Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

They wrote an opinion of interest to attorneys who receive referrals from other Maryland lawyers in malpractice cases.

This case involves a Maryland lawyer who referred a cancer misdiagnosis case involving an allegedly misread mammogram to a lawyer that handles medical malpractice cases, agreeing to a fee split. Before referring the case out, the original lawyer filed the malpractice lawsuit.

The Defendant sought summary judgment, claiming the statute of limitations had tolled because the alleged failure to diagnose cancer occurred over three years after limitations had passed. Plaintiff prevailed on summary judgment. The opinion does not say, but I assume it was a discovery rule issue—the patient did not know of the malpractice until after it had occurred.

Then things got interesting. The malpractice case settled the claim for $225,000, far less than the referring lawyer had hoped. Allegedly, the medical malpractice lawyer sold the clients on the settlement by “deliberately misle[ading] the [Plaintiffs] into settling by telling them limitations remained a ‘serious concern’”; “telling them that they had been victims of malpractice by [the referring lawyer]”; and “suggesting to them that they sue [the referring lawyer] for malpractice.” Continue reading

Maryland’s nursing homes had an “off year” according to Jay Handcock’s blog for the Baltimore Sun.

The Government Accountability Office reports that citations in Maryland for inflicting residents with “actual harm” or putting them in “immediate jeopardy” were given to 17% of Maryland’s 234 nursing homes last year. This is more than a 100% increase from last year.

There is a bill in the Maryland House of Delegates that would require Maryland nursing homes to give people the choice of installing cameras to monitor their loved ones. What would that cost these assisted care facilities? Nothing. The patients or their families would pay for the camera themselves.

Dr. Henry M. Learner, an instructor in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Harvard, writes an article in this month’s OBG Management called “Rebuff Those Malpractice Lawyers’ Traps and Tricks.” Dr. Learner is also the president of Shoulder Dystocia Litigation Consultants, a group that works with defense lawyers, medical malpractice insurance company case managers, and hospital risk managers in shoulder dystocia-related injuries and litigation.

I hate to give up one of my own but I’m sure Dr. Learner is a double agent. Because the advice he gives in this article is obvious (“know the specifics of your case”) or downright counterproductive. One piece of advice is to pull a Sarah Palin: “you don’t necessarily have to play by the rules for answering questions….” That cracks me up. But this one is even better:

Never allow an attorney to bully you in the courtroom or at a deposition. If the attorney begins to use such behavior, call it by its name and demand that it be stopped. Your lawyer will likely have raised the objection before you do; if she does not, protest such inappropriate behavior yourself. Never allow an attorney who is questioning you to raise his voice or speak to you sarcastically or rudely.

In January, I wrote about Marcantonio v. Moen, an Anne Arundel County medical malpractice lawsuit that the trial court dismissed on summary judgment. The malpractice lawsuit alleges wrongful death as the result of an OB/GYN’s misinterpreting a sonogram and failing to order sufficient tests to follow up on the woman’s symptoms.

Because of this failure to diagnose, the Plaintiff claims that his wife’s chances of survival went down from 80% to 50%-60%. The Maryland Court of Special Appeals found that there has to be a 51% likelihood that the person would have died but for the negligence. So in this case, she would have to have a 29% chance of living because of the negligence to recover an award. So while she was statistically likely to defeat cancer even with the malpractice, she died.

The post focused on Judge Timothy E. Meredith’s dissent, who contended that the requirement that the decedent’s chance of survival should not—as a matter of fundamental mathematics—revolve around whether there was a 51% decrease in the likelihood the decedent would survive. Because if you had a 90% chance of living and the defendant’s negligence takes you down to 60% and you die, there is a 75% chance you died because of negligence.

I read in the paper today that attorneys Dale Adkins, III and Emily C. Malarkey, both with Salisbury, Clements, Bekman, Marder & Adkins in Baltimore, filed a wrongful death medical malpractice case against an OB/GYN in Salisbury.

We also have a case pending against the same doctor. [2013 Update: we got a million-dollar verdict in that case.] In April, a jury in Baltimore found this doctor negligent in yet another medical malpractice case.

We have previously reviewed and rejected another claim against this same doctor, not because he was not negligent but because of the damages—while significant—were not of the magnitude that would make a medical negligence lawsuit, frankly because of the cost involved of putting these suits together.

On Monday the Montana Supreme Court ruled in a 5-2 decision that a father’s wrongful death medical malpractice claim on behalf of his 16-year-old son was time-barred.

In Runstrom v. Allen, the plaintiff’ son sustained a broken femur in an ATV accident (I wonder if it was a Yahama Rhino ATV, which had been at the time of this writing the subject of many lawsuits around the country). The ambulance took him to the emergency room in Great Falls where the defendant, an orthopedic doctor, treated him. Plaintiff’s son regrettably died the next day. Plaintiff immediately blamed the doctor and consulted with counsel, but for whatever reason did not pursue a case.

Almost 4 years later, the plaintiff read an article in the Great Falls Tribune reporting on an administrative proceeding against the doctor; the article referred to a peer review report and some of his former patients, whose names were not publicly available. The plaintiff believed that his son was one of the unnamed patients, and after reviewing the documents, filed a medical malpractice claim with the Montana Medical Legal Panel.