May 2009 Archives

I blogged last month about a defense malpractice verdict in Towson, Maryland in a colonoscopy case.  I stumbled upon an old verdict report from Baltimore City in a colonoscopy case where the Plaintiff was awarded $390,481 for a circumferential tear of the sigmoid colon. 

The Plaintiff, a 59 year-old custodian, had a routine in office colonoscopy where she nearly total circumferential tear of her sigmoid colon. She was rushed to Johns Hopkins Hospital for immediate surgery.  She incurred over $40,000 in medical bills and was required to use of a colostomy bag for approximately five months and had to have a second surgery to reverse the colostomy and remove the bag.

Obviously, not a huge verdict in a malpractice lawsuit in Maryland.  But the jury may have been swayed on damages by the fact that as serious as the injuries were, the Plaintiff thankfully made a full recovery.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania joins Nevada, Maryland and Oregon as states in recent days reporting a decline in medical malpractice lawsuits. The number of medical malpractice lawsuits filed against Lancaster County doctors fell last year to 2003 levels.  Lancaster County did not have a single medial malpractice jury trial against a healthcare provider in 2008.  

According to ABC News, an doctor representing the AMA told President Obama that one reason doctors order so many unnecessary tests is because they fear malpractice lawsuits and are practicing "defensive medicine." The doctor asked the president if medical malpractice reform would be part of the solution; the president said he'd keep an open mind.  The article notes the obvious: Democrats are in control and have historically opposed such efforts. 

 

Still, this kind of talk - linking health care reform to malpractice tort reform - would impact not just Maryland malpractice lawsuits but the entire country.

 

 

Forbes provides the top paying jobs in the United States.  Here are the top 5:

1. Surgeons ($206,770)
2. Anesthesiologists ($197,570)
3. Orthodontists ($194,930)
4. Obstetrician and gynecologists ($192,780)
5. Oral and maxillofacial surgeons ($190,420)

Doctors are making a fortune which is exactly what they should be making.  The problem is that doctors want you to focus on (1) how much medical malpractice lawyers are making, and (2) how much doctors are paying in malpractice premiums.  But how much doctors are making, particularly OB/GYNs because they pay more in premiums, has to be the first thing on the table.

Doctors in Maryland are making a lot of money and they want to make a lot more.  Good for them, they have worked hard and most doctors are earning every penny.  But this has to be considered in context when doctors say they want to modify the tort system we have had for zillions of years because they want more money as opposed to their patients who may have been seriously injured by their negligence.  This is not a tough balancing test for me.  

I think malpractice lawyers are always interested when they see a verdict in a malpractice case, particularly verdicts in the same states in which the lawyer has cases.  Certainly, Verdicts obtained in medical malpractice lawsuits are invariably misleading because every cancer misdiagnosis case is different.  The axiom that "every case is different" is trite but true.  

With that caveat, this is a not so random sampling of cancer misdiagnosis lawsuits that have gone to verdict in Maryland in recent years.  The purpose of listing these verdicts below is to give Maryland cancer misdiagnosis lawyers a chance to take a look at the type of cases in which juries have found error in the failure to diagnose or treat cancer. 

If you have a medical malpractice case, call one of our Maryland malpractice lawyers at 800-553-8082 or click here for a free Internet consultation.