Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

A Florida man, who is suing two Broward County doctors for malpractice in a rare case allowing a punitive damages claim.

The man claims his plastic surgeon later lied about his detached role in the botched surgery, created two sets of medical records to hide the truth and still billed his insurance company for performing surgery.

The Broward Circuit Judge issued an order in July putting punitive damages in play, and Florida's 4th District Court of Appeal on Sept. 29 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari on the issue. The trial is set for March 2.

Continue reading "Florida Med-Mal Case With Punitive Damages Claim" »

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Posted In: Medical Malpractice , Medico-Legal News , Personal Injury

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The U.S. government must pay $8.6 million in damages because a military doctor at Scott Air Force Base failed to diagnose a case of flesh-eating bacteria according to a federal magistrate judge's ruling.

The former wife of an Air Force captain, testified that she sought treatment at the base hospital emergency room for pain and swelling in her right arm in 2002.

According to court documents, the doctor was concerned the woman was a drug addict wanting a prescription, advised her to go home and take Motrin.

A month later, the situation got progressively worse and the woman was taken to the emergency room. The woman was then diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, a strep infection that decays soft tissue.

Continue reading "Scott AFB Doctor Liable in $8.6 M Judgment" »

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Posted In: Medical Malpractice , Medico-Legal News , Personal Injury

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Medical device maker Medtronic Inc. said it did not encourage the unapproved use of its spinal implant, which a new lawsuit is blaming for the death of a California woman.

The lawsuit, filed by the woman's family in Los Angeles, said her death was caused by use of the Infuse spinal graft in her neck. The device is approved only for use in lower-back surgery and some oral and dental procedures.

The woman's surgery took place in August, a month after the Food and Drug Administration warned that use of Infuse for neck surgeries had led to problems swallowing, breathing and speaking.

Continue reading "Medtronic Lawsuit Over Spinal Implant" »

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Posted In: Medical Malpractice , Personal Injury , Product Liability , Spinal Cord Injury

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The parents of a 7-year-old boy who died after contracting West Nile virus from a transfusion of tainted blood asked the Florida Supreme Court to restore an $8 million jury verdict against a blood bank.

The Court have been asked to decide whether all blood banks are covered by Florida's medical malpractice statutes, which include special procedures and limits on damages and attorney fees, rather than general negligence laws.

The American Red Cross and two national blood bank associations are participating in the case through a written "friend-of-the-court" argument that sided with the defendant, LifeSouth Community Blood Centers Inc.

Continue reading "Lawsuit in Florida Blood Bank Death " »

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Posted In: Medical Malpractice , Personal Injury , Wrongful Death

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A widow who sued the U.S. government over her husband's death at the Marion VA Medical Center has accepted a settlement of almost $1 million.

The Kentucky man died in the hospital after gallbladder surgery last year. His widow, sued alleging medical negligence and accusing the government of failing to adequately check the background of her husband's surgeon, before hiring him.

Continue reading "Marion VA Medical Center Liable in Wrongful Death" »

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A 59-year-old man lumbers through a junkyard he helps manage; he bumps into a desk and the man is almost blind in his right eye and has trouble with depth perception and peripheral vision.

This unfortunate man blames a doctor for a botched retina reattachment operation in August 2007. But lawyers tell him it is economically unfeasible to litigate his complicated case, or that time limitations are an issue.

For that, he blames medical malpractice reforms of the 2004 Nevada Legislature.

"With this new malpractice law in place, I cannot even get a lawyer to go after who is responsible for what happened," the Las Vegas resident said. "There is hardly any protection for the consumer any more. Now everything is in favor of doctors."

Voters overwhelmingly approved Question 3 in 2004. Physicians called it the "Keep Our Doctors In Nevada" initiative.

Continue reading "Nevada Medical Malpractice Crisis" »

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A $4 million award to the family of a woman misdiagnosed with cancer and then given a lethal dose of painkillers was upheld by the Mississippi Supreme Court.

The patient's daughter brought a wrongful death suit against Hospice Ministries and Dr. William Causey. The hospice settled during the trial for the maximum $1 million in insurance coverage.

The daughter said a simple lab test could have prevented the entire thing. The 66 year old patient was diagnosed in 2001 with pancreatic cancer at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and sent to Hospice Ministries in Ridgeland in June 2001. She died about a month later.

Continue reading "Medical Malpractice Judgment Upheld" »

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A Nevada doctor has been accused of causing the deaths of three patients and has numerous examples of alleged prescription drug malpractice.

Investigations of the doctor are on going, but the Nevada State Medical Examiners Board has not suspended his license or taken any steps to force him to curtail his prescribing of large quantities of narcotic painkillers.

The medical board has the authority to summarily suspend the license of a doctor who is putting patients in imminent harm.

Continue reading "Nevada and Narcotic Painkillers" »

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The Federal government has agreed to pay a Utah family nearly $1 million to settle a medical malpractice case. The man was being treated for leukemia at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Salt Lake City in 2004 when he developed a severe infection and died. His survivors sued, claiming the hospital failed to give him antibiotics in time. He died of sepsis from a low white-blood-cell count.

The Government agreed to settle the case for $950,000 to cover general damages and future lost income.

Continue reading "Utah Medical Malpractice Case Settles for $1M " »

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New questions are being raised about the death of a Dallas man, who died after waiting 19 hours in Parkland Hospital's emergency room. See earlier story.

The questions come from another emergency room patient who sat with the dying man for ten hours. The woman says what she saw that night two weeks ago was, in her opinion, the unconscionable misdiagnosis and mistreatment of a man who suffered for 19 hours before dying.

The man complained of so much pain that according to Parkland records, on a scale of ten, he was a ten. The reason, a perforated hernia that he at one point showed to the stranger sitting next to him.

"And at that point I could see the intestines coming through his abdomen," she said.

Continue reading "Dallas Parkland ER Death" »

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A Dallas man, died at Parkland Memorial Hospital emergency room after waiting nearly 19 hours for treatment.

The 58 year old collapsed just as he was about to receive medical treatment. Doctors were unable to revive him, and the cause of death is not yet known. Apparently he was suffering severe abdominal pain, when his sister drove him to the emergency room.

Parkland Hospital officials said they are investigating the death.

Continue reading "Dallas Man dies While Waiting at Parkland ER" »

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The FDA this week attacked several companies involved in an eye wash and a skin cream without FDA authorization. The FDA stated that these prescription medications could cause risks to patients.

Balanced salt solution is an eye wash which is used to keep the eyes moist. Two companies, Alcon Laboratories and Akorn, Inc. have versions that are officially approved by the FDA, and are not affected by this crackdown.

But B. Braun, Baxter and Hospira firms are selling similar types of eye wash without federal validation of their safety and effectiveness.

Continue reading "FDA Cracks Down on Braun, Baxter and Hospira" »

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A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled that Ed McMahon's medical malpractice lawsuit against Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and doctors can proceed. McMahon had alleged claims that include negligence, elder abuse, battery, fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Attorneys for Cedars-Sinai Hospital had challenged the negligence lawsuit for six of the claims. But Judge John P. Sook disagreed, and his ruling now allows McMahon to seek punitive damages.

Continue reading "Ed McMahon's Lawsuit of Botched Neck Surgeries can Proceed" »

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In October Medicare will stop paying hospitals for the added cost of treating patients who are injured in their care.

Medicare, has put 10 “reasonably preventable” conditions on its initial list; patients who receive incompatible blood transfusions, those who develop infections after certain surgeries or those who must undergo a second operation to retrieve a sponge left behind. Serious bed sores, injuries from falls and urinary tract infections caused by catheters are also on the list.

This policy will prevent hospitals from billing patients directly for costs generated by medical errors.

Continue reading "Medicare will not pay for Medical Errors" »

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Medical mistakes, though common in adults, can have disasterous results in children. The actor Dennis Quaid’s twins nearly died last year after receiving 1,000 times the prescribed dose of a blood thinner Heparin. Other infants have died from the same medication error. A study in the journal Pediatrics earlier this year found that problems due to medications occurred in 11% of children who were in the hospital, and that 22% of them were preventable.

Continue reading "Medical Errors in Kids" »

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Texas Legislature passed major medical liability tort reform in 2003, and a new study released by the Texas Hospital Association shows the state’s hospitals continue to see their liability costs drop.

According to the study, 85 percent of hospitals are finding it easier to recruit specialists and subspecialists because of the reduced threat of a major medical malpractice lawsuit. Further, 69 percent of institutions say they have been able to expand services because of declining liability costs.

Continue reading "Texas Hospitals Reap Benefits of Tort Reform" »

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Plaintiff attorneys are seeking a new trial in a medical malpractice case in which a jury found a hospital negligent in a patient's death but awarded $0 survival damages because the jury said "no amount of damages will adequately punish" the hospital.

A 24 year old man died after his brain abscess was not timely treated by the Pittsburgh hospital staff. The jury found that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center at Shadyside's care of the patient fell below the standard of medical care and was a factual cause of harm to the plaintiff. The jury awarded $2.5 million in Wrongful Death Act damages, but awarded zero dollars in Survival Act damages.

Continue reading "Medical Malpractice Jury Blames Hospital for Wrongful Death" »

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Rice, 24, died in 2006, while in Denver City Jail, 20 hours after she was released from a hospital. She had suffered a lacerated spleen and liver and bled to death from injuries she received in a drunken-driving crash.

The family of Emily Rice, who died while in custody at the Jail, reached a $4 million settlement with Denver Health Medical Center. Denver Health also agreed to significant changes in patient screening and treatment at both the medical center and the jail.

Continue reading "Jail Death: $4 Million Award" »

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An Atlanta jury has awarded $5 million in damages to the family of a new mother who drowned in a bathtub at Gwinnett Medical Center.

The lawsuit alleged that nurses should have checked on Wendy Wyckstandt, 34, and should have realized that she was too weak to shower without assistance.

Continue reading "Hospital Drowning: $5 Million awarded" »

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A Philadelphia jury awarded a $20.5 million verdict to the parents of an 18-year-old college student who died from a botched liposuction procedure.

This case had been pending for seven years to the day of the elective liposuction for Amy Fledderman. The patient had liposuction for her chin, abdomen and flanks with plastic surgeon Dr. Richard P. Glunk on May 23, 2001.

In the Fledderman v. Glunk wrongful death and survival lawsuit, the jury awarded $15 million in punitive damages; $3.5 million under the Survival Act; $2 million for Glunk allegedly negligently inflicting emotional distress on Colleen Fledderman (patient's mom); $20,000 under the Wrongful Death Act; and $5,000 for Glunk's alleged failure to obtain Amy Fledderman's informed consent.

Continue reading "Fatal Liposuction $20.5 Million Award" »

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A Tucson family was awarded $6 million in a lawsuit brought after a relative died of a morphine overdose. The judgment cost is to be paid 90 percent by operators of a nursing home, Manor Care Health Services, and 10 percent to be paid by Tucson Medical Center (TMC).
Sylvia Culpepper, 81 years old, was admitted to TMC on Dec. 2, 2003, suffering from sciatica, a painful nerve condition.

Continue reading "$6 Million awarded for Morphine overdose" »

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