Maryland Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog

Los Angeles County has finally acknowledged for the first time in a medical malpractice case that a woman who died shortly after writhing in pain for nearly an hour on the waiting room floor of a county hospital been saved if she had been properly treated. The woman was captured on security videotape as a janitor mopped around her and a triage nurse dismissed her complaints early one morning in May 2007. The woman’s death helped precipitate the closure of the hospital's emergency room and inpatient care after federal regulators determined that staffers had failed to deliver a minimum standard of care.

The woman’s boyfriend, who had accompanied her to the emergency room and called 911 from a nearby pay phone after no one would help, recently was offered a $250,000 settlement by county supervisors. A separate lawsuit against the county filed by her adult children could potentially prove far more costly and is considered more likely to go to trial. The children have asked for $1 million for each minute she was denied treatment -- $45 million in all.

The indifference shown to the woman’s suffering made national news and outraged county supervisors and national health authorities as well as area residents. A federal report issued last year concluded that six staff members, including a nurse and two nursing assistants, saw or walked past the woman but did nothing. She died from a perforated bowel shortly after she was arrested on an outstanding warrant instead of being treated.

The potential county payouts in the case would mark the latest in a long history of settlements and judgments against the now-shuttered hospital for poor patient care. A copy of an article regarding the case can be found here.

I have been involved in a number of medical malpractice / medical negligence / medical error cases in Baltimore and other counties in Maryland involving care that was so below the standard of care that the state medical board or nursing board investigated and filed charges. In one case, a nurse was even prosecuted criminally for failing to render proper medical care, causing the death of the woman. It’s always helpful when the state gets involved to investigate. Many times, the state’s report can be a helpful tool to prove what happened before the lawsuit is ever filed.

A South Carolina hospital and doctor have agreed to pay more than $1.2 million to settle a medical malpractice wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a woman who died after she failed to receive a physician-ordered blood test. Apparently, the woman had surgery and was later discharged. Two days after the discharge, she went to the emergency room of the defendant hospital complaining of numbness in her left leg. The medical negligence lawsuit claimed that a doctor ordered a blood test that was not done. The woman subsequently went into a coma and died. A copy of the article regarding the case can be found here.

I have successfully handled a number of medical malpractice and wrongful death cases in Baltimore and other counties in Maryland involving a failure to follow-through with a doctor’s orders. One of the cases I handled involved a failure to timely give blood that was ordered by a doctor. As a result, the patient bled out and died. These cases are always tragic because the problem was recognized by the doctor, but the staff just did not follow the order.

A California jury has awarded $8.5 million to the widow of a man who died on the day a surgeon was going to discharge him from the hospital. Because of limits on medical malpractice cases, the woman probably will receive only $1.6 million of that amount.

The 49-year-old man broke six ribs in a motorcycle accident in 2002. At the trial, his wife’s attorneys argued that a doctor should have more closely monitored him after x-rays showed he had one gallon of liquid backed up in his stomach four hours before he died, and he had previously been resuscitated. The man died after choking on his own vomit. A copy of the article regarding the case can be found here.

I have successfully handled a number of medical malpractice / medical negligence / medical error cases in Baltimore and other counties in Maryland involving premature hospital discharge / improper discharge from a hospital. These cases have ranged from failure to properly diagnose and treat infections / sepsis, failure to diagnose and treat pulmonary embolisms, failure to properly diagnose and treat surgical complications, failure to diagnose and treat heart attacks, failure to diagnose and properly treat brain injuries, etc. Sometimes these cases arise soon before discharge or right after. These cases are always tragic because the patient and family trust the doctor and hospital to do the right thing and, as a result, they are usually given a false sense of security in the planning of the discharge or the actual discharge itself. Many times, the patient and/or family’s concerns are dismissed and they are reassured that everything will be fine and the patient will get better. A death within days of a planned or actual discharge should always be carefully investigated.

A Pittsburgh jury has found that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center at Shadyside was negligent in a patient's death and awarded $2.5 million for wrongful death. The case alleged that a young man died after a brain abscess was not treated in time by the staff at the hospital. The jury actually issued a statement saying, "It is our belief that UPMC Shadyside's policies, culture, and lack of competent supervision resulted in the death of Michael Rettger." The young man, who was an accountant, was in West Virginia in November 2003 to perform an audit of another hospital when he began vomiting and reporting a headache. The man then was admitted to that hospital, and a CT scan and MRI revealed a large, swelling mass in his brain. The man was transferred to UPMC Shadyside in order to be closer to home. A copy of the article regarding the case can be found here.

I have successfully handled a number of medical malpractice / medical negligence / medical error cases in Baltimore and other counties in Maryland, and in Washington, D.C., involving the failure of hospitals to timely diagnose and treat patients with brain and other conditions. Of course, one has to obtain the medical records and retain proper experts in these cases, such as neurosurgeons and radiologists, to determine what really happened. But what is also critical in these type of cases is to obtain the hospital’s written standards to determine how the hospital expected its people to act, and to then take the depositions of the people most involved with the care and treatment of the patient, to understand what they did and whether they complied with hospital policies.

A Florida jury has awarded $12 million for the death of a premature baby caused by medical malpractice. The parents contended in their suit that the hospital negligently accepted a transfer of the baby from another hospital, but did not have the appropriate specialists on its staff to deal with their baby’s infection. A copy of the article regarding the case can be found here.

In Maryland and the District of Columbia, most hospitals can be classified as academic medical centers (like the Johns Hopkins Hospital, the University of Maryland Medical Center, George Washington University Medical Center or Georgetown University Hospital, etc.) or community hospitals (like Sinai Hospital, Harbor Hospital, Shady Grove Adventist, etc.). Maryland and District of Columbia hospitals also are labeled according to what type of trauma center they are.

The concept of a trauma center was developed at the University of Maryland Medical Center in the 1960s and 1970s by heart surgeon and shock researcher R Adams Cowley, who founded what became the Shock Trauma Center. Trauma centers in the United States are ranked by the American College of Surgeons (ACS), from level I (comprehensive service) to level III (limited-care). The different levels refer to the type of resources available in a trauma center and the number of patients admitted yearly.

A level I trauma center provides the highest level of surgical care to trauma patients. It has a full range of specialists and equipment available 24 hours a day and admits a minimum required annual volume of severely injured patients. A level I trauma center is required to have a certain number of surgeons and anesthesiologists on duty 24 hours a day at the hospital, an education program, preventive and outreach programs. Other required elements include 24-hour in-house coverage by general surgeons and prompt availability of care in varying specialties such as orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, radiology, internal medicine, oral and maxillofacial surgery, and critical care, which are needed to adequately respond and care for various forms of trauma that a patient may suffer. Additionally, a Level I center has a program of research, is a leader in trauma education and injury prevention, and is a referral resource for communities in nearby regions.

A level II trauma center works in collaboration with a Level I center. It provides comprehensive trauma care and supplements the clinical expertise of a level I institution. It provides 24-hour availability of all essential specialties, personnel, and equipment. Minimum volume requirements may depend on local conditions. These institutions are not required to have an ongoing program of research or a surgical residency program.

A level III trauma center does not have the full availability of specialists, but does have resources for emergency resuscitation, surgery, and intensive care of most trauma patients. A level III center has transfer agreements with level I or level II trauma centers that provide back-up resources for the care of exceptionally severe injuries.

Obviously, a Maryland or District of Columbia hospital can be liable for medical malpractice / medical negligence for failing to have the required specialist on the premises, or readily available as required by the ACS, if it causes an injury or damage.