frequently asked to comment on malpractice cases from around the county. Recently, a Rhode Island jury awarded a former truck driver $4 million in an orthopedic negligence case. The man filed suit in 2002 alleging that the doctor negligently performed surgery on his hand by slicing a nerve. This allegedly caused his hand to hurt, change color and temperature, and sweat. He eventually was diagnosed with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome, a chronic neurological disorder that causes severe pain. His hand since has become claw-like, and continues to have pain. As a result, he has become addicted to pain medication and relies on drugs to fall asleep each night. A copy of an article regarding the case can be found here.

This was a major verdict in a difficult case. While it would have been easy to show the jury the disfigured hand, juries sometimes have difficulty understanding Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, which is a chronic pain syndrome. The defense usually claims the person is exaggerating, and juries have difficulty grasping that a limb that may look ok is causing severe pain. Brining is experts to explain RSD to the jury is key.

I have handled a large number of medical malpractice cases in Baltimore, Maryland and other places involving surgical mistakes. Sometimes the mistakes are discovered right after surgery and others times it take months or years to discover. Usually, the client is told that the surgery will solve their problem, but the surgery ends up making it worse. Some of the cases I have handled have involved medical malpractice due to the failure to properly perform brain surgery, failure to properly perform back or spinal surgery, failure to properly perform gallbladder surgery, failure to properly perform lung surgery, failure to properly perform bariatric surgery (also known as stomach stapling), etc. To see some of the cases I have handled, click here .