New York Medical Malpractice

A few months back we reported on a woman who filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the Brooklyn Hospital Center for misdiagnosing kidney stones, which in turn left her a quadruple amputee. Now comes the fantastic news of her receiving high end prosthetic hands and legs.

After just two months at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, Mullings has already mastered the art of walking on artificial legs. Now she’s being fitted for bionic hands that respond to electrical impulses, and she could be released from the hospital as soon as Feb. 3.

The hands have a sensor that will press against her stump and read the impulses generated when she flexes her forearm muscles, activating a motor that opens and closes the fingers. A cosmetic glove matched to Mullings’ skin color will fit over the prosthetic shell, making it look like the real thing.

A Queens, New York woman is filing for medical malpractice after alleged botched deliveries by the Queens Hospital Center of not one, but two of her children. Annemarie Dhana claims that her sons were “yanked” from her during delivery, causing both of them to suffer with ERB’s palsy.

According to the lawsuit, Dhana got care for both pregnancies at Queens Hospital Center, where doctors were aware she had gestational diabetes, a serious childbirth risk factor.

The suit also claims doctors mishandled Dhana’s care from her prenatal stage all the way through the second delivery - when doctors could have prevented the injury with a Caesarean section or other measures.

A jury in Westchester, New York has awarded a local family $7 million in a medical malpractice suit after a family member was misdiagnosed and died from severe brain damage. The woman even had several times to be correctly diagnosed with the pancreatic inflammation she had and was not.

The White Plains jury returned the verdict against the medical center to Supreme Court Justice Nicholas Colabella after a three-and-a-half-week trial and a day of deliberations. It awarded $3 million to Capwell’s three daughters, ages 7, 9 and 11 at the time of her death, and $4 million to her husband, Scott Capwell.

Livingston said Theresa Capwell was admitted to the medical center on Sept. 18, 2000, with symptoms indicating pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreatic gland, but doctors spent two weeks running tests for cancer.

A New York City woman was forced to wait over two hours for a head scan after falling and hitting her head, and the wait rendered her partially paralyzed. Yahoo News has the story:

Jurors found New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens was negligent in caring for Candida Diego after she fractured her skull in a fall in September 2004.

A spokeswoman says the hospital doesn’t believe it is liable for the 71-year-old’s condition and is appealing the Oct. 3 decision awarding her $10.7 million.

Court documents say Diego was cleared for a brain scan two hours before she got one. The test was intended to check for bleeding.

Link via Sui Generis

Some very disturbing news today out of Massachusetts regarding wrongful surgeries done in the state. From Boston.com:

Surgeons in Massachusetts have operated in the wrong location on patients 38 times since 2006, with botched spine surgeries accounting for more of the mistakes than any other type of operation, according to a Globe review of state documents.

A single hospital, New England Baptist, accounted for four of the 11 bungled spine surgeries in the state, with the errors happening during a 10-month period. No deaths or severe disabilities resulted from any of the faulty spine surgeries, state health authorities said. In some of the 11 patients, the wrong vertebrae were fused; in others, the wrong bulging disc was removed.

While we all know that money talks, I found this to be the most interesting excerpt from the story:

And private health plans and government programs such as Medicare have declared they will no longer pay for costs associated with preventable errors.

The federal government released a report this week regarding the costs of medical malpractice as it relates to extra care after mistakes are made in hospitals. From ABC.com:

The records indicated that one of every 10 patients who died within 90 days of surgery died because of a preventable error and one-third of the deaths occurred after the patient was discharged.

A patient who developed acute respiratory failure after surgery cost insurers $28,218, or 52 percent extra, while an infection cost $19,480 or 48 percent more, agency researchers William Encinosa and Fred Hellinger found.

Errors related to nursing care, such as pressure ulcers and hip fractures, added $12,196 to the average bill, they found.

"Eliminating medical errors and their after effects must continue to be top priority for our health care system," AHRQ Director Carolyn Clancy said in a statement.

A 15 year old Boston teen was killed recently when a power outage caused his ventilator to fail, prompting an investigation into the failure. In an interesting move, the Boston Police Department and the Suffolk county district attorney’s office decided to turn the ventilator over to the manufacturer to be examined. The particular ventilator fell in a serial number batch that was known for having back up battery issues. The district attorney’s office defended their decision:

Josh Wall, first assistant district attorney, said police and prosecutors gave the device to the company so trained engineers at Pulmonetic could confirm that the ventilator shut off during the power outage, and determine why.

Police have said their preliminary investigation indicates the backup battery to the ventilator failed during a two-hour power outage Friday morning.

Wall said the engineers could retrieve the information without disassembling the device, which he described as a sort of "black box" that may have recorded any alarm that went off. The company will videotape the retrieval of the data, Wall said.

"The company does have experience in obtaining this information," he said. "We have no reason to think that the company is interested in committing a crime in obstructing justice. If we had reason to think that the company would expose itself criminally to protect itself civilly we would not have taken this action."

The ventilator company is awaiting a videographer to arrive at their corporate headquarters to document the investigation of the machine.

AmericanProgress.org weighs in on medical malpractice lawsuits:

Myth: Medical malpractice lawsuits are little more than predatory lawyers destroying honest doctors; caps should be set on the amount awarded to accusers.

Truth: Although the malpractice system is deeply flawed, setting caps deflects attention from patient safety and would likely not reduce frivolous lawsuits or costly premiums.

Medical malpractice liability is in need of reform, but claims of a nationwide crisis are overblown. Malpractice claims and insurance premiums vary by specialty and geographic area—doctors in obstetrics or surgery tend to pay higher premiums, for example. What increases occur in malpractice premiums can be linked primarily to a sluggish economy. In fact, malpractice costs represent less than 2 percent of total health care spending. There is little correlation between malpractice claim increases and premium increases.

Enacting caps on awards threatens individual rights to compensation for harm resulting from preventable medical error, mostly because so-called frivolous lawsuits represent only a small portion of claims and awards by juries. Focusing on tort reform deflects attention from patient safety in a system where victims are not fairly compensated and errors are not properly prevented. The solution to rising costs should instead consist of more emphasis on evidence-based medicine, independent screening, immediate disclosure of errors, and even a no-fault system of compensation.

A Niagara County jury recently awarded a $9 million malpractice settlement to the family of a woman who died in 2004, making it the largest sum to ever be awarded by the court. The physician in question is a highly esteemed Western New York surgeon by the name of Nancy J. Stubbe, who was cited for negligence in the death of 33 year old Suzanne Crane.

The total, $9,057,000, includes retroactive damages and other “pecuniary” compensation for the period of time following Crane’s death to the present, and into the future, according to documents filed with the Niagara County clerk.

Of 10 separate allocations set for distribution among the three family members listed in the suit and Crane’s estate, the largest single figure is to her husband, Raymond Crane, for future losses in the amount of $3,030,160.00.

Dr. Stubbe had an illustrious career with accolades such as Woman Physician of the Year in 2000 by Kaleida Health System.

A doctor failed to explain the side-effects, including adverse effects fully which resulted in a possible claim for an LFW worker. ABS CBN reports:

A Filipina working as a caregiver in London died recently in what her family alleged was a case of medical malpractice.

ABS-CBN Europe News bureau chief Danny Buenafe reported Monday that based on a police report, Severa Hernandez died on May 13 due to septicimia or infection of the blood.

A pathologist’s supplementary report, however, said Hernandez died of natural causes.

It was learned that prior to the death, Hernandez was hospitalized because of a hyperactive goiter, whose symptoms include loss of weight, enlargement of the neck and insomnia.

Her doctor prescribed carbinamazole tablets to Hernandez, which she took three times a day, said Cornelio, the Filipina’s widower.

The doctor, however, failed to explain the medicine’s adverse effects, which includes diarrhea, mouth sores, rashes and on-and-off fever.

The physician also did not tell the patient that she should undergo regular blood tests,

“If her doctor only told her about the adverse effect…but the problem is, nothing was said,” Cornelio added.

Ultimately, a medical malpractice case filed due to misinformation in carbinamaole tablet case, resulting in septicimia. Its so sad when an incident like this happens. Our hearts go out to the vicitim.