Illinois Man Gets $17 Million for Brain Injury Lawsuit

An article in the ProvisioHerald reports that a Melrose Park, IL, man received a $17.7 million settlement for a medical malpractice lawsuit for incuring "a brain injury at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center due to medical negligence." The lawsuit alleged that the nursing staff failed to properly monitor the man's intracranial pressure (he had suffered a "brain stem herniation"requiring an external ventricular drain. To read the article detailing the lawsuit and injuries, please click on: Illinois brain injury lawsuit settles for $17.7 million.

In California, Never Event Reporting Request Viewed by Hospitals as Set Up for Legal Action

CALIFORNIA — A report in the Ventura County Star describes reaction by hospital officials to California's call for reporting of "never events" (major medical errors) as fear of a set up for legal action. 87 of the state's hospitals have reported no major medical error in 3 years. Hospitals prefer that the state focus on education and prevention than requiring hospitals to sign a form. See the full article here: State inspectors ask some hospitals to be sure that they haven't had severe medical errors.

Boston's Andrew Meyer Selected 'Lawyer of the Year'

Boston, MA — Andrew C. Meyer, Jr. has been named Best Lawyers® 2011 Boston Medical Malpractice 'Lawyer of the Year' according to a report in Yahoo! News. Meyer is the founding partner at Lubin & Meyer PC, a law firm focused on medical malpractice and catastrophic personal injury litigation with attorneys practicing in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Meyer has consistently achieved record-setting verdicts and settlements, including one of the largest personal injury awards in Massachusetts' history — $30 million dollars including interest. He has been selected to the Best Lawyers in America each year since its inception

In Ohio, Jury Awards $13.9M in Birth Injury Lawsuit

Via Cerebral Palsy Law News we learned of news of a Trumbull County jury delivering a $13.9 million award in medical malpractice suit involving alleged birth injuries leading to cerebral palsy caused by failure to perform a Cesarian. This according to a report in the Warren Ohio Tribune Chronicle. Read full article here: Cerebral Palsy Verdict.

Medical Malpractice Claims Declining, Says Insurer

Schaumburg, Illinois – Data collected from 1,600 hospitals in years 1997 through 2007 reveals that health care organizations’ medical malpractice claim frequency is slightly declining and severity is leveling off, according to a report released by Zurich, an leading insurer of hospitals and health care organizations in North America.

The fifth annual Zurich benchmarking report on claims trends in the healthcare industry shows that claims severity, or the average amount per claim, has stabilized over the past several years. The average annual rise over the past 11 years is four percent. Additionally, Zurich reports that teaching and children’s hospitals have higher claim severity than acute care community hospitals and outpatient facilities. Non-profit hospitals have the lowest severity; and among non-profits, faith-based institutions have the lowest severity of all.

The report is now available online and can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/ajsqJS

Study Reveals Cost of Malpractice Insurance, Verdicts and Settlements and Defensive Medicine Accounts for Only About 2.4% of US Healthcare Spend

A recent study published in the public policy journal Health Affairs, Low Costs Of Defensive Medicine, Small Savings From Tort Reform, provides important information about the costs of medical malpractice litigation and defensive medicine in comparison to the total cost of U.S. health care. The study shows that the medical liability system, a vital means for holding health care professionals accountable to accepted standards, amounts to only 2.4 percent of American health care expenditures.

In light of Health and Human Services (HHS) data showing that the U.S. spent $7,681 per person in 2008 on health care, the study results suggest that only $185 of that amount goes toward malpractice insurance, "defensive" medical tests, legal costs and the verdicts and settlements paid to patients. Contrary to the negative attention that litigation received during the recent national health care dialogue, this figure seems surprisingly modest given what Americans pay for other hedges against risk, such as car, home and life insurance.

Learn more at Health Affairs.

In Minnesota, Jury Finds Hospital Negligent for Death of Woman

Minneapolis television station KARE11 carries news of a Wright County jury returning a $4.6 million verdict in a medical malpractice case involving the death of a 36-year-old wife and mother, finding the medical center negligent. Details of the case are not provided.

Best Lawyers Selects Three from Boston's Lubin & Meyer - Medical Malpractice and Personal Injury

Boston, MA — Lubin & Meyer PC is pleased to announce that three of its Boston plaintiff attorneys have been included in the 2011 edition of Best Lawyers®, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession.

Founding partner Andrew C. Meyer, Jr. has been named a “Best Lawyer” every year since the publication’s inception in 1995. Robert M. Higgins joined Meyer on the list since 2008, while colleague William J. Thompson has been included on the list for the past two years.

See full news item at: Best Lawyers Boston

Study Says Policies Needed for Disclosure of Large-Scale Adverse Effects

Health care organizations should disclose medical mistakes that affect multiple patients even if patients were not harmed by the event, according to a research paper funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Policy and published in the September 2 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Medical mistakes that affect multiple patients, known as large-scale adverse events (LSAEs) to researchers, are incidents or series of related incidents that harm or could potentially harm multiple patients. These events, which can include incompletely sterilized surgical equipment, poor laboratory quality control and equipment malfunctions, are often identified after care has been provided and can affect thousands of patients.

According to research, disclosure policies for adverse events that affect individual patients are becoming more common among health care organizations but often fail to address how to disclose LSAEs that could have affected many patients.

Researchers weighed ethical considerations of whether to disclose such events. For instance, is disclosure ethical if patients were unlikely to have been physically harmed by the event but could be harmed psychologically by the disclosure? The authors reviewed instances in which health care institutions disclosed an LSAE and analyzed the method of disclosure and existing disclosure policies.

They concluded that, in most cases, these events should be disclosed and offered these recommendations:

• Develop an institutional policy. Organizations should have a clear set of procedures for managing the disclosure process, notifying patients and the public, coordinating follow-up diagnostic testing and treatment and responding to regulatory bodies.
• Plan for disclosures. Disclosures should be made proactively, unless a strong, ethically justifiable argument can be made not to do so. The method of disclosure may depend on the event, but patients should be informed personally and all at the same time.
• Communicate with the public. Organizations should assume that media coverage of a large-scale adverse event is inevitable. To build public trust, media responses should demonstrate the organization's commitment to honesty and transparency.
• Plan for patient follow-up. Organizations should provide follow-up diagnostic testing and treatment to patients affected by the LSAE and address any anxiety caused by the disclosure. Patients who have suffered physical harm due to an event resulting rom a preventable error or system failure should be compensated.

This post based on AHRQ press release. For more on this issue, the full article is available to read at the New England Journal of Medicine web site at:

New Hampshire: Supreme Court Finds Negligence Is Jury's To Decide in Med-Mal Trial

CONCORD, NH — Via NH Medical Malpractice News: The New Hampshire Supreme Court overturned the trial court's decision in a medical malpractice lawsuit, Beckles v. Madden, agreeing with Lubin & Meyer attorneys for the plaintiff in finding that the burden of proof for negligence in a med mal trial should be left for the jury to decide. Attorney Benjamin Novotny, argued the case before the court. Click here for more information and for a link to read the full opinion, issued April 9, 2010.

Maine: $1 Million Jury Award for Failure to Diagnose Cancer

PORTLAND, ME — A Maine Sunday Telegram reports that a "Cumberland County jury awarded a Harpswell woman and her husband $1 million Friday in a medical malpractice suit..." for failure to diagnose her cancer. She had complained of chronic pain.

According to the article, compensatory damages to the patient were $700,000, her husband was awarded $300,000, and an addition $160,000 was for medical costs. For more information, read the article on pressherald.com.

Birth Injury Resulting in Cerebral Palsy Brings $38.75 Million Verdict

This via Cerebral Palsy Law News: Morgan & Morgan, a personal injury law firm based in Orlando Florida, reports achieving a $38,750,000 in a case of medical negligence in a case claiming failure to perform a timely C-section resulting in a birth injury to the infant. Read more at: Cerebral Palsy Law News.

In California $16.5M Jury Verdict Against Neurosurgeon

Riverside, California — An Associated Press article in the Silicon Valley Mercury News announces a $16.5 million verdict in a medical malpractice lawsuit against a neurosurgeon who delayed care and surgery. According the the report, the patient,

"...who had a fractured spine, was not seen until the next day and not operated on until two days after his injury. He was left a paraplegic."

See full article here: Riverside jury: $16.5M malpractice verdict

Massachusetts Med-Mal Win Suggests Lawyers Rethink Strategy

A Dolan Media Newswire article: Massachusetts med-mal win suggests lawyers rethink strategy, published in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, by Julia Reischel on January 18, 2010, recounts the trial strategy of the state's biggest medical malpractice verdict last year — a $15 million award against Children's Hospital in a wrongful death lawsuit. In the article, Attorney James E. Fox who tried the case said:

"I did not try this as a malpractice case, I tried this as an obstruction-of-justice case. That was the only way."

Read the full newswire here.

New Hampshire Couple Brings Lawsuit Against McLean Hospital

The Boston Globe today carries an article of a lawsuit filed by a New Hampshire couple claiming McLean Hospital at fault for discharged patient who killed herself and the couple's two children in an incident on a Lowell highway in 2008.

According to the Boston Globe:

The Lamberts told the Globe after the deaths that McLean psychiatrists had diagnosed Thibault with bipolar disorder in September 2007 and discharged her six days later after prescribing psychotropic drugs and recommending outpatient therapy. But, the couple said, doctors never told family members about the risk Thibault might pose to others or herself.

“Had they been warned of this potential,’’ the Lamberts’ lawyer, Andrew C. Meyer Jr. of Boston, said yesterday, “they never would have allowed the children to be in her care that night.’’

Read the full article here: Lawsuit faults McLean in death of 2 innocents