Articles Posted in Maryland Malpractice Cases

Last week, the Maryland Cout of Special Appeals issued its opinion in Hinebaugh v. Garrett County Memorial Hospital.  This case is a cautionary tale for medical malpractice lawyers and other Maryland lawyers who think they can handle malpractice cases.

Maryland, like many states, creates a lot of hoops that plaintiffs need to jump through in order to bring medical malpractice case.  A lot of these requirements are ticky tacky details. But the big thing is a report and certificate of merit from a doctor who agrees there is a breach of the standard of care – the doctor did something a prudent doctor wouldn’t – and that the breach caused an injury.

Hinebaugh v. Garrett County Memorial Hospital

This case is barely worth reporting on, but I thought I would pass it along.

In Smith v. Palin, a Maryland federal court was asked whether the Maryland Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution Office abused its discretion in extending the time for filing the expert certificate required by Maryland law several times.  Specifically,  the defendant’s argued that the plaintiff’s excuse that they had requested, but not yet received all studies from treating physicians in Pennsylvania – including photographs of condition at issue – did not constitute good cause.

Should it take that long to get the records in a case?  No, it really shouldn’t.  Should the HCADRO hold plaintiffs’ feet to the fire and kick cases out because plaintiff’s lawyer has not done what they are supposed to do?  I think not.  Moreover, it is clearly not an abuse of discretion for the HCADRO director to determine that the plaintiffs do have good cause.  Not for nothing, the plaintiff was a 16-year-old girl when the defendant allegedly recommended that she undergo a bilateral breast augmentation as a treatment for a tubular breast deformity.  I don’t know about you, but I would like to see the court extend the benefit of the doubt.  Which is exactly what Judge James K. Bredar does.

A three year legal battle has ended in a $17.9 million settlement, though the money is nothing in comparison to the woman’s loss.
The facts here are absolutely tragic. In 2008, a now 35 year old mother of two presented to a New York emergency room. She was diagnosed with a kidney stone, and sent home with some painkillers. The next day, still in agonizing pain, she called 911 not once, but twice. The local medics did not take her back to the hospital.

On the following day, now two days out, her fiancé rushed her to the hospital. By this time, she had developed a sepsis infection that had spread through her body. She lapsed into a coma, and gangrene spread to her extremities. She awoke to having had both hands and feet amputated, and the loss of her sight in one eye.

The hospital, who still maintains that they provided excellent care, chose to settle “because a sympathetic jury would have been swayed by her profound injuries.” Wow, really? You think? A thirty-five year old mother will spend the rest of her life needing the aid of high-tech prosthetics to perform the simplest of tasks, like brushing her hair, not to mention the loss of sight in one eye, but the hospital is concerned that a jury might be swayed. Unreal. I applaud their concern.

A Massachusetts appellate court ordered a new trial after the trial court had granted a doctor’s motion for directed verdict in a medical malpractice case.

Classic malpractice case. Patient goes to an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist who diagnoses a voice disturbance and reflux esophagitis. Patient gets speech therapy. Critical time passes. He gets a second opinion and finds out he has cancer, metastatic non-small-cell lung carcinoma. Tragically, he dies.

The trial judge found that Plaintiff’s medical expert witness, a radiation oncologist, had failed to provide testimony specifically staging Plaintiff’s loss of chance claim submitted to the jury. As I have written in the past, Massachusetts has more liberal lost chance loss than Maryland does.

Lockshin v. Semsker was decided yesterday. Plaintiffs lost on every conceivable level. You can read the Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog summary here.

Heather Pensyl writes a good summary in the University of Baltimore Law Forum of McQuitty v. Spangler a cerebral palsy case in Baltimore County that I summarized last year discussing informed consent in Maryland.