NEW YORK – A woman, who lost her hands and feet as a result of insufficient medical care, won a $17.9 settlement for damages she suffered as a result of her injuries. According to news reports, the city of Brooklyn, Brooklyn Hospital Center and two Brooklyn Hospital Center doctors will pay Tabitha Mullings the $17.9 settlement. In September 2008, Mullings, a 35-year-old mother of three, had her hands and feet amputated after developing a sepsis infection, which led to development of gangrene. Two days before developing the sepsis infection, Mullings had been diagnosed with a kidney stone at Brooklyn Hospital and was sent home with painkillers. The next day, despite being in agonizing pain, Mullings was denied ambulance transportation twice by 911 dispatchers. It was then that her fiancé rushed her to the Brooklyn Hospital emergency room, but she had already developed the sepsis infection and soon fell into a coma. Days later, she awoke to four missing extremities and blindness in one eye. If your or a loved one suffered a serious injury as a result of someone else’s negligence, speak to a Los Angeles personal injury attorney at Estey Bomberger today. We only handle cases involving serious personal injury or wrongful death, and have the resources needed to go up against large corporations. We have recovered large settlements and verdicts for our clients, [...] Read more »
Displaying all posts for ‘Medical Malpractice’
Brooklyn Mother Awarded $17.9 Million Settlement for Amputation Injuries
Queens, NY Woman Awarded $5.5 Million for Injuries Sustained During Child Birth
In personal injury news, a Queens, NY woman and her husband were awarded $5.5 million dollars by a Supreme Court jury for serious pelvic injuries the woman sustained during childbirth eight years ago at Lenox Hill Hospital. The six-juror panel found Lenox Hill Hospital liable for Maria Bustos’ injuries in less than hour of deliberation. Despite complaints of severe discomfort throughout her pregnancy and repeated requests to have a Caesarean section, Bustos’ doctor did not mention the possibility of a c-section in his charts and did not arrive to see her at the hospital until several hours after she arrived. Bustos’ doctor admitted to the jury that he “wandered in and out” of the delivery room after arriving at the hospital and came into the room only a minute before she delivered. In the doctor’s absence, a first year resident and a nurse subjected Bustos to exaggerated abduction of the pelvic bone, which resulted in a broken pelvic bone and severe back injuries. Because of the injuries she sustained during delivery, Bustos has had several corrective surgeries performed and now uses a cane to walk.
Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed against Simi Valley Lap-Band Clinic
The husband of a woman who died five days after undergoing a Lap-Band weight-loss procedure filed a medical malpractice and wrongful death lawsuit against surgeons, Ihsan Shamaan and Kevork George Tashjian, Valley Surgical Center, 1-800-GET-THIN, Simi Valley Hospital and doctors who treated the woman there. John Faitro claims that neither he or his wife, Laura Faitro were informed that Laura’s liver had been lacerated three times during her July 2010 Lap-Band surgery at Valley Surgical Center. Faitro, who is blind, said in an interview that had the surgeons told him that his wife’s liver had been lacerated, he would have called the paramedics instead of waiting to take her to the hospital. It was only until Laura experienced severe pain after surgery that she was taken to Simi Valley Hospital where doctors diagnosed her with sepsis, an illness in which bacteria overwhelms the bloodstream. Although an autopsy report lists the cause of death as heart failure, liver laceration is listed as one of two contributing factors. An attorney who represents Valley Surgical Center and 1-800-GET-THIN, said in a statement that the surgery was performed correctly and because the cause of death was not liver laceration, Faitro’s death was not related to the Lap-Band procedure. Within the last two years, three other patients have died after undergoing Lap-Band surgery [...] Read more »
LA Times: At Least 4 Cedars-Sinai Patients Not Told About Dangers of Radiation Overdoses
OCTOBER 15, 2009 – A statement made by hospital officials last week regarding the radiation overdoses at Cedars-Sinai has been contradicted, the LA Times reported today. Last week, hospital officials said all patients exposed to 8x normal amounts of radiation had been contacted. But today, The Times reported that four patients informed them that although radiologists had contacted them last month, the radiologists did not acknowledge any hospital error or tell them that they had been exposed to eight times the normal amount of radiation in a CT scan. Cedars-Sinai has determined the CT scan radiation overdosing began in February 2008 and continued until August when a patient reported hair loss following a CT scan. All of the affected patients had undergone CT brain perfusion scans – a procedure used to diagnose strokes. The greatest danger associated with the overexposure is cancer – specifically a brain tumor. Cancer from radiation exposure can take years to develop. Younger patients and those who were exposed multiple times have the greatest risk of developing cancers. According to The Times, one patient said he was contacted by a doctor who said he was following up on the scan and wanted to know if he had suffered hair loss, headaches or blurred vision, but was not told of the hospital’s error. In a written statement [...] Read more »
Cedars-Sinai Hospital Under Investigation for Radiation Overdoses of 206 Patients
OCTOBER 10, 2009 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning yesterday regarding the risks of overexposure to radiation during CT scan procedures. The warning came after officials determined a CT brain scan machine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center was set to an unsafe level– exposing 206 patients to eight times the dose of radiation normally delivered in the CT scan procedure. The overdoses were delivered to patients undergoing CT brain perfusion scans – to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of stroke. According to the FDA, instead of patients receiving 0.5 Gy (gray) to the head, the patients received 3-4 Gy. In their alert issued on October 9, 2009, the FDA did not specifically identify Cedars-Sinai as the facility where the radiation overdoses occurred, but health officials at the Los Angeles hospital confirmed the situation to local news sources on Friday afternoon. The error at Cedars-Sinai went undetected for 18 months. Health officials became aware of the radiation overdoses in August. According to a hospital spokesman, about 40% of the 206 patients affected – roughly 80 people- lost patches of hair. Hair loss, however, is not the only concerning side effect of radiation overdoses. Very high doses of radiation can cause radiation poisoning and lead to cancer years or even decades later. A spokeswoman for the FDA [...] Read more »
San Bernardino Nursing Home Fined After Patient’s Suicide
AUGUST 15, 2009 – A nursing home in the Del Rosa section of San Bernardino was fined $90,000 by state regulators after a patient hung himself three weeks after arriving with orders to be under constant suicide watch, authorities said. The death occurred June 11 at Del Rosa Villa, a skilled nursing facility in the 2000 block of North Del Rosa Avenue that’s licensed to care for as many as 104 patients, according to a spokesman for the California Department of Health. The unidentified 52-year-old patient was transferred from an acute-care center on May 22. He had a fractured leg that occurred when he threw himself in front of a vehicle in a suicide attempt on April 21, according to a nine-page report. His care plan included the instructions, “Suicide watch at all times,’‘ written in red ink, according to the report. A licensed vocational nurse told state investigators that she did not see the instructions. The man killed himself by rolling his wheelchair through a laundry room and into a parking lot, where he was found hanging from a perimeter fence, the report said.
Tustin Nursing Home Fined for Choking Death
JULY 29, 2009 – A Tustin nursing home was fined $50,000 by state health officials after a resident choked to death in March, authorities said. Tustin Care Center was cited in an inspection report by the California Department of Public Health, which said the staff had noticed the man had grown weaker, but still allowed him to eat regular meals on his own. The state report concluded that the nursing home failed to assess the man’s ability to eat, leading to his death. The man was eating soup with rice on the day of his death, according to the report. The man called for his wife, who is also a resident, after he began struggling to breathe. A nurse on staff performed the Heimlich maneuver, but was unable to dislodge the food. He died later that day at a hospital. An autopsy revealed the man had food completely blocking his trachea, the report said.
Woman Awarded $2.9 Million Tuesday for Medical Malpractice from Hip Surgery
JUNE 12, 2009 – An Orange County jury awarded a 30-year-old woman nearly $3 million to compensate for chronic hip pain caused by a botched surgery. Erica Rockabrand underwent surgery at UCI Medical Center in April 2005 to alleviate pain in her hip joint that first surfaced when she was a 14-year-old cheerleader. The surgery was performed by Dr. Guy Paiment, who inserted two screws in her hip, one of which pierced the foramen and damaged Rockabrand’s sciatic nerve, according to her attorney, Sean M. Burke, causing irreversible pain. Rockabrand, who was pursuing a PhD in biochemistry at the time of the surgery, was awarded $89,000 for economic damages, and $2.8 million for pain and suffering. California law caps damages for pain and suffering in medical malpractice suits at $250,000.
Hollywood Medical Facility Fined in Patient’s Death
MAY 14, 2009 – A Hollywood medical facility has been fined after a patient’s October death. Nurses at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center mistakenly gave the wrong patient a blood transfusion on October 28th, resulting in the patient’s death. Two nurses failed to check the name on the blood bag before administering the transfusion. The nurses were suspended after the incident and eventually quit. The hospital has been fined $25,000.
Family of Woman Who Died in ER Accepts $3 Million
APRIL 14, 2009 – The family of a woman who died in a Los Angeles hospital emergency room two years ago will be awarded $3 million. On May 9, 2007, 43-year-old Edith Rodriguez visited Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital complaining of abdominal pain. It was her third visit in three days. On this visit, her symptoms were dismissed by a triage nurse and Ms. Rodriguez was seated in the emergency room’s waiting area. She began writhing pain on the floor of the facility, and this continued for 45 minutes. Two 911 calls were placed attempting to get help for her. In the first call, the dispatcher told Ms. Rodriguez’s boyfriend that help would not be sent because the patient was already at a hospital. The second call was made by another person waiting in the ER, and they were told that Ms. Rodriguez’s condition was not a life-threatening emergency and offered the phone number to the business line. Security tapes show a janitor mopping around Ms. Rodriguez as she lay on the floor in pain. Other hospital employees are also witnessed walking by and offering no assistance. County police officers finally decided to arrest Ms. Rodriguez on an outstanding warrant in hopes of obtaining medical care in jail. Before she could receive this care, she passed away from a perforated bowel. The three adult [...] Read more »