Premature Birth Lawsuit Leads to Baltimore County Jury Awarding $2 Million to Family

Recently, a jury in the Baltimore County Circuit Court awarded a family $2 million based on their OB-GYN’s failure to identify that their daughter would be born premature and that as a result she would have cerebral palsy.  The award includes $1.5 million for future medical expenses and $350,000 in noneconomic damages, such as pain and suffering. 
 

The Abid family from Woodlawn in Baltimore County filed suit against Dr. Meera A. Rawtani from St. Joseph Medical Center.  In 2006, Mrs. Abid’s water broke ahead of schedule at 33 weeks pregnant.  However, her doctors believed she was “more than 36 weeks pregnant.”  Medical records presented at trial show that Mrs. Abid’s ultrasound from 12 days prior to her water breaking showed a premature baby.  The lawsuit alleged that Dr. Rawtani failed to let the Abids know there “might have been a ‘miscalculation’ on the gestation,” and that the hospital staff failed to administer steroids to baby Maria while in utero to increase her lung capacity.  When Maria was born, her lungs were underdeveloped and she was experiencing breathing problems.  The neonatologist informed the NICU staff that Maria was “mistakenly delivered prematurely” at 33 weeks. 
 
The telling piece of evidence presented at trial was the changing of medical records “after the fact” to show Maria was not fully developed when born.  Maria is now 9 years old and with this verdict, her parents can now afford to take better care of her and have been compensated for all the pain they have endured over the years because of the doctor’s mistake.

This type of award by the jury bodes well for future plaintiffs in Baltimore County bringing a medical malpractice suit against a doctor for a birth injury.  Compared to other counties in Maryland, Baltimore is usually on the lower end of monetary damage awards.  Personal injury attorneys in the Baltimore County area are certainly welcoming this deviation in normal jury patterns.

If you or someone you love has been the victim of a birth injury or an injury as the result of someone elses negligence in Maryland, please call us at (301) 854-9000 to schedule an appointment for a free case evaluation in our Owings Mills office or one of our other offices located throughout Maryland, or visit us online to learn more about medical malpractice at http://www.portnerandshure.com/Medical-Malpractice/Cerebral-Palsy.shtml

Medical Malpractice Lawyer for Failure to Diagnose Diabetes

Visit us at:  www.portnerandshure.com

or call to speak with one of our experienced Maryland medical malpractice attorneys at (301) 854-9000 for a free consultation.

For more than 20 years, the attorneys of Portner & Shure have been pursuing the best interest of our clients in medical malpractice cases in Columbia, Maryland.  These medical malpractice claims involve:

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  birth injuries, including cerebral palsy
  


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  brain damage
  


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  misdiagnoses
  


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  medication overdose
  


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  surgical negligence
  


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  prescription errors
  


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  anesthesia negligence
  


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  wrongful death
  

Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare provider causes injury or death to a patient by failing to act within the applicable standard of care.  Many Columbia, Maryland patients expect to receive the highest level of care and assume that their doctor's will take good care of them.  Doctors are also expected to be able to make a diagnosis or recommend appropriate treatment to a patient.  However, doctors misdiagnose illnesses and diseases far too often.  One common misdiagnosis is diabetes, where doctors fail to diagnose a patient with the condition and the patient is subjected to permanent injuries.  In order to prove malpractice, there had to have been a breach of the standard of care and/or a failure to obtain informed consent.  The attorneys at Portner & Shure possess excellent legal knowledge, in addition to being familiar with the health care profession and standards of treatment.

Diabetes is a serious condition affecting over 25 million people, with more than 8 out of every 100 people developing the disease.  Diabetes is a metabolic disease in which there are high bloof sugar levels.  If a doctor fails to diagnose it and it is left untreated, serious complications can occur including heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, amputations of toes, and even death.

In every case we handle, our attorneys and staff work with numerous physicians and other experts to strengthen our claims.  There are many factors that impact the value of a medical malpractice claim.  It is important that your attorney understands how to properly evaluate damages in order to determine the full value of a claim and build a strong case for the jury.  Common damages for medical malpractice cases include:

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  medical expenses
  


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  lost wages
  


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  pain and suffering
  


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  loss of consortium
  


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  wrongful death
  

Misdiagnoses can cause serious harm to a patient, and if an injury or death was caused through medical malpractice in Columbia, Maryland, an experienced attorney from Portner & Shure can help you get the compensation you are entitled.

If you or a family member is the victim of an injury caused by medical malpractice in Maryland, an experienced attorney from Portner & Shure can help you get the compensation you are entitled.  If you would like a free legal consultation or if you would like more information on medical malpractice please feel free to contact our office at (301) 854-9000 or visit us on the web at www.portnerandshure.com

Maryland Medical Malpractice Attorneys | Rising Health Care Costs

Visit us at:  www.portnerandshure.com

or call to speak with one of our experienced Maryland medical malpractice attorneys at (301) 854-9000 for a free consultation.

Insurance Company Compiling List of Efficient Doctors to Save Members Money

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield CEO Chet Burrell announced earlier this week he wants to award members discounts for picking efficient doctors.  The insurer plans to begin keeping track of which doctors are most efficient in its physician directory as soon as 2016.  Then, when members choose a doctor that is on this list, they could receive a discount on their premium.  The goal of this plan is to help slow rising health care costs. 

CareFirst also uses the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) program for more efficient and cost effective medical service.  In this program, a group of doctors "work together to treat patients with a goal of reducing unnecessary and improving the patients' overall health."  Further, if patients' health care costs come in under budget, the doctors get to share in some of CareFirst's savings.

Both of CareFirst's programs (Efficient Doctors Database and PCMH) can be extremely beneficial for our medical malpractice clients in Maryland.  With the possibility of saving money on insurance premiums, our clients can be persuaded to choose efficient doctors, thereby avoiding any potential medical malpractice claims.  A major cause of medical malpractice claims involves doctors who run unnecessary tests or do not run correct tests to help diagnose a patient and the patient gets more sick or injured in some way. 

Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare provider causes injury or death to a patient by failing to act within the applicable standard of care.  Many Maryland patients who enter surgery like to believe they have entrusted their life in the hands of a capable and careful surgeon.  Unfortunately, surgical errors are more common than one would like to believe.  In order to prove malpractice, there had to have been a breach of the standard of care and/or a failure to obtain informed consent. 

The experienced medical malpractice attorneys at Portner & Shure possess excellent knowledge, in addition to being familiar with the health care profession and standards of treatment.  In fact, Mr. Shure worked as in-house counsel for a national health care corporation and uses the knowledge he gained to help persuade insurance companies to provide our injured clients with benefits they are entitled to receive.

In every case we handle, our attorneys and staff work with numerous physicians and other experts to strengthen our claims.  There are many factors that impact the value of a medical malpractice claim.  It is important that your attorney understands how to properly evaluate damages in order to determine the full value of a claim and build a strong case for the jury.  Common damages for medical malpractice cases include:

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  medical expenses

  
  


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  lost wages

  
  


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  pain and suffering

  
  


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  loss of consortium

  
  


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  wrongful death

  
  

Surgical errors can cause serious harm to a patient, and if an injury of surgical error was caused through medical malpractice in Maryland, an experienced attorney from Portner & Shure can help you get the compensation you are entitled.

If you or a family member is the victim of an injury caused by medical malpractice in Maryland, an experienced attorney from Portner & Shure can help you get the compensation you are entitled.  If you would like a free legal consultation or if you would like more information on medical malpractice in Maryland, please feel free to contact our office at (301) 854-9000 or visit us on the web at www.portnerandshure.com

For those readers interested in reading the article, the link can found below:

http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2014/10/29/carefirst-wants-to-give-discounts-to-members-who.html

 

 

Maryland Medical Malpractice Lawyer | Top Court Decides

Visit us at:  www.portnerandshure.com

or call to speak with one of our experienced Maryland medical malpractice attorneys at (301) 854-9000 for a free consultation.

Earlier this month, the Maryland Court of Appeals heard oral argumens in the Wicomico County case of Ginneene Williams v. Peninsula Regional Medical Center.  Maryland's highest court is "tasked with determining whether medical professionals are immune from liability if they decide not to admit a patient after an evaluation."

The basic facts of this case involve Ms. Williams taking her son to Peninsula Regional Medical Center in 2009 because of strange behavior.  The hospital released him, and he subsequently went to a restaurant where he continued to act strange.  Later, he broke into a home and Salisbury police shot Mr. Williams fifteen times after he charged at the officers with a knife and told them to shoot him.  The Wicomico County Circuit Court held that the wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family be dismissed.  The Court of Special Appeals upheld the Circuit Court's ruling.  This will be the first time the Court of Appeals interprets the statute in question.

During oral arguments, Court of Appeals Judge Sally D. Adkins posed the following question: "why legislation would provide doctors with immunity to admit patients but not for determining not to admit them?"  Judge Adkins followed that up by commenting, "[i]n that case...if doctors were to have any doubt, they would admit the patient."  It will certainly be interesting to see how the Court rules in this matter, and depending on how they rule, our future medical malpractice clients could be affected.

If you or a family member is the victim of an injury caused by medical malpractice in Maryland, an experienced attorney from Portner & Shure can help you get the compensation you are entitled.  If you would like a free legal consultation or if you would like more information on medical malpractice in Maryland, please feel free to contact our office at (301) 854-9000 or visit us on the web at www.portnerandshure.com