Maryland Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog

An Indiana jury has issued a large verdict in a medical malpractice case last month, an unusual thing in a state where such judgments are rare. The jury awarded the woman $5 million after miscommunication about X-rays led her to lose a portion of her stomach. Due to caps on damages, the verdict will shrink to $1.25 million. Only about 1/3 or that state’s medical malpractice cases result in verdicts for plaintiffs
.
Before they can sue, that state’s residents must bring their cases before a three-member medical review board, which can take a year or longer. Even if the board decides the case has merit, a trial can take years, and health-care providers are unlikely to settle because the state's cap on damages protects them from the risk of massive judgments. A copy of the article regarding the case can be found here.

In medical malpractice cases in Baltimore and other counties in Maryland, we don’t have medical review boards. But we do have tort reform. Though there are many components, the main elements are the requirement of Certificates of Qualified Expert (also called a Certificate of Merit) and medical report before a case can make it to court, and a cap on pain, suffering and emotional distress. These two things have kept verdicts down in Maryland and, as a result, kept medical malpractice insurance premiums down for doctors and hospitals.

Navigating the Certificate and Report requirement can be very tricky, which is why Maryland medical malpractice plaintiffs need a very experienced lawyer to pursue their case. There has been a lot of litigation in Maryland over the last few years regarding Certificates and Reports in medical malpractice cases. This has resulted in many cases being thrown out. In fact, when I teach medical malpractice to law students every year, I now spend a couple of classes talking about Certificates and Reports, whereas several years ago I only spent about 20 minutes talking about it.

An Indiana jury has awarded $5 million to a woman in a medical malpractice case that was caused by a misdiagnosis. The woman, then 18, arrived at the emergency room with a ruptured diaphragm after playing softball. But through several miscommunications about what was shown by x-rays, she was misdiagnosed with a urinary tract infection and muscle strain, and then sent home.
Her condition deteriorated, so she saw doctors several times over more than two weeks. Eventually, emergency surgery revealed the correct diagnosis and resulted in the removal of a third of her stomach. Even today, she must limit food intake to avoid vomiting. She has had six surgeries and expects further complications. The woman can no longer work due to fatigue from the malpractice. A copy of the article regarding the case can be found here.

I have successfully handled many medical malpractice cases in Baltimore and other counties in Maryland involving the failure to properly read, report and/or interpret a radiology film. These cases are tragic b/c the answer to the problem is right before the doctor’s eyes, but it doesn’t get properly reported.

In one case, a radiologist was found by a jury to be negligent for failing to properly read and interpret a prenatal sonogram. That case resulted in a verdict of $7.6 million verdict. In another case, a radiologis failed to report that a CAT (CT) scan of the abdomen showed appendicitis, resutling in the appendix rupturing, which caused the client's death.

A Frederick County jury has awarded almost $1.37 million to a woman who suffers severe and chronic leg pain and must take a blood thinner each day, after a diagnostic test left her with vascular injuries. The jury found that a doctor negligently performed a laparoscopy to determine the cause of the woman’s ovarian or abdominal soreness, and that he lacerated blood vessels. The lacerations led to emergency surgery which stopped the bleeding, but the incident left her with a deep vein thrombosis, or blood clot, in her leg and the possibility of more clots. The plaintiff alleged that the doctor violated the standard of care by performing the procedure without proper visualization, using excessive force and failing to take proper precautions to avoid cutting blood vessels.

The pain and suffering portion of the verdict, which included more than $315,000 for loss of consortium, accounted for about $1.2 million of the jury’s award. That figure will be reduced by about 45 percent to $650,000, the cap that was in place when the claim arose. The jury also awarded $156,915.01 in economic damages, of which $83,004.16 is for future medical expenses, $65,186.77 is for prior medical costs and $8,724.08 is for lost wages. A copy of the article regarding the case can be found here.

I successfully handled many medical malpractice cases just like this in Baltimore and other counties in Maryland. Many of these cases have been surgical cases just like this, where the allegation is that the doctor did not perform surgery properly.

What makes this case especially interesting is that the verdict is in Frederick County. That county is generally known among Maryland medical malpractice lawyers as being a very difficult place to win a verdict for a plaintiff. Even when a plaintiff does win, it is usually a low verdict. Recently, there have been several large verdicts in medical malpractice cases in Frederick. As one of my colleagues recently said, the glass ceiling has been broken in medical malpractice cases in Frederick.

Personally, I believe no Maryland county is immune from a large malpractice award as long as the plaintiff is a quality person, the malpractice is severe and the damages are severe.

A jury has issued a $31 million verdict against an Ohio hospital in a birth injury case, which could be the largest jury award for a medical malpractice case in that state’s history. The verdict included nearly $26 million for future medical care for the boy, who is now 8.

The boy has severe cerebral palsy. He cannot speak, uses a feeding tube, can’t walk and has difficulty holding anything in his hands. He will never be able to work, and his parents are now his health care givers 24 hours a day. As usual, this has caused the family to reduce their income to take care of the child.

The Plaintiffs alleged that the boy suffered permanent, irreversible brain damage during his birth. The boy’s mother was a VBAC patient, meaning she would deliver the boy vaginally, though she had previously had a Caesarian section. That meant she was at a higher risk for a ruptured uterus during labor, which occurred. At that point, the mother’s body stopped providing necessary oxygen through the placenta, though the boy had yet to be born. The family estimated that he went 18 to 20 minutes without oxygen.

According to the family, the hospital staff, which knew the mother was a high-risk patient, committed malpractice by failing to monitor the labor properly, by failing to diagnosis the stimulation of her uterus, by improperly the drug Pitocin and by not telling the lead doctor of her inappropriate contraction pattern. The nurses continued to give her Pitocin, even as her contractions quickened to unsafe levels. A copy of the article regarding the case can be found here.

Interestingly, the family in this medical malpractice case reached a settlement agreement with the hospital before the jury returned its verdict. This is not uncommon in medical malpractice cases that go to trial, as the stakes are usually high. Typically, during trial, when one side presents its case, the other side is continuously evaluating its probability of success. For example, when the defense presents its expert and other witnesses, the plaintiffs’ lawyers are assessing whether their case is getting stronger or weaker. At some point, one side or even both may realize that the case is not going as well as expected and that a settlement is in their best interest to avoid the risk of losing. When that happens, negotiations usually ensure and a settlement may be reached. Sometimes, it’s a straightforward medical malpractice settlement where the parties reach an agreement and the case ends. But sometimes, the defense wants to see whether the jury will side with the plaintiff before the defense is willing to pay. In that type of case, the jury decides the issue of whether a doctor committed malpractice (called liability) and usually whether the malpractice caused any injury (called causation). Then, once the jury had decided liability and causation in the plaintiff’s favor, the plaintiff will get a certain settlement amount.

There ever are high-low medical malpractice settlements. In such a case, the parties agree two figures – the high and the low; for example, $1 million and $3 million. Then, if the verdict is below $1 million, the plaintiff gets at least $1 million. If the verdict is between the high-low amount – say $1.5 million - the plaintiff gets at the verdict amout. Finally, if the verdict is above the high number – say $10 million - the Plaintiff gets the high amount of $3 million. This is a way to guarantee that the plaintiff gets something while capping the defendant’s exposure.

I have successfully handled a number of medical malpractice / medical negligence / medical error cases in Baltimore and other counties in Maryland involving settlements like this. There are many creative ways to settle a medical malpractice case. Sometimes a straightforward settlement is in the parties’ best interest. But other times, a creative settlement like this is warranted.

A Texas jury has awarded a man $10 million in a medical malpractice case. The man had an allergic reaction to the blood thinner Heparin. During surgery, he suffered what's called Heparin Induced Thrombocytopenia or H.I.T., which is a complication where the blood clots instead of thinning, stopping the blood flow to the extremities. As a result, the man lost his leg from thigh down, part of his right foot and a several fingers. A copy of the article regarding the case can be found here.

I have successfully handled a number of medical malpractice cases in Baltimore and other counties in Maryland involving use of blood thinners. In fact, I successfully handled a similar case to this, where a woman developed a clotting disorder after delivering a child, resulting in the woman losing her uterus.

Interestingly, the man may be the last to receive this kind of award in Texas. He filed his case before a new law took place which caps pain and suffering awards at $250,000. These type of cap are draconian, as they prevent seriously injured people from recovering the true value of their case, and also severely limit the number of attorneys who can afford to lay out $100,000 in expenses only to recover a fee of about that amount.