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Personal Injury Law

Philadelphia Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog

Covers medical malpractice injury and accident law news, cases, and issues with a focus on Pennsylvania State Law.
By Leon Aussprung

Post Frequency: 0.4/day

Last Entry: January 23, 2011 at 23:07:40

Philadelphia Abortion Clinic Shut Down Likely to Lead to Lawsuits

Posted on January 23, 2011
A West Philadelphia abortion clinic was closed after investigators accused Dr. Kermit B. Gosnell of killing babies born alive during late-term abortions and allowing untrained non-medical staff to medicate a patient who died after the procedure. The 69 year old doctor also worked for some years at a Delaware clinic and is alleged to have told women at that clinic who were too far along in their pregnancies to obtain an abortion under Delaware law (which has a 20 week or 5 month cut-off) to come to his Philadelphia office where he would charge them more money, but where abortions are legal up to 24 weeks (6 months) of pregnancy...

Bridgewater, PA Physician Settles Breast Implant Case

Posted on October 21, 2010
Dr. Beverly Carl was sued by a patient after utilizing saline breast implants rather than silicone implants during the patient's breast enlargement surgery. Dr. Carl knew that Ms. Daly had signed a medical consent form for surgery that specifically required the sue of silicone implants...

Philadelphia Jury Awarded $6M to Nursing Home Patient

Posted on March 20, 2010
A Philadelphia jury awarded a total of $6 million to the widow of a 76 year old man who died from bedsores he developed at Jeanes Hospital in 2006. Both Jeanes Hospital and Hillcrest Convalescent Home were sued and the jury found both had been negligent in the care of Mr...

Lakawanna County Jury Awards $1.88 Million for Delayed Cancer Diagnosis that Resulted in Death

Posted on June 15, 2009
A Lackawanna County jury found that a urologist violated the standard of care in his treatment of a 54 year old man who complained of urinary problems. Terrence Golden began seeking Dr. Milan Smolko in September, 2002 and ultimately treated with him several times over 16 months without any diagnosis of resolution of his problems...

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Philadelphia Jury Awards $2.185 Million for Death Caused by Failure to Read Test Results

Posted on June 08, 2009
A Philadelphia jury found that the death of a 51 year old man at St. Joseph?s Hospital was preventable and awarded $2.185 Million to his wife of 17 years. Zachary Jones was taken to St. Joseph?s by ambulance after complaining of chest, back and leg pains...

OB Negligence Resulting in Death of Mother and Baby Results in $8.8M Verdict

Posted on April 15, 2009
A Passaic County, New Jersey jury found for the plaintiff in a case involving an obstetrician's failure to diagnose placental abruption (separation of the placenta from the uterus). Sigismondi v. Greene, PAS-L-3055-05 (N.J. Super. Ct. 2007). Plaintiff, a husband whose wife and newborn son died as a result of the doctor's negligence, argued that the OB (Dr...

Pittsburgh Jury Holds Hospital Responsible for Death of 24 Year Old from Brain Rupture

Posted on November 11, 2008
A Pittsburgh jury awarded the estate of 24 year old Michael Rettger $2.5 million for wrongful death damages, but refused to award any money to his brothers for survival damages after stating on the jury form that "no amount of money will adequately punish" the hospital for Mr...

edical Malpractice Verdict for Bowel Cut During Surgery

Posted on October 22, 2008
A New Jersey jury awarded a woman $6 Million and her husband $500,000 for injuries she suffered when her OB-GYN (obstetrician) cut her bowel during a routine caesarean section ("c-section") in 2001. The doctor testifed that a piece of Jane Bodell's small intestine was stuck to her uterus and that while trying to separate the bowel from the uterus, he unknowingly cut the bowel...

Medical Malpractice Suit Filed Against Hospital for Incorrectly Declaring Woman Dead

Posted on October 19, 2008
I recently filed a Medical Malpractice Complaint against Beebe Hospital on behalf of a woman who was declared dead, left on a guerney waiting to be taken to the morgue and then noted by a nurse (almost an hour later) to be breathing. In this case, Judith Johnson initially went to the hospital for severe indigestion and pains in her chest...

Child Declared Dead Was Alive - Lawsuit Settled

Posted on July 16, 2008
In a case strikingly (and frighteningly) similar to one I am currently handling, a patient's family filed suit in California for the family of a child who was pronounced dead by a hospital and then later found to actually be alive. In both my current case and the California case, the patient suffered brain damage from the delay in necessary treatment and was forced to sue the hospital and doctors to obtain compensation for the injuries and medical care caused by the obvious negligence of the medical providers...

$1.6M Delaware Jury Verdict Following Wrongful Prescription of Sotalol

Posted on June 18, 2008
The family of a 48 year old woman who died after being given Sotalol by her cardiologists for atrial fibrilation ("afib") was awarded $1.6 Million by a Delaware Jury on Monday, June 16, 2008. In 2003, Sandra Koch had been a dialysis patient for less than a year when she developed afib...

Delayed Delivery of Baby Results in $22.6M Verdict

Posted on May 21, 2008
A 13 1/2 hour delay in the delivery of a baby girl who was stuck in the birth canal resulted in brain injuries from both the delay in delivery and from the mother's uterus repeatedly contracting on the baby's head because of medications given to the mother to encourage labor...

New Jersey Jury Awards $19M for Delayed Delivery Resulting in Cerebral Palsy

Posted on May 05, 2008
Brandon, a 10 year old boy who suffers from cerebral palsy, severe brain damage and blindness as a result of an obstetrician delaying in the diagnosis of his mother's pregnancy complications in 1997 was awarded $19M by a Monmouth County Jury after 2 days of deliberations...

Delaware Hospitals Agree Not to Bill for Mistakes

Posted on April 22, 2008
Delaware has become the third state in the nation that will not bill patients or their insurance companies for certain medical errors. Delaware hospitals identified 9 serious mistakes for which they will no longer bill: (1) performing surgery on the wrong body part; (2) performing surgery on the wrong patient; (3) performing the wrong surgery on a patient; (4) sending a newborn infant home with the wrong family; (5) unintentionally leaving a foreign object in the body; (6) medication error that results in serious injury or death; (7) using wrong artificial donor for insemination; (8) causing injury by giving patient the wrong blood type; and (9) air-embolism injury...

Philadelphia Jury Awarded $12 M for Delayed Diagnosis of Breast Cancer

Posted on March 09, 2008
A Philadelphia jury unanimously found in favor of a woman who alleged that 2 doctors at 2 hospitals failed to timely diagnose breast cancer and awarded her $12 Million as compensation. Sutherlin v. Magilner. At trial, the jury heard testimony that 2 doctors at 2 different hospitals - Fox Chase Cancer Center and Albert Einstein Medical Center - missed suspicious findings on mammograms that required follow-up evaluation and would have diagnosed Stage 1 breast cancer that could have been cured with a mastectomy...

New Study Suggests Hospital Care at Night Worse than Daytime Care

Posted on February 23, 2008
A new study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association reveals that the likelihood of patient survival after cardiac arrest (when the heart stops) in a hospital is significantly impacted by the time of day the attack occurs. This study follows earlier studies that demonstrated that patients fare worse during weekend care than they do during care received during the workweek for the same health problems...

$1.2M Verdict for Family of Woman Who Died After Hernia Operation

Posted on February 10, 2008
Evidence showed that poor nursing care at Pennsylvania Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, including failure to contact a physician as ordered when the patient's blood pressure dropped below 100 and the absence of documented nursing care for a 16...

Court to Consider Whether Doctor Concealing Cause of Death Extends Time to Bring Claim

Posted on February 05, 2008
In 2002, baby Ira Faustino died after having heart surgery performed by Dr. William I. Norwood at duPont Hospital for Children. In 2005 Ira's parents filed a medical malpractice suit after learning for the first time that Ira suffered brain damage as the result of allegedly negligent conduct by Dr...

Lawsuit for Improper Lung Transplant at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

Posted on January 24, 2008
In a case in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a New Jersey man's Estate is suing the Philadelphia Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania because cancerous lungs were improperly transplanted into his body. Tony Grier died after he was transplanted with lungs from an individual with a 16 year history of smoking...

Pennsylvania Nursing Home Director Admits Criminal Neglect of Patient

Posted on January 18, 2008
Donna Cameron, of Ashton Pennsylvania, who was the former Director of Nursing at St. James Retirement & Rehabiliation in Chester, Pennsylvania, pled no contest to charges that she criminally neglected patients, falsified records and perjured herself. The nurse neglected a 72 year old patient's head wound and allowed it to become infected with maggots...

Podiatrists Sued for Operating on Wrong Foot

Posted on January 14, 2008
A 60 year old McKeesport (Pittsburgh) Pennsylvania man recently filed administrative action against two podiatrists from the Pittsburgh VA (Veteran's Administration) Hospital for operating on the wrong foot to correct his bunion and hammer-toe deformity...

Emergency Room Delay Causes Death from Heart Attack (Myocardial Infarction)

Posted on January 09, 2008
A 33 year old man in California with complaints of chest pain and left arm pain died from a heart attack (myocardial infarction) after three hours of waiting in an Emergency Room. Although medical care standards required that anyone with chest pain complaints be screened within 10 minutes, the patient never received the standard screening test of an electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG)...

duPont Hospital for Children Sued for Surgical Stent Misconduct

Posted on January 02, 2008
Medical malpractice allegations that duPont Hospital for Children (in Wilmington, Delaware) improperly performed experimental sugery for the placement of non-FDA approved cardiac stents have resulted in 17 lawsuits to date. The Delaware hospital, along with renowned heart surgeon William Norwood, M...

Carnival Rides Caused 4 Deaths in the U.S. in 2007

Posted on December 20, 2007
Traveling carnival rides are regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commision ("CPSC"), but this federal agency has not required safety improvements from any ride manufacturers during the last eight years. The agency, which is responsible for overseeing the safety of 15,000 products in addition to the safety of amusement rides, has no employees devoted to ride safety...

Brain Injury Caused by Stanley Works Nail Gun Results in $3.4 Million Verdict

Posted on December 16, 2007
A 51 year old construction worker using a Stanley Works nail gun, which was sold to him by Home Depot, suffered seizures and paralysis after a nail from the gun ended up embedded in his brain. The manufacturer said that the nail gun, known as a Model N79 or "contact trip gun," met industry standards and is very popular with customers...

Death of Elderly Man Results in $1.7 Million Philadelphia Verdict When a Ventilator Mucus Plug Suffocates Him

Posted on December 13, 2007
The Estate of 77 year old man was awarded $1.7 million by a Philadelphia jury after he slowly suffocated on Ventilator with a mucus plug that went untreated. Simple proper suctioning by his nurses would have prevented his death. Temple University Hospital was found negligent through the failure of its nurses to properly care for the elderly man on a ventilator in the Intensive Care Unit, who was suffering from angioedema (a type of allergic reaction)...

Slip and Fall in Building Lobby Settles for $2.75 Million

Posted on December 09, 2007
A slip and fall case in the lobby of a woman's office building resulted in a total settlement of $2.75 million. Litigation of the case revealed that the woman's slip and fall was the sixth one to occur over the past four years and that the building landlord was well-aware of the problems of the slippery lobby floor...

Brain Surgery on the Wrong Side of Patient's Head

Posted on December 06, 2007
Not once, not twice, but three times in one year doctors at Rhode Island Hospital performed brain surgery on the wrong side of a patient's head. The first patient apparently was uninjured from surgery performed to the incorrect side of the brain, but the second patient was not so fortunate...

$6.5 Million for Fall from Ladder by Philadelphia Jury

Posted on December 02, 2007
A Philadelphia union glazer, who fell from a ladder at a contruction site injuring shoulder and hip in New Jersey, was awarded $6.5 Million by Philadelphia jury. The union worker, Frank Voce, who was 49 years of age, required surgery for his shoulder and developed hip problems preventing his future employment...

Jury Awards $3 Million for Delay in Treating Infection Leading to Brain Damage

Posted on November 28, 2007
A jury in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania awarded Lynn and James Flaherty a total of $3 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit. Lynn Flaherty was treated for severe headaches by her physician, who prescribed only pain medications. The physician never prescribed any antibiotics for the sinus infection that was actually causing the headaches...

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