Some of the latest medical malpractice claims making headlines are quite sad. One involves a fatality, and the other involves a lifelong brain injury to a child.
A $32.5 Million Settlement for a Birth Injury
The first case involves the family who says a hospital in Reading, PA is responsible for their son’s death. The story, published by healthexec.com says, “The injury happened when clinicians failed to properly identify fetal distress, which could have been remedied with antibiotics and a Cesarean section. Then, after the baby was born with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, staff failed to deploy interventions that could have reduced brain damage.”
Unfortunately, medical malpractice claims like this happen too often, and The National Institutes of Health has the stats to back that up.
In the United States, there are approximately 67 claims submitted for every 100,000 deliveries and roughly 13 claims paid for every 100,000 deliveries. There are 17,000 cases annually in the United States. The obstetrics malpractice lawsuits account for 15.4% to 18.1% of the total cases.
For the family of the young boy who suffered brain damage, the 2018 incident requires their son to be on round-the-clock care, and hopefully, that settlement will help ease the financial burden.
A $5.5 Million for Failure To Diagnose
The second case involves a man who died after medical professionals in Stamford, Connecticut failed to diagnose and treat him properly back in 2018. According to Stamford Advocate, “The lawsuit states 69-year-old Felix Mejia went to the Stamford Hospital emergency room on Sept. 18, 2018, complaining of diarrhea and abdominal cramping that he had been experiencing over the course of three weeks.”
According to the story in the Stamford Advocate, hospital staff initially conducted tests on Mejia and discharged him after diagnosing him with “traveler’s diarrhea,” according to the complaint. However, Mejia’s symptoms worsened over the next six days, leading him to return to the hospital twice more.
The article continues, “During his last trip to the hospital on Sept. 27, 2018, Mejia was finally scheduled for surgery to repair damage caused by “severe chronic mesenteric ischemiam” — a blocked artery in his intestines. However, that night Mejia suffered cardiac arrest and died during emergency exploratory surgery, the complaint said.”
Medical Malpractice Claims in Washington, DC, Virginia and Maryland
It’s important to note that medical malpractice claims don’t always involve death or life-altering brain damage, as noted in the cases above. There are various ways medical malpractice can occur, which can include:
- Improper treatment
- Failure to diagnose
- Failure to alert a patient of known risks
- Surgical malpractice
- Failure to refer to a medical specialist
- And more
If you suspect you or a loved one is a victim, call us at (202) 785-5111. The experienced medical malpractice attorneys at the Lapidus Law Firm will provide a free, no-obligation consultation to determine if you need legal representation. We will fight to make it right.