Case Summaries

Summaries of some recent cases:

Lawrence County, PA-a young woman from New Castle in her 8^th month of pregnancy developed heavy vaginal bleeding and pain from a condition known as placental abruption. Her obstetrician delayed coming into the hospital and delayed in performing a c-section delivery. When the infant was finally delivered, he was in critical condition. The pediatrician in attendance was not qualified to care for very sick newborns and he did not properly resuscitate the baby. As a result the baby suffered critical injuries to the brain, heart, liver, hematologic system and intestines. The baby died after eight days in the intensive care unit. Suit was filed on behalf of the deceased child and his parents by our attorneys. Case was tried for three days and settled favorably on the third day of trial.

Lawrence County, PA-an Ellwood City man went into the hospital for minor surgery on his shoulder. When he was being put to sleep with anesthetics, serious errors were made and the anesthesiologist was unable to put a tube in to breathe for him. As a result, his oxygen dropped, his heart stopped and he had to be resuscitated. He suffered serious damage to his brain and other organs such as his heart, liver and lungs. Suit was filed on his behalf by our lawyers. The case was settled successfully prior to trial.

Crawford County, PA-a woman from near Warren went for routine mammograms every year. She developed a lump in her breast and told her doctors about it. Mammograms that were done for several years while she had the lump were read as normal. Finally, after three years, her primary care doctor referred her to a surgeon. At surgery the lump turned out to be cancerous. It had spread to lymph nodes. When we reviewed the case we found that the mammograms had been misread by the radiologist and had showed cancer all along. Also, the primary care doctor who knew of the lump for three years should have referred her to a surgeon immediately instead of delaying. Suit was filed on her behalf by our medical malpractice lawyers. The case settled successfully prior to trial.

Blair County, PA-a Tyrone man went into the hospital to have his gallbladder removed laparoscopically (through a scope). Following surgery he was very ill and turned yellow. His doctor saw him repeatedly and did minor procedures but did not fix the problem. Finally, after several months, he went to a new doctor who diagnosed that his common bile duct and right hepatic artery had been clipped and cut in two at his first surgery. He required months in the hospital to be repaired. Suit was filed on his behalf by our attorneys. The case was settled successfully prior to trial.

Crawford County, PA-a woman had her gallbladder removed in 1998. In 2005, her belly swelled up and became painful. She was taken to surgery and it was found that a sponge had been left in her abdomen at the time of her original gallbladder surgery in 1998. This resulted in severe scarring and adhesions and a large part of her intestine had to be removed along with the sponge. Suit was filed on her behalf by our medical malpractice attorneys. The case was settled successfully prior to trial.

Allegheny County, PA-a man had surgery to remove a tumor from his buttock. After surgery he was placed on intravenous pain medicines using a PCA, or patient controlled analgesia, device. The doctor prescribed a dangerously high dose of pain medication to be administered in a way that undermined the safety features of the PCA device. Nurses did not check on the man with the frequency they were supposed to. He was found dead of an overdose of pain medications in the morning. A wrongful death suit was filed on behalf of his family and the case settled successfully before trial.

Cambria County, PA-a Johnstown woman went into the hospital for a heart catheterization. This is a procedure, generally done by a cardiologist, where large needles are inserted into a leg artery and a catheter is threaded into the blood vessels of the heart so that they can be examined. The catheterization showed that the blood vessels of the heart were normal. Soon after the procedure, our client developed severe pain in her left leg, the side where the catheter had been inserted. She was unable to walk. Although she returned to the doctor many times over the next month, her complaints were ignored. Finally, she went to a vascular surgeon who diagnosed that during the catheterization the artery to her leg had been severely damaged and she was now suffering from severe ischemia, or lack of blood to her left leg. She had multiple surgeries, but because her injury had gone on without being corrected for so long, her condition could not be remedied and she has permanent trouble with walking. Suit was filed on her behalf by our lawyers. The case settled successfully after two days of trial.

Bedford County, PA-a man ruptured his biceps tendon. The orthopedist that repaired the injury severed a nerve to his hand and caused him to have a claw hand. He went through surgery to repair the damage, but did not regain full function of his hand. Suit was filed on his behalf by our attorneys. The case settled successfully before trial.

Allegheny County, PA- a woman from North Huntington was admitted to the hospital for abdominal pain from gallstones, which were treated successfully. The day before she was to be sent home from the hospital, she developed chest pain and was seen by a resident (a young doctor in training) who performed an EKG and did some blood tests to check cardiac enzymes. The results showed that the woman was in the early stages of a heart attack. The results were faxed to a cardiologist, who did not come into the hospital to see her. Correct treatment was not initiated. Through the night EKGs and further blood tests showed her heart attack was progressing and she was doing poorly. The cardiologist received this information and still did not come into the hospital. In the morning she was transferred to another hospital where she died. Suit was filed on behalf of her family by our medical negligence lawyers. The case was successfully settled prior to trial.

Mercer County, PA-a young boy broke his arm and was taken to the emergency room. He complained that he had no feeling in his hand. The fracture that the boy suffered put him at particular risk for a condition called compartment syndrome, where increased pressure in the arm can destroy muscle, nerves and tendons. Numbness can be one of the first signs of the condition, which must be treated immediately to prevent permanent damage. The boy was seen by an orthopedist who ignored the boy's complaints, put his arm in a cast and sent him home. The boy's parents were not told about compartment syndrome or what to watch out for. Over the night, the boy developed increasing numbness and severe pain. He was taken to a different hospital in the morning where compartment syndrome was diagnosed and emergency surgery was performed. The boy suffered scarring and permanent loss of function of his arm and hand. The case settled successfully prior to trial.

Mercer County, PA-a woman from Sharon in her 9^th month of a normal pregnancy went into labor and presented to the hospital to deliver her baby. She was placed on a fetal monitor by nurses there. The monitor showed severe fetal distress with each contraction. Although the nurses and her obstetrician were aware of the monitor findings, a caesarean section was not performed and she was allowed to continue in labor for many hours before her baby was delivered. When the baby was born, his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck-this had been cutting off his oxygen and had caused the monitor strips to be abnormal. The baby suffered severe brain injury from lack of oxygen during delivery and was hospitalized for several months in a neonatal intensive care unit. As he grew older, the young boy suffered from cerebral palsy, developmental delays and behavioral problems. Suit was filed on behalf of the child and his parents by attorneys in this birth injury case. The case was successfully settled before trial.

Indiana County, PA-an Indiana man developed intermittent rectal bleeding and a change in his bowel habits. His family doctor diagnosed him with hemorrhoids but did not do further testing. After several years of problems, the man sought another opinion and was found to have a colon cancer. By the time the cancer was diagnosed it had already spread to his lymph nodes. Suit was filed on the man's behalf by lawyers in this delay in diagnosis of cancer case. The case was successfully settled prior to trial.

Allegheny County, PA-a Pittsburgh woman went into the hospital for a cardiac catheterization. The test showed that she had several arterial blockages. These were successfully treated with angioplasty. Immediately after the procedure she was taken to a recovery area where she initially did well. After a few hours, the sheath (large hollow needle through which the catheter was introduced to do the procedure) was pulled out. She immediately developed severe pain and her blood pressure fell, a sign of internal bleeding that needed to be addressed immediately. Although the cause of her problems should have been readily apparent and she should have immediately been taken for corrective surgery, nothing was done to treat her for a full 8 hours. Finally, after a CT scan was ordered that showed a large retroperitoneal bleed, a procedure was performed that plugged the hole from where she was bleeding. Unfortunately, the woman had lost so much blood that she died the following day. A wrongful death suit was filed on behalf of her family by our attorneys. The case successfully settled before trial.