Posted on January 29, 2010 in Medical Malpractice

A Kentucky jury has award $4.6 million to a couple in a medical malpractice case. The couple claimed that a urologist performed a negligent medical procedure on the husband causing permanent personal injuries. The verdict included $3,750,000 to the husband for pain and suffering, $117,612 for medical expenses and $750,000 to the wife.

As an experienced Baltimore, Maryland medical malpractice lawyer, I handle cases like these all of the time in my practice. One involved negligent anesthesia during urological procedures, while another involved the failure to recognize a spinal cord tumor that was causing incontinence. This is an extremely large verdict for such a case. While the newspaper article didn’t identify the particular injury, it must have been severe.

Contact Andrew G. Slutkin with further questions or inquiries at 410-385-2786

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 Posted on January 28, 2010 in Divorce

The short answer is, they do not. Martial property is defined as “the property, however titled, acquired by 1 or both parties during the marriage.” Maryland Code, Family Law § 8-201(3). This includes a marital business acquired by one or both of the parties during the marriage. For more information on marital property division during a divorce proceeding see our Marital Property Blog from August 19, 2009 . Many times the issue of how to solve the ‘division’ of a martial business in a divorce proceeding is a complicated one due to stock ownership, the value of the business, and consideration of employees of the business.

In accordance with Maryland Code, Family Law § 8-202 (b) when the court determines the ownership of personal or real property, the court may: (1) grant a decree that states what the ownership interest of each party is; and (2) as to any property owned by both of the parties, order a partition or a sale instead of partition and a division of the proceeds. A business is not real or personal property and due to how the stock of the company is held, a sale of the business may not always be a viable option. In the recent case of Turner v. Turner, 147 Md. App. 350 (2002) the Court of Special Appeals found that they could not order sale of the marital business or partition (divide) the marital business, awarding wife 50% of the business, because the husband owned 87% of the shares of stock in the company and Wife owned the remaining shares. The court does not have the authority to re-title stock and does not have the authority to sell it. Therefore in Turner, the court awarded the wife a larger percentage of the parties total value of marital property (a monetary award). What this means is that when a marital business is an issue and stock is held by both husband and wife, but titled individually, in addition to divorce proceedings, an action to dissolve the corporation may also be necessary if parties are unable or unwilling to continue to work/ run the business together.

I recently settled a case, where the husband and wife started a business during the marriage and each party owned 50% of the stock individually. So while the business itself was marital and the individually held stock was also martial, the court would not have been able to sell the business though the divorce proceedings, unless agreed upon by the parties. Ultimately, my client bought out the other spouses interest, after months and months of negotiation. However, in the event a resolution had not been reached, the parties would have had to puruse a corporate dissolution proceeding with respect to the business. If you chose to start a business with your spouse, a simple way to avoid the pitfalls above is to title each share of stock jointly. By titling it to both parties, the Court, through the divorce proceeding, will have the authority to sell the asset.

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 Posted on January 26, 2010 in Medical Malpractice

An Alabama jury has awarded $20 million in a medical malpractice case in which a woman died after receiving negligent anesthesia care. The woman, a wife and mother of two, died in 2006 after receiving anesthesia during exploratory surgery. The woman, who had been suffering from severe abdominal pain, aspirated bile from her stomach into her lungs, causing aspiration pneumonia. The family claimed that the defendant doctors did not examine the woman’s abdomen or look at her medical records before the exploratory surgery, which would have revealed her risk factors for breathing fluid into her lungs.

As an experienced Baltimore, Maryland medical malpractice lawyer, I have handled a number of medical malpractice cases, including some involving the negligent administration of anesthesia. In one case, a woman died from improper monitoring during anesthesia. In another case, a patient died of aspiration pneumonia during the days after surgery. These are tragic cases. They can easily be prevented with just even the minimum care and attention. To see some of the cases I have handled, click here.

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 Posted on January 26, 2010 in Medical Malpractice

The New York Times published a detailed article this past weekend on radiation overdose malpractice in New York hospitals. The article reports a number of shocking instances of people who have been given too much radiation during treatment for various cancers. Many of them have suffered terrible health complications from this malpractice, including gaping wounds, loss of hearing, sight, the ability to heal, walk and otherwise function. A copy of the article can be found here.

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 Posted on January 26, 2010 in Medical Malpractice

A Missouri woman has settled a medical malpractice lawsuit for $2.5 million. The woman was treated at University Hospital in early 2005 for dehydration, which was the result of a gastrointestinal condition. Apparently, doctors infused her with nutritional supplements through an IV in her subclavian artery, just below the collarbone, instead of the subclavian vein, where it was supposed to go. This caused fatty blockages to travel to her brain for five consecutive days, causing severe strokes and neurological and mental impairment. She is mentally and physically handicapped as a result.

As an experienced Baltimore, Maryland medical malpractice lawyer, I have handled a number of medical malpractice cases involving the incorrect administration of mediation or nutrition through IVs. These cases usually involve clear medical negligence as the wrong product (medication or nutrition), dosage or entry point is used. In one case, a hospital gave the wrong medication dosage to a patient causing the patient to die. The error was clear from the medical records. In another case, a woman was given 5 times the proper dosage of nutrition supplement causing her to go into cardiac arrest and die. These are terribly upsetting cases because they can easily be prevented with just a little care and attention. To see some of the cases I have handled, click here.

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 Posted on January 25, 2010 in Medical Malpractice

A Massachusetts jury has found that two doctors at Children’s Hospital Boston were guilty of medical malpractice that caused the death of a 3-year-old boy, and awarded the parents $15 million. The boy died a year and a half after he underwent surgery for a birth defect. The child was born with a severe congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot, a complicated but treatable birth defect that affects the flow of blood through the heart. He underwent eight procedures, 7 of which were cardiac catheterizations, before coming to Children’s for another catheterization procedure to widen his arteries. After the Boston procedure, the child suffered a seizure. A CAT scan revealed that that contrast dye, which is used during the procedure to better see the patient’s anatomy, had leaked into his brain. Later, an MRI revealed that a piece of metal had lodged in the boy’s brain, probably from a medical instrument. When the child left the hospital, he was unable to walk or speak. The jury awarded damages of $5 million for the child’s pain and suffering, $5 million for the parents’ loss of their child, and $5 million for the child’s wrongful death.

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 Posted on January 25, 2010 in Medical Malpractice

Washington state has agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle a medical malpractice lawsuit that was brought by one of its former hospitals by a man who escaped out of the window of a county-owned mental hospital and hurt himself jumping onto a fire-escape landing. It was alleged that, while the man was being held in a "seclusion room," he was not adequately monitored by the hospital and that the room was not adequately secured. The man climbed out of a window, walked along a narrow area, and then jumped to the roof of an adjacent area, which enabled him to reach the roof of another building. He then jumped to the fire escape landing. The man suffered multiple fractures in the fall.

As an experienced Baltimore, Maryland medical malpractice lawyer, I and my office have successfully handled a number of cases in which people are injured or killed due to the failure of those in charge of persons to properly care for them. In one case, a psychologist and psychologist who saw a psychotic patient in an emergency room improperly discharged him, resulting in the patient’s suicide the next day. In another case, a hospital failed to properly restrain and monitor a patient, causing his death from asphyxiation. In yet another case, a teenager at a youth facility was improperly put into a prone restraint, asphyxiated and killed.

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 Posted on January 25, 2010 in Medical Malpractice

There has been a lot of publicity lately about a doctor at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Maryland, that supposedly implanted cardiac stents that may not have been necessary. The publicity started after St. Joseph Medical Center sent out letters to 369 former patients stating that a review of surgeries by Dr. Mark Midei revealed that Dr. Midei may have told these people that they had severe coronary artery blockages that they actually didn’t have, and then recommend and performed stent surgery on these people when it was not necessary. Usually, such stents are only placed in people who have blockages of 70% or more.

In the article, a women is quoted who was told that she had a 90% blockage and underwent stent surgery as a result, but after getting a letter discovered that she only had a 10% blockage and didn’t need the surgery. Not only did she undergo unnecessary surgery, but she incorrectly believed she had severe cardiac disease and now has to take blood thinners for life due to the stent.

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 Posted on January 21, 2010 in Medical Malpractice

One common type of malpractice concerns the failure of a clinician or radiologist to properly diagnose a patient’s musculoskeletal tumor based on the relevant clinical and radiological features. One sub-type of these musculoskeletal tumors is a cartilage tumor, a tumor that grows within a human bone.

Musculoskeletal tumors are benign or malignant lesions that form in human bone and the connective tissues. Cartilage tumors are musculoskeletal tumors that produce cartilage inside the host bone. There are only two types of cartilage tumors: enchondroma (benign) and chondrosarcoma (malignant). Cartilage tumors range in severity from benign enchondroma to low-grade malignant chondrosarcoma to high grade chondrosarcoma. Chondrosarcoma is the second most common primary malignant bone tumor, accounting for 25-30% of all primary bony malignancies.

Several well-established clinical guideposts and principles exist regarding location, size, presence and duration of pain, and age of the patient, that assist physicians in distinguishing a benign enchondroma from a low-grade malignant chondrosarcoma. Clinically, benign enchondromas most commonly involve the tubular bones of the hands and feet. When present in long bones, such as the femur, enchondromas most often are located in the distal femur (furthest from the hip). Enchondromas are usually asymptomatic; i.e., with no associated pain, and therefore, the vast majority are discovered incidentally on radiographs or bone scans done for other reasons. The majority of enchondromas are approximately 3 cm in maximum dimension. Benign tumors larger than 5 cm in maximum dimension are extremely rare. In contrast, chondrosarcomas are most commonly located in the proximal femur (closest to the hip) and pelvis. Like other malignant tumors, the single most common clinical symptom for chondrosarcoma is the presentation with pain that is directly referable to the bone in which the tumor is growing. Published literature indicates that the pain is typically present for 1-2 years prior to diagnosis and is most often described by patients as an insidious or achy pain that is initially constant in nature, but that ultimately progresses in severity. Generally, patients with chondrosarcoma are over the age of 40, while those with benign enchondroma are typically under the age of 40.

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 Posted on January 21, 2010 in Real Estate

Our Maryland plaintiff’s attorneys are experienced in handling cases involving Marylanders who are injured by unscrupulous realtors. Often we prosecute malpractice claims against the realtor for claims such as fraud or conflict of interest. During the course of this representation, we are asked how to file a complaint with the Board against these realtors for sanctions against the public.

Below is our internal memo which outlines the process:

(1) File complaint with The Greater Baltimore Board of REALTORS (GBBR) for violating Code of Ethics a. If found to be in violation of Code of Ethics – REALTOR may be subject to a fine, suspension of membership or expulsion from the association i. Must cite which section of Code of Ethics they violated
b. Claim = per incident
i. CANNOT process claims for monetary damages
ii. If legal action has been filed with Courts, CANNOT consider any complaint filed with GBBR until legal action has been resolved
iii. Complaint must be filed 180 days after facts were known
iv. Individual complaint being filed against must be member of GBBR
c. Copies of application to file complaint and information from website is attached

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