South Carolina Injury Lawyer Blog

Over the last few weeks your Charleston, SC attorney has been discussing serious injuries related to pharmaceutical and medication errors. Below are two unrelated instances in which middle-aged women entered hospitals for treatment of a specific condition, suffered complications due to hospital mistakes, and were ultimately much worse at release than when admitted to the respective hospitals' care.

A civil jury in the Bronx awarded a brain-damaged woman a sum around $120 million for a series of New York City hospital mistakes. The sum is the one of the largest ever awarded in a medical malpractice verdict in the State of New York. The brain injury stems from a February 2004 hospital visit for a seizure. According to the now 45-year-old woman's medical malpractice lawyer, medical personnel mismanaged the woman's medications, failed to respond swiftly to "crises" and did not provide essential treatments. After receiving anti-seizure medication, the woman suffered an allergic reaction, causing severe swelling in her face, eyes and throat. The condition is known as Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and is an extremely rare and severe skin disorder that is due to an allergic reaction or viral infection, and constitutes a dermatological emergency.

An appeal of the monstrous verdict appears to be imminent as the city claims the award is excessive, saying the judgment is neither consistent with the law nor the facts of the case. Citing that the woman earned less than $40,000 a year as a claims adjuster, but was awarded $10 million in lost earnings, and further explaining that her past medical costs totaling $583,000 (and covered by Medicaid) were compensated by the jury in the amount of $5 million. To note, it has been long been considered that civil juries in the Bronx are the most generous in New York City. In fact, a personal injury lawyer told the Associated Press in 1990 that "If I'm a plaintiff, I rather be there than anyplace in the world."

The woman's medical malpractice attorney was quick to point out that even if the specific awards mentioned above are excessive, combined they only amount to a little more than 10 percent of the total verdict.

Continue reading "Major Medication Error and Malpractice Lawsuits Outside South Carolina " »

Your Charleston personal injury attorneys read yesterday that the Mid-Town Atlanta dental practice that employed a nurse anesthetist sentenced to life plus 25 years in prison for sexually assaulting sedated and unconscious patients now faces a pair of civil lawsuits. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the suits were filed by the parents of a 15-year-old girl and the other by an adult patient. The suits, filed in Fulton County state court, assert that the sexual assaults could have been prevented if the anesthetist had not been left alone with the patients and if the dental practice had taken proper steps to ensure the patients' safety while they were sedated. Further, the suits state the patients faced "an unreasonable risk" of harm.

According to the minor's suit, she arrived at the Marietta dental practice on July 29, 2009 for extensive surgery, left alone with the anesthetist and administered anesthesia, rendering her "unconscious, defenseless and completely dependent" on the anesthetist behind closed doors. The suit states the anesthetist lifted the minor's clothing and proceeded to record himself sexually assaulting the teen in her incapacitated state. Also according to the lawsuit, the 15-year-old, since the 2009 attack, "has suffered, and will continue to suffer for the rest of her life, physical and emotional injuries." Just three months earlier a similar such attack occurred at the same Marietta dental practice, according to the second lawsuit. The above-mentioned adult patient was awaiting surgery on April 29, 2009, and, again, was sedated, assaulted and videotaped while unconscious in the anesthetist's care.

Four months after the sexual assault on the teen (November 18, 2009), the anesthetist was arrested after a female visiting the dental practice discovered the anesthetist's cell phone attached beneath the bathroom sink with the phone's camera directed at the commode. Upon the phone's finding, police searched the device and found multiple images of women in the restroom. During his criminal trial, prosecutors described the anesthetist as a serial pervert who assaulted a total of 19 patients, including one during childbirth. To note, the anesthetist also worked at a Cobb Hospital. In addition, secret videotapes were discovered by authorities of women in the bathroom of his Marietta home. In an April 2011 bench trial, the anesthetist was found guilty on 34 charges that included sexual assault of a person in custody, aggravated sodomy, aggravated child molestation, and unlawful surveillance. In November he was sentenced to the aforementioned prison term and will not be eligible for parole for 55 years. Also at the bench trial, the anesthetist's criminal defense attorneys, at the request of their client, offered no defense and called no witnesses.

Continue reading "Dental Practice Faces Civil Suits Related to Former Employee's Sexual Assaults on Sedated Patients" »

Your Charleston medical malpractice attorneys at Howell and Christmas, LLC recently read about a case in which a doctor is alleged to have prescribed ten times the normal dose of morphine to two elderly patients (aged 78 and 86) while he surfed the internet. The alleged drug overdose killed both of the patients at a home for Alzheimer's and dementia. Prosecutors are claiming that the drug was inappropriate for the patients' individual circumstances; reportedly the elderly patients were suffering from a number of health problems, including painful ulcers. Further, analysis of the records at the facility revealed that before handling the prescriptions the physician had not looked at the patients' records and was surfing the internet; using the practice computer for personal banking and emails, accessing news, and checking cricket results from India.

Prosecutors assert that the physician failed to carry out a clinical assessment of either of the two now deceased patients, as well as failed to adhere to guidelines for administering pain relief to elderly patients. For these alleged failures, the physician has been charged with manslaughter by gross negligence. The nursing staff and pharmacist, according to the prosecution, however, share the burden of responsibility in this pair of fatal medical errors. The nurses who administered the doses to the elderly patients did not question the accuracy of the prescription, and, equally, the pharmacist who filled the morphine prescription did not inquire as to the appropriateness of the prescription's concentration.

In court, the patients' family members spoke of their shock upon seeing their relatives after the alleged medical error, describing their loved ones in an obvious drug-induced state. The stepdaughter of the 86-year-old patient stated: "I was shocked at his appearance. I could see what looked like a little shrunken head with his mouth wide open and his eyes slammed shut. A nurse said he had been given some morphine the day before," according to reports.

A recent New York Times article explains that hospitals and doctors' offices, in an effort to reduce the frequency of medical errors, have invested heavily to put computers, smartphones, and other devices such as tablets into the hands of medical staff. The idea is that these devices will allow hospital staff and physicians instant access to patient data, drug and prescription information, and case studies. But like many cures, however, this technology-based "solution" comes with an unintended side effect: doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other medical staff can be focused on an electronic device's screen and not the patient, even at times of critical care.

Continue reading "'Distracted Doctoring' Allegedly Kills Two Elderly Patients" »

Over on the South Carolina Child Injury Lawyer Blog, your Charleston, SC lawyers at Howell and Christmas, LLC have been discussing pharmacy errors and resulting serious injuries and deaths from those errors. Recently your Charleston personal injury attorney read about a lawsuit in which a jury will decide if a woman is unable to work because she stopped breathing and suffered brain damage resulting from oxygen deprivation after a physician allegedly over prescribed methadone for pain or whether her injury stemmed from other medical conditions. The 59-year-old woman sued the physician three years ago and is seeking $2 million in damages.

The woman had worked for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services for 18 years when she decided to take a medical leave of absence in 2006 to deal with her chronic back pain. Around that time her primary care physician referred her to the defendant in this case. The defendant was using Prolotherapy to treat patients with chronic pain. The treatment included injections into the area around her spine that, according to the Prolotherapy website (www.prolotherapy.org), caused localized inflammation designed to promote “a wound healing cascade.” The defendant prescribed methadone for the pain resulting from the treatment on August 30, 2006.

According to reports, 48 hours later the woman’s fiancé awoke in the middle of the night realizing she had stopped breathing. He was able to revive her but the woman suffered brain damage that affected her ability to multitask and perform tasks that require a high level of brain functioning. The types of things jobs require, her medical malpractice attorney told the jury. He went on to tell jurors, “Before the brain injury, she was the caretaker in the family. Now she needs taking care of.”

Continue reading "Verdict Returned in Favor of Woman Who Suffered Brain Damage After Doctor Overprescribed Methadone " »

Today your Charleston personal injury attorneys learned that a week ago last Friday, at the conclusion of weeklong medical malpractice trial, a jury awarded a widower $2.4 million whose wife died of complications from a gynecological surgery. According to the Pickens County Clerk of Court, the award is believed to be the largest verdict from a lawsuit in the County. For those who don't know, Pickens County is located in Upstate, South Carolina and is apart the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The medical malpractice lawsuit stems from an October 2007 surgery in which attorneys for the Plaintiff (the aforementioned widower) argued that the treating surgeon perforated the deceased wife's bowel during the procedure and then delayed treatment of the problem, resulting in the wife's death on November 12, 2007 in Easley's Palmetto Health Baptist Hospital. Defendants' (surgeon and Easley Ob-Gyn Associated) lawyers contend that the bowel injury is a risk of the procedure performed on the deceased wife and, furthermore, argue that a timely diagnosis and treatment were provided once the problem was recognized. Plaintiff's lawyers expect the Defendants will appeal the verdict.

Reports do not indicate the specific kind of gynecological surgery that was being performed at the time of the bowel perforation. But according to Medicine Plus, a service of the United States National Library of Medicine, bowel perforation is hole that develops through the entire wall of the large bowel, is considered a medical emergency, and, as we have seen in the above case can be caused by surgery. With an opening in the bowel, the contents held therein are emptied into the abdominal cavity, frequently resulting in blood infection, which, if left untreated, can cause almost immediate death due to the inability of major organs and body systems to function properly. Surgery to treat the perforation is usually successful, but dependent upon the severity of the hole and the length of time to treatment.

Continue reading "Jury Award in Pickens County Believed to be Largest to Date and General Medical Malpractice Considerations" »

It is not always the case that civil claims make it to the courthouse and are decided through trial there are alternatives. The most common of which is a legal settlement, or where a case is "settled out of court." This is a popular phrase that can be heard or read on an almost daily basis, but not everyone is a legal scholar and understands the process of settling a civil claim out of court. Thus, your Charleston medical malpractice lawyers have decided to dedicate this entry to giving a brief and basic lesson on settlements as they pertain to civil lawsuits. Hopefully a couple of recently decided cases will provide good examples to the settlement process, as well as show the pros and cons for both plaintiffs and defendants in the decision of whether or not to settle a case out of court.

Much like litigation, settlement is a process, and while the easiest time to settle a dispute if before litigation begins, attorneys from both parties are communicating with each other and the court as litigation moves forward, gauging the relative strength of their cases and determining if settling out of court is in the best interest of the claim.

Typically, a settlement occurs when the defendant in a civil suit agrees to some, or all, of the plaintiffs claims and decides not to argue the matter in front of a judge and jury in court. An agreement by the plaintiff and the defendant to a settlement ends the litigation, and the defendant avoids the financial cost of litigating the case in court. And the cost of pursuing litigation through trial is often extremely expensive because of the amount of time required by attorneys. This week in Charleston, it was not only the cost of trial that burned a hole in the County's pocket, but also the verdict. Last month the Charleston County Sheriff's Office denied a $10,000 offer to settle a malicious prosecution claim, and after seeing the case through trial, the wrongfully arrested plaintiff was awarded $50,000. By declining the original offer, it seems the defense (Sheriff's Office) felt the plaintiff's had a weak claim, but an incorrect perception of the other side's case cost taxpayers $40,000.

Continue reading "Basic Lesson in Legal Settlements Supplemented by Recent Examples" »

If you look back to Wednesday's posts you will find an entry discussing a recent lawsuit filed by the South Carolina Attorney General against a major drug manufacturer because of the risk of serious injuries and death by way of heart attacks that a diabetes drug poses to South Carolinians. Today, your Charleston workers' compensation lawyers read that there is a bill making its way through the North Carolina state legislature that aims at making it harder to sue drug producers, among other provisions.

The Tort Reform for Citizens and Businesses Bill is a Republican led initiative to restrict product liability lawsuits against drug makers. The bill is a vital piece of legislation on the Republication agenda this session and follows a medical malpractice bill that has made its way to a conference committee of State Representative and Senate members. Ultimately, the bills want to reduce insurance and health care costs, while improving North Carolina's business environment.

Although Republicans are pushing the Tort Reform Bill, some of the state's 52 House Democrats are in support of the bill, helping it clear the House yesterday. Now, it moves on to the State Senate.

Continue reading "Lawsuit Restrictions Concerning Drug Manufacturers Clears State House of Representatives" »

Realizing it had been a while since our Charleston medical malpractice lawyers actually discussed medical malpractice, it was timely to come across an article covering a recent court decision in which a woman was awarded $10.5 million for the permanent injuries she suffered from improperly administered anesthesia during surgery.

The 44-year-old woman, and mother of two, brought the medical malpractice case against the Anesthesia Associates of New London, Connecticut for treatment she received back in 2006. According to the online news article and lawsuit, which was filed in 2008, "as a result of the 'carelessness and negligence' of Anesthesia Associates in its pre-operative assessments, use of anesthesia equipment and patient monitoring, [said woman] suffered 'serious, severe, painful and permanent injuries' that caused her to be permanently deprived of her fully ability to carry on and enjoy life's activities.'"

Court documents also showed that the mother of two spent 26 days in a coma, 29 days in the hospitals intensive care unit (ICU), and 45 days doing verbal and orthopedic rehabilitation.

Furthermore, she suffered nerve damage, memory loss, was forced to use a feeding tube and catheter, had a tracheotomy, suffers physiological pain in her feet and elsewhere, as well as psychological and neurological side effects from the procedure gone awry.

Continue reading "South Carolina Personal Injury Lawyers Look North and Find Medical Malpractice Case" »

A Brooklyn, New York woman has filed a lawsuit against Coney Island Hospital, claiming that hospital staff botched a routine injection to help treat her diabetes. Allegedly, back in April 2008 the 55-year-old woman went to the hospital for treatment, the staff hooked her up to intravenous solutions, but missed her veins in both arms, allowing potassium chloride to rot and eat away the skin around her elbow and underlying tissue. In general, any IV solution that leaks out of the vein can cause irritation or bruising, but the serious injuries and damage done in this incident represent an extremely unusual occurrence.

Since the negligent incident, she has hired an experienced medical malpractice attorney to assist her in claiming the damages she, and her legal representative, feel she is entitled.

The city has offered a settlement, but it is not an amount that seems satisfactory to the woman's lawyer who claims she suffered damages "in the millions." Despite this claim the city is not willing to budge on the unspecified amount offered. The case was heard in Brooklyn Supreme Court in November as part of the court's effort to mediate, this and other, medical malpractice cases. It was at this hearing that the woman's attorney rejected the paltry amount offered by the city. It was reported the injured woman felt insulted by the figure.

Continue reading "Woman With Diabetes Sues Hospital Over Negligent Treatment" »

This past winter the East Coast was hammered by winter storms. Charleston injury lawyers remember this because it was the first time Charleston had snowfall since the early 2000s. Of course, the conditions in South Carolina were not near as threatening as those in the Northeast and posed little threat for serious injury, although response the the inch and half of snow was as if the blizzard of the century had descended upon the Lowcountry.

The same jest cannot be used to describe a situation that occurred in Pittsburgh back in February. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that a 50-year-old man was found dead after ten 911 phone calls and 30 hours of waiting for ambulance crews to respond.

An experienced accident lawyer representing the man's children tried to obtain a financial settlement from the city worth $500,000 and was "stonewalled," the city promptly rejected the settlement. The plaintiff in this case note a complete breakdown in the EMS and 911 system in their lack of response. Three ambulances were dispatched to the man's residence, none of which made it.

Continue reading "Man Dies Due to Untimely Ambulance Response, Family Sues" »

Charleston medical malpractice lawyers want to warn doctors and consumers that Botox and popular Botox manufacturer Allergan are now required by the Food and Drug Administration to place a black box warning label on their product due to the serious side effects and deaths that have occurred when using the product for non-therapeutic reasons. Botox Cosmetic is approved for temporary cosmetic procedures and Myobloc, a similar drug, is approved for combating severe neck and muscle spasms in adult patients. Neither drug has been approved for children under the age of twelve.

Some doctors administer Botox and Myobloc for off-label purposes, and the side effects have resulted in severe personal injury and death. The Food and Drug Administration evaluated reaction reports of patients who had received Botox and Myobloc procedures. After reviewing these reports in August, the FDA decided and mandated that both drugs carry a black box warning label. The warning explicitly states the severity of the side effects associated with the use of the drug. After receiving a Botox injection a patient can experience side effect symptoms in hours up to seven days. These sometimes severe side effects are similar to the flu and can alter breathing to the point where hospitalization is required. Due to the onset of severe symptoms and hospitalization many of these cases are not identified as Botox-related until much later on.

In 2003, Irene Medavoy sued Allergan for “debilitating ailments” after receiving Botox treatments. She claimed to have received treatments for migraine headaches, and her Botox treatments did not help her migraines and in return made her fatigue, gave her respiratory problems, and fevers. The jury sided with Allergan and found the company not guilty. This was prior to all of the new information and facts on patients’ side effects. When cases are brought before a jury today involving Botox or Allergan, the facts are not in the drug or manufacturer’s favor.

Continue reading "South Carolina Wrongful Death: Required Black Box Warning Label" »

South Carolina Brain injury lawyers recently learned that Adrien Gault had played football all of his life, but after suffering numerous concussions and somehow still being awarded clearance to play by the district, Gault slipped into a coma and suffered a subdural hematoma. Gault filed suit against Sequim Chiropractic Clinic owner and operator Dr. Robert D. Bean and his wife, as well as the Sequim School District. Gault filed his suit for damages from his brain injury in 2006 with the Clallam County Superior Court on January 13, 2010.

After suffering numerous concussions one may wonder how Adrien Gault was still allowed to play football and why he was not taken out of the game after a pre-game concussion on October 20, 2006. The district and district doctors never told him he was unfit to play.

Gault was violently hit in a warm up drill before the October 20, 2006, game versus North Mason High School. He played a full quarter of the game and part of the second quarter before complaining of headaches and being taken out of the game. What happened next alarmed coaches, teammates, and fans.

Gault collapsed on the sidelines and was carried off the field. Just hours later, he suffered a subdural hematoma, which is when the brain swells and bleeds as a result to a traumatic brain injury. Gault was then airlifted to a neighboring hospital where they had to remove part of his skull to reduce pressure on the brain. After this horrifying incident the plaintiff does not have full control of his left arm, has constant headaches, and cannot remember things at times.

The plaintiff alleges that the proper medical attention was not sought out after he complained of headaches following the hit he endured in warm-ups. Usually medical attention is required if a player complains of headaches, due to the common nature of concussions in football. Concussions, especially players who have suffered concussions before, are not to be taken lightly.

Source: Peninsula Daily News- “Former Sequim Football Player Sues District, Chiropractor over Brain Injury.” January 22, 2010.

South Carolinians who have received a DePuy Acetabular Cup System (ASR) hip replacement could require a replacement for their hip replacement at a higher rate than other types of implants. South Carolina defective products lawyers read information claiming the ASR can fail as soon as one year after initial replacement surgery. Failure can cause excruciating hip pain and may require additional surgery to replace the failed implant.

DePuy's ASR hip replacement has been recalled due to a growing number of patients with this particular replacement experiencing hip failures and other complications, allegedly stemming from the defective design of the implant. It has been suggested by orthopedic experts that because of the implant's design it has an extremely low probability of proper placement, making the failure rate for the ASR much higher than other types of hip replacements.

Also, because the ASR is a metal-on-metal hip implant there is the possibility of metal particles shedding into the body over time as the replacement wears down. This wear and tear could damage tissue and bone around the replacement causing a loosening of the hip. A recent study in the United Kingdom found that 3.4% of the 660 patients studied suffered from adverse reactions from metal debris shed from the ASR.

Continue reading "Look At DePuy Defective Hip Replacements" »