Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

An Ohio jury recently awarded a woman more than $1 million in damages after it found that a Cincinnati spine doctor was negligent in performing surgery on the female patient. The verdict was announced after a weeklong trial. This is just one of dozens of lawsuits filed against a doctor that fled the state last month against a judge’s order. An arrest warrant has been issued for Dr. Abubakar Atiq Durrani, who is believed to be in Pakistan.

Michael Lyon, Durrani’s attorney, stated that he was “very surprised” by the decision and is contemplating an appeal. Lyon further stated that he thought the jury was displeased and mad that Dr. Durrani was not present for the trial. Lyon believes Dr. Durrani’s absence made it impossible for him to defend the case. It is doubtful Dr. Durrani will return to the United States because of his status as a “fugitive from justice.”

A number of former patients in the Cincinnati area filed lawsuits against Dr. Durrani alleging similar negligence. On top of these lawsuits, forty-five-year-old Dr. Durrani faces thirty-six federal criminal charges, including distributing controlled substances, lying about health care matters, and health care fraud. The federal indictment alleges that between 2008 and 2013, Dr. Durrani performed many unnecessary spine surgeries, often without waiting to observe the results of pain injections or related therapy treatments. Dr. Durrani performed this work in his private practice in both Cincinnati and Florence, Kentucky. Dr. Durrani allegedly lied to patients and told them that their medical situations were urgent and required immediate surgery. The federal indictment specifically states that Dr. Durrani “would often tell a patient that there was a risk of paralysis or the head would fall off it the patient was in a car accident because there was almost nothing attaching the head to the patient’s body.”

Ohio surgeon found negligent in 1 of many lawsuits, www.palmbeachpost.com January 14, 2013

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Washington’s Supreme Court declared yesterday that a Benton County resident’s medical malpractice case could go forward, after it found that a state provision which barred his case’s progress was unconstitutional. The court issued a 7-2 decision in the case of Jayrd Schroeder. Schroeder sued both a radiologist and a medical facility in Richland, Washington for allegedly failing to discover a medical condition when Schroeder was a young child.

The majority of the Washington Supreme Court justices declared that the trial court incorrectly dismissed Schroeder’s claim on the ground that it was filed after the statute of limitations expired. On appeal, Schroeder argued that a state law that restricted minors from delaying the time period imposed by the statute of limitations in medical malpractice cases violated the state’s constitution. The Supreme Court agreed with Schroeder’s position. Justice James Johnson authored the dissenting opinion and in it he stated that the legislature’s intent was clear in this situation. He stated that intent was to reduce medical malpractice insurance rates and prevent defendants from having to defend dated claims.

Wash. justices allow negligence claim to proceed, www.palmbeachpost.com January 16, 2013

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A thirteen-year-old California girl who was declared brain dead last month after undergoing tonsil surgery has finally received the feeding and breathing tubes her family has been fighting for. The lawyer for Jahi McMath’s family, Christopher Dolan, stated that doctors inserted the gastric and tracheostomy tubes yesterday at the undisclosed facility that the girl was transported to on January 5. Dolan reported that the procedure was a success and that Jahi is receiving the treatment her family believes she should have received when she was first declared brain dead at Children’s Hospital Oakland twenty-eight days ago.

On December 9, Jahi underwent tonsil surgery, which went horribly wrong and led to Jahi bleeding heavily, going into cardiac arrest, and then being declared brain dead three days later. Jahi was placed on a ventilator, which her mother fought to keep her on after Children’s Hospital Oakland announced it would remove Jahi from the breathing machine that has kept her heart beating. The family went to court and battled with the hospital for a week before they were able to get Jahi moved to a new facility. Omari Sealey, Jahi’s uncle, stated that Jahi is now at a facility that shares the family’s belief that Jahi is still alive.

Medical experts have said that the ventilator will not work forever, though, and providing care for a patient whom three doctors have declared legally dead will likely prove challenging because there is no blood flow or electrical activity in either Jahi’s cerebrum or brain stem, which controls her breathing. Dr. Paul Vespa, director of neurocritical care at the University of California, Los Angeles, explained that brain dead patients who are kept on ventilators generally experience deterioration of their bodies, which can cause blood pressure to drastically drop and the heart to stop. This process can occur as quickly as a few days or can last over months.

Calif. teen called ‘brain dead’ gets feeding tube, www.palmbeachpost.com January 9, 2013

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Friday a jury in Los Angeles heard opening statements in a fraud and negligence lawsuit that alleges Johnson & Johnson knowingly marketed a false hip implant that left thousands with severe complications or in need of replacement surgery. The all-metal ball-and-socket hip joint was pulled from the market two years ago, but thousands of cases similar to the California suit currently exist all over the United States. This lawsuit is the first of these cases to reach trial.

Plaintiff Loren Kransky sought hip replacement to relieve arthritic pain. He received the Johnson & Johnson hip implant in 2007, but has had it replaced since then. Kransky was left with metal in his hip socket after it flaked off of the implant. These pieces of metal were causing a form of metal poisoning that could have killed Kransky if they were not removed. A lawyer for Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary, DePuy Orthopedics, Inc., which manufactured the hip implant, pointed to Kransky’s pre-existing medical conditions as the cause of his health decay. According to the lawyer, Kransky suffered from sixteen major diseases, including cancer and diabetes. The lawyer argued that the hip implant did not make him worse and removing it did not make him better.

The metal hip implant was meant to serve as an improvement on ceramic and plastic implants. It was sold to 35,000 people in the United States and over 90,000 people worldwide for a period of eight years. In 2009, Johnson and Johnson stopped making the metal hip implant and a year later it recalled the product. Court documents reveal that the company was aware of the problem with the product as far back as 2008. A deposition with a DePuy official revealed that more than one-third of the implants were expected to fail within five years of implantation. Kransky’s attorney is requesting punitive damages to send a message to the company for failing to reveal the damaging knowledge it had about the metal hip implant.

Trial under way in LA hip joint replacement suit, www.miamiherald.com January 25, 2013

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Four sisters, each having suffered from breast cancer, settled a lawsuit this week with drug manufacturer Eli Lilly & Co. after the sisters claimed a drug manufactured by Eli Lilly that their mother took during their pregnancy caused their breast cancer. Over fifty women, including the sisters, have filed claims in Massachusetts against a number of drug manufacturers that made or marketed the synthetic drug diethylstilbestrol, also know as DES. DES was prescribed to millions of women during the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s, believed to prevent miscarriages, premature births and other pregnancy problems. At the time, DES was recommended for women who had suffered multiple miscarriages. The drug was taken off the market in the 1970’s after researchers linked it to a rare vaginal cancer in women whose mothers were prescribed the drug. It was later discovered that the drug did not prevent miscarriages. The sisters, who all developed breast cancer in their 40s, claim their mother took DES while pregnant with them, but not their sister, who has not developed breast cancer.

The sisters’ case went to trial earlier this week, but the settlement came just two after it began. In opening statements, the attorney for the sisters stated “Eli Lilly failed to test the drug’s effect on fetuses before promoting it as a way to prevent miscarriages.” Eli Lilly’s attorney contended that there was no evidence linking the drug to breast cancer. Further, he argued, if their mother took DES, there was no evidence that Eli Lilly had manufactured the drug their mother was prescribed.

The settlement between the sisters and Eli Lilly could indicate that more settlements are to come. “When one settles a case, they recognize that they can lose it. The reason they can lose it is because there is enough evidence for the plaintiffs to be able to win it,” stated one Massachusetts malpractice attorney. Other women who have filed suit against Eli Lilly revere this settlement as a “huge victory for DES daughters.” Another plaintiff against Eli Lilly stated, “The bottom line is that this company put out a drug without test, without knowing the consequences of the drug.” Thousands of other lawsuits were filed, alleging the links between “DES and vaginal cancer, cervical cancer and fertility problems;” most of those cases have been settled as well.

Eli Lilly settles Mass. pregnancy drug-cancer case, www.miamiherald.com January 09, 2013

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Former Miami Dolphins receiver O.J. McDuffie filed a malpractice lawsuit against his former doctor over treatment of McDuffie’s toe injury, which ended his career. McDuffie played for the Miami Dolphins from 1993 to 2000. McDuffie sued the doctor for malpractice and lost wages and McDuffie was awarded $11 million in damages. The biggest debate between both parties was McDuffie’s earning potential because of the 1999 toe injury.

However, attorneys for Dr. John Uribe, the doctor who treated McDuffie, argue that in the 2010 trial, “there were fundamental errors…surrounding the use of a medical manual as evidence.” A lower court judge has ordered a new trial based on this error and a Florida appeals court has upheld the order. If the new case makes it to trial, McDuffie’s multi-million dollar award could be greatly diminished or even eliminated.

New trial for ex-Dolphin McDuffie in toe lawsuit, www.miamiherald.com December 18, 2012.

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A Connecticut doctor, Dr. Joseph Turner, has been reprimanded and placed on probation after investigators determined that he could have done more to treat a patient who later died. According to the consent order, Dr. Turner “overlooked important clinical findings” that could have saved a 56-year-old patient who visiting the Fatima Hospital Emergency Room in March 2009. The patient, who was complaining of severe pain following gallbladder removal surgery, was simply discharged but died three days later.

Investigators believe Dr. Turner, who, at the time, was the ER attending physician, and the patient’s surgeon should have ordered an abdominal CT scan, inquired further, created a treatment and admitted him to the hospital. The state Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline ordered the reprimand and is also looking into the surgeon’s conduct. Turner, who has not been disciplined before, will be on probation for the next five years.

Doc disciplined after discharge of man who died, www.palmbeachpost.com December 17, 2012.

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A new federal report inquires into whether two surgeons from a Northern California Hospital “contributed to the death of at least one of three patients who underwent what was called an untested surgical procedure.” Several medical services, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services criticized the University of California, Davis hospital for not monitoring the surgeons,
The federal agency inquiring into the surgeries has the ability to cut off Medicare and Medicaid funding to the hospital. University of California, Davis has received over $275 million in the past year from the Medicare program, which is almost 20% of the entire hospital revenue.

The agency opened its investigation after the surgeons “introduced bacteria into open head wounds of three patients who died in 2010 and 2011.” The report inquires into whether the doctors contributed to their deaths. The report labeled the surgeries as “non-standard, experimental treatments,” and stated that the patients were “sickened with ‘a type of live bowel bacteria’ that was brought to the hospital in a Styrofoam cooler from ‘a university campus animal research laboratory.'” The doctors’ intent was to trigger an immune response to right the cancer, but federal regulators did not approve the procedure. The lead researcher planned on performing the procedure on five more patients before he was stopped. Further, the hospital continue to allow Dr. J. Paul Muizelaar to continue working on patients despite over 200 complaints and misconduct and competence concerns by other staff members.

Feds probe brain operations at California hospital, www.palmbeachpost.com December 10, 2012

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Air Force veteran Robert Metzler often visited the Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center for routine procedures, including colonoscopies In 2007, Metzler had a colonoscopy and in 2009 received a letter from the VA’s administration warning him that he had been exposed to a “potential health risk” related to his procedure.

Metzler, who had tested negative for hepatitis C in 2006, was diagnosed with the disease just days after he received the warning letter. The letter informed Metzler that he was one of more than 11,000 veterans who had undergone colonoscopies with dirty equipment at VA hospital in Miami, Tennessee and Georgia. During the colonoscopy, the hospital never sterilized the equipment between patients; rather the equipment was simply rinsed. “Investigators who took apart water tubes on some of the equipment that was supposed to be clean and ready for use instead found ‘discolored liquid and debris.'”

Metzler and his wife filed a medical malpractice suit and asked for $30 million in damages. Judge Jordan awarded them $1.25 for their claim. The VA Hospital admitted that it had breached a duty of care to the patient, but denied that Metzler had contracted the disease during his colonoscopy. A board-certified doctor testified that there was “less than a 0 percent change” Metzler had contracted the disease through the procedure, but the judge disagreed. According to the ruling, “despite acknowledging that VA records ‘strongly suggest’ Metzler couldn’t have been infected by the colonoscopy, the veteran had no other risks associated with contracting the virus.”

Vet who contracted Hep C wins malpractice suit against VA hospital, www.miamiherald.com November 21, 2012.

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