Maryland Medical Malpractice Attorney Blog

The Tennessee Court of Appeals issued an opinion on its relatively new certificate of merit rule in Crawford v. Kavanaugh. Maryland has a similar rule and this opinion is a cautionary tale for both Tennessee and Maryland malpractice lawyers. The lesson: don't take a malpractice case unless you know how to handle it.

In Crawford, the defendant doctor performed a cystoscopy, retrograde pyelogram, and a brush biopsy on a woman's ureter. The purpose of this procedure is typically to diagnose transitional cell carcinoma, a cancer of the urinary system. The doctor believed the woman had atypical urothelial cells. To combat this, the doctor performed a uretectomy and ureteroneocystostomy. The woman had an infection and other complications. Another doctor treating the woman noticed she had a bowel obstruction. The woman had to undergo another surgery.

Clearly, this is an awful thing in human terms but not a major injury in the medical malpractice milieu. The woman needed “many additional weeks” in the hospital and “many months of recuperation and rehabilitation.” Again, I don't want to minimize her suffering. This is a tragedy if it happens to someone I care about. But that does not mean it is a good malpractice case. What is my point? This is the kind of case taken by maybe an otherwise good lawyer who does not regularly handle malpractice cases. Typically, experienced malpractice lawyers don't take a case like this and won't make these mistakes.

Continue reading " Details Matter in Filing Malpractice Case: New Appellate Opinion " »

• There are already major safety issues with medical devices, so what do the venture capitalists who invest in device companies want to do? Make it easier to get devices approved.
• The Delaware Supreme Court holds that a referring physician is not liable for malpractice committed by the doctor to whom he or she refers a patient.
• Here's a point in the case for choosing a female doctor.
• Rick Perry's medical malpractice "reform" in Texas did not solve the state's serious shortage of doctors in some areas.
• A federal judge in Illinois is letting a man proceed with his claim against emergency responders who forced "care" upon him after he refused medical treatment. His suit claims that paramedics "put their patient in a headlock, rammed his head 20 times into an ambulance wall and taped him up 'like a mummy.'"
• "A $9 million medical malpractice verdict in the case of an oil-field worker with a broken neck is thought to be the largest in Wyoming history."

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed in Texas after a nursing home resident fell from her bed and suffered severe and eventually fatal neurological injuries.

The facts are awful. A woman was found on the floor, next to her bed, yelling for help. She was neurologically alert and coherent, but bleeding from head trauma, and in severe pain. According to the lawsuit, the woman was placed back in bed, where she was later discovered nonresponsive, taken to the hospital, and died from her injuries.

Plaintiff's lawsuit alleges that contrary to the doctor's orders, the woman's bed was not in a low position, and floor mats and a bed alarm were not being used. Though she was a high fall risk resident, a care plan and nursing interventions (to prevent a fall) weren't followed. The lawsuit further claims that the nursing home's nurses were not adequately trained or apprised of the resident's care plan.

If the article I read is to be believed (reporters do screw these things up, sometimes), the discovery battle is beyond odd. The doctors have refused to produce the decedent's health care medical chart, on the basis that its lawyer had the chart... and they refuse to provide the lawyer's identity and contact information. As a result, the plaintiffs' malpractice lawyers have had to ask for a temporary restraining order against the center, preventing them from destroying or altering the chart. A hearing is scheduled for this week on the restraining order.

I would love to see the doctors' motions in that case. What could they possibly argue?

If you think you have been a victim of nursing home medical malpractice in Maryland, call 800-553-8082 or get a free online consultation.

Why aren't nursing home residents recovering?

A new study, published in the Annals of Surgery, has determined that elderly nursing home residents may suffer more complications from major operations than other people their age.

Based on more than 70,000 nursing home residents, and 1 million non-institutionalized Medicare enrollees 65 years and older, it is being reported that the elderly "are frail and often have advanced medical problems, which puts them at higher risk of dying after surgery." An example cited states that 12 out of 100 nursing home residents who had their appendix removed died within a month of the procedure, as compared to 2 out of 100 elderly people living on their own.

The study revealed that the death rates were consistently higher among people in nursing homes. Why is this? Researchers have said that we may be too aggressive with surgery in nursing home residents, that they are frail and often have advanced medical problems. This puts them at a higher risk of dying after surgery.

Continue reading " Elderly Nursing Home Residents May Suffer More Surgical Complications " »

Do electronic records decrease malpractice?

Electronic medical records are all the rage. The potential benefits are not hard to see. Doctors can access a patient's entire medical history from one chart. Allergic reaction to penacilin in 2003? Got it. Equally helpful, the system has built-in alerts of the potential dangers of drugs interactions.

It is a bipartisan idea in Washington, D.C., a town where bipartisan ideas are as common as Indianapolis Colts wins without Peyton Manning. President George Bush first championed Health Information Technology as a national priority for the U.S. in 2004. President Obama then threw $36 billion in stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) – earmarked to facilitate implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) – just what the doctor ordered to speed things up. Since then, the EHR implementation machine has churned away in an effort to improve efficiency in patient care. By broadening access to patient information, creating a consistent system for reminders and alerts, offering important safety features such as clinical decision-making support, and automating prescription filling and re-filling, EHRs have the potential to change the landscape of medicine in the U.S. and across the world.

In addition to their direct patient and physician benefits, EMRs are also touted as a means of reducing medical malpractice claims against doctors. Recently, however, a number of malpractice claims have been filed against providers using EHRs; claims directly and indirectly related to the use of EHRs in patient care. Either medical malpractice lawyers will sue over just about anyone or there is real cause for concern that we all should be thinking about. I suspect it is the latter. Medical malpractice insurers apparently agree and are considering increasing medical malpractice insurance premiums in order to offset the potential risks associated with the use of EHRs.

Continue reading " Do Electronic Records Lead to More Medical Malpractice? " »

Stunning malpractice claims

You suffer an injury and need surgery. You have to rely on your surgeon to play it straight with you. Besides a second opinion, never a bad idea, what else can you do? Far down on your list of fears: not getting the surgery the doctor tells you that you are getting.

But, in massive numbers, that seems to have happened in New York. There are currently dozens of new lawsuits, alleging medical malpractice, pending against a New York based orthopedic surgeon, with about another 100 cases being discussed.

Ten of the current lawsuits filed allege that the doctor performed surgery, but intentionally did not treat, or improperly treated, his patients' injuries. While those complaints stem from a surgery performed, there are yet other complaints that allege a surgery was never performed. In one particular case, a patient went to the surgeon because of shoulder problems. A "shoulder reconstruction" was performed, but when the patient's pain and problems continued, she sought a second opinion from another doctor. After a battery of x-rays, it was determined that there was no evidence whatsoever that the surgeon performed a shoulder reconstruction, such as screws, anchors, or a fixation device. That patient further claims that the doctor injured her nerves during the surgery, and as a result, she now has permanent hand numbness, and problems grasping things.

Continue reading " Orthopedic Surgeon Faces a Possible 100 Malpractice Cases " »

Are Maryland nursing home lawsuits a part of the solution or a part of the problem?

Over 36 million Americans are currently over the age of 65. By 2050, that number is expected to raise to 86.7 million. We have an estimated 1.4 million residents living in 16,000 nursing homes in the United States. Incredible statistics.

This problem did not sneak up on us. We all knew that our population was aging. It is a great thing. People are living longer and more productive lives. Today, 80 is the new 60. But there are byproducts of civilization's leap forward. We keep saying we realize there is a problem with nursing home abuse and neglect. But the problem is getting better, not worse.

Continue reading " Why Maryland Nursing Home Suits Improve Care " »

According to a recent article published in the “Journal of the American College of Radiology,” the rapid growth of diagnostic testing appears to be placing physicians at greater risk for medical malpractice claims. The reason: test communication failures. As clinical evaluation often depends on diagnostic tests, it is imperative that diagnostic physicians notify the referring physician of any urgent or unexpected findings. The result in failing to do so: a medical malpractice claim.

The article referenced a study in which it was demonstrated that between 1996 and 2003, malpractice payments related to diagnosis increased by approximately 40 percent (40%). Contributing factors in malpractice cases associated with communication failures include, for example, failure of physicians and patients to receive results, delays in report findings, and lengthy turnaround time. Referencing data from the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), the authors found that the total indemnity payout across all medical specialties for U.S. claims, related to these types of communication failures, increased from $21.7 million in 1991 to $91 million in 2010. Linear regression analysis of data from 1991 to 2009 indicated that communications related claims payments increased at the national level by an average of $4.67 million annually.

Over the same period, NPDB data showed that communication failure awards accounted for an increasing proportion of total U.S. malpractice awards for all providers. The proportion increased by a factor of 1.7, from 0.93 percent in 1991 to 2.31 percent in 2009.

The author recommends that healthcare organizations need clear policies that define the responsibility of reporting any urgent or unexpected findings to the referring providers, to ensure patient follow-up.

• Self Referral for Diagnostic Testing
• Medical Malpractice News
• Malpractice Claims Common Outside of the Hospital

I certainly have been neglecting this blog more than I should of late. But I have and my firm is continuing to put information about medical malpractice case in Maryland on-line. We have put together a very elaborate misdiagnosis area of our website that includes:

• Breast cancer misdiagnosis
• Skin cancer misdiagnosis
• Colon cancer misdiagnosis
• Cervical cancer misdiagnosis
• Lyme disease misdiagnosis
• Meningitis misdiagnosis
• Heart disease misdiagnosis