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August
- Murphy v. University of Maryland Rehabilitation and Orthopaedic Institute (filed August 1, 2017): Unable to find another person to assist her, a nurse attempted to transport a man to the restroom herself. The man was non-weight bearing on his left leg and used multiple braces and assistive devices. During the transport, the man fell and caused injury to his left hip. As a result, the man required a total hip replacement.
- Palombi v. Metropolitan ENT & Facial Plastic Surgery (filed August 1, 2017): A woman underwent surgery to correct a fracture in the thin floor of her eye socket that she sustained during a fall. After the surgery, the woman was experiencing eye pain, limited range of motion, and severe double vision. A CT scan showed that the plate used to treat her eye socket fracture had been rotated and displaced, trapping tissue around her eye muscles. Despite corrective surgery, the woman still experiences severe double vision, as well as difficulty moving her eye upward.
- Bastien v. Associates in Cardiology / Holy Cross Hospital (filed August 1, 2017): Presenting to the emergency department with chest pain, a man was given diagnostic testing that indicated he was about to experience a heart attack. No appropriate emergency intervention was provided, and the man’s health continued to decline. He was sent to the hospital’s cardiac catheterization laboratory more than 24 hours after he first arrived at the emergency room. Physicians attempted to place a stent, but there was already too much damage to the man’s heart. After suffering a cardiorespiratory arrest, the man became brain dead.
- Mays v. Means (filed August 1, 2017): A man died from a fatal infection after his physicians failed to recognize that his catheter was inflated inside his urethra.
- King v. Mercy Medical Center (filed August 1, 2017): A woman underwent surgery to remove her right tube and ovary. A cyst had been found on her ovary after she presented to the hospital with abdominal pain, but her physicians made no effort to investigate whether her pain was caused by something other than the cyst. Additionally, because the woman had had multiple prior abdominal and pelvic surgeries, the risks of this surgery were greatly increased. During the surgery, physicians inserted the laparoscopic equipment in the wrong place, considering that the woman’s anatomy had been altered by her obesity and past medical history. This negligent care caused the woman to suffer a massive hemorrhage, shock, and the need for intensive care treatment.
- Hill v. University of Maryland Medical Associates (filed August 2, 2017): During a surgery to remove a woman’s gallbladder, the surgeon negligently cut across the common bile duct and the hepatic artery, which he misidentified as the cystic artery. The hepatic artery is a critical vessel, so these injuries resulted in severe complications including pain, poor appetite, and nausea. The surgeon never performed enough pre-operative testing to determine whether the gallbladder removal surgery was medically necessary to begin with, and then didn’t perform the appropriate post-operative testing when the woman complained of continuing pain. She underwent multiple procedures in the attempt to repair her obstructed bile duct, but ultimately developed liver failure and required a transplant.
- Reynolds v. Maryland Provo-I Medical Services (filed August 2, 2017): In spite of the man’s history of hypertension, spinal stenosis, and a Type B aortic dissection, doctors at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore failed to appropriately reduce his blood pressure and heart rate when he presented to the emergency department after a car accident. The man was discharged from the hospital, even though his condition was worsening. Two days later, he became paralyzed from the waist down and was transported by ambulance to John Hopkins. Without performing the appropriate diagnostic testing, the doctors at Sinai Hospital had not been able to identify and treat the problems that caused the disruption of blood flow to a portion of his spinal cord, which led to his paralysis.
- Alexander v. Johns Hopkins Hospital (filed August 2, 2017): A boy presented to the hospital with headaches and slightly dilated ventricles. He underwent a shunt revision. Throughout the procedure, his blood pressure was elevated, but no anti-hypertensive medications were administered until after the procedure was completed. The boy’s condition continued to decline, but his physicians found no issue with the shunt and made no attempt to reduce his intracranial pressure. Later imaging studies confirmed that the boy had suffered three strokes.
- Williams v. Matera (filed August 2, 2017)
- DiStefano v. Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group (filed August 7, 2017): A doctor inappropriately touched and sexually abused a pain management patient during a physical examination of her spine. There had been complaints about the doctor’s sexual misconduct in the past, but he was still allowed to examine patients without a chaperone present.
- Robertson v. University of Maryland Medical Center (filed August 7, 2017): In violation of UMMC’s Pressure Ulcer Prediction and Prevention Policy, a man’s healthcare providers failed to provide him with weight reducing surfaces or reposition him every fifteen minutes. As a result, the man developed pressure ulcers.
- Young v. Brinton Woods of Washington D.C. (filed August 8, 2017): In this wrongful death claim, physicians did not timely recognize that a man’s intestine had twisted on itself, causing a bowel obstruction. The man remained at the nursing home, receiving ineffectual pain medication, while his symptoms worsened. When he eventually went into severe distress, he was taken to the hospital and underwent emergency surgery. As a result of the delay in treatment, the man suffered a bowel perforation that ultimately led to his death.
- Barnett v. Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group (filed August 8, 2017): A woman pregnant with triplets continuously called her obstetrician throughout her pregnancy, complaining of back pain. Her doctor recommended a maternity belt, but never investigated the cause of the woman’s back pain. The doctor notified the woman about the high risk of triplet gestation, including the increased risk of preterm labor, and yet the doctor never assessed her for cervical shortening or preterm labor. Shortly after birth, all three triplets died due to complications from their extreme prematurity.
- Elleby v. University of Maryland Medical System (filed August 8, 2017): Physicians encountered a shoulder dystocia during an attempted vaginal delivery, meaning that the baby’s shoulders remained stuck in the birth canal after his head was delivered. The physicians did not properly maneuver the baby to resolve the shoulder dystocia, causing the baby to suffer a permanent right brachial plexus palsy injury.
- 365. Newell v. Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group (filed August 8, 2017): After physicians at Kaiser failed to perform the appropriate diagnostic testing and failed to schedule a timely follow-up appointment, the non-healing wound on a man’s foot became infected. As a result, the man required an above the knee amputation.
- Ross v. Union Memorial Hospital (filed August 9, 2017): A man suffering from severe pneumonia was discharged from the hospital without a prescription for antibiotics, even though diagnostic testing indicated that he had a bacterial infection. The next day the man returned to the hospital with worsening symptoms of chest pain with coughing and shortness of breath. He was admitted to the hospital and treated with several antibiotics, but his condition continued to deteriorate. The man eventually suffered a fatal cardiopulmonary arrest.
- Carman v. Howard County General Hospital (filed August 10, 2017): A physician ordered a dosage of Epinephrine to treat a man suffering from an anaphylactic reaction to a bee sting, but never specified how the Epinephrine was to be administered. A nurse administered the Epinephrine to the man intravenously, causing his heart rate and blood pressure to dangerously increase. His condition was so severe that he was transferred to the intensive care unit.
- Mac-Attram v. DaVita Howard County Dialysis Center (filed August 11, 2017): During a routine dialysis appointment, health care providers noticed that a man’s dialysis access was opened and that he had bounding aneurysms. His venous pressures were elevated, indicating a blockage that was putting excess pressure on the dialysis access. These symptoms placed the man at a very high risk for catastrophic bleeding from his dialysis access, but the health care providers failed to call for a consult or a physical evaluation. An ambulance should have been called to immediately transport the man to an emergency room, but instead, the man was scheduled for a surgical evaluation eight days later. Two days after the dialysis appointment, the man bled to death from his dialysis access at home in front of his wife.
- Diffenbaugh v. Gallo (filed August 14, 2017): A man presented to True Care for a physical examination, reporting symptoms of blurry vision in his left eye and numbness in his hands. Despite his history of coronary artery disease and smoking, the man was referred to an ophthalmologist and a hand specialist rather than a cardiologist. The hand specialist eventually referred the man to a vascular specialist, who discovered a narrowing of the man’s carotid arteries and scheduled him for surgery. Before the surgery, the man suffered a stroke and died. The delay in diagnosis and treatment was ultimately fatal.
- Jenkins v. Lahr (filed August 16, 2017): When a man presented to his doctor with right knee pain, the doctor incorrectly diagnosed him with misplaced hardware from his recent knee replacement. In reality, the pain was caused by the joint, which hadn’t yet healed because of blood clots. The pain continued over a year, and the doctor continued to ignore the signs of blood clots and prescribe physical therapy. Eventually, the physical therapy caused the blood clot to break off from the leg, travel through the blood, and block a vein in the lungs. During this thrombosis event, the man could not stand or walk and required 24-hour care.
- Hydoski v. First Colonies Anesthesia Associates (filed August 17, 2017): While a woman was undergoing a toe amputation procedure, her anesthesiologist failed to obtain her consent as to the form of anesthesia he used. He opted not to use the anesthetic that she had agreed to before the surgery and instead used a different anesthetic without explaining the associated risks. Almost immediately after the anesthesia was administered, the woman suffered a respiratory arrest. She was resuscitated, but languished over the course of the next week and eventually died.
- Toliver v. MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital (filed August 17, 2017): A man underwent a total of three hip replacement procedures because his physician continued to fit him with prostheses that were improperly sized or unsuitable for his anatomy. He continues to suffer pain and loss of mobility.
- Fitzgerald v. The Metropolitan Washington Orthopaedic Association (filed August 18, 2017): After a surgery to repair a woman’s severely fractured right ankle, her doctor prescribed non-weight bearing physical therapy. The doctor changed her orders to weight-bearing physical therapy too soon, before the woman’s ankle had properly healed. The weight bearing physical therapy caused multiple fractures, dislocation, and a separation between the tibia and fibula. Ultimately, the woman had to undergo a right below the knee amputation.
- Jefferson v. Signature OB/GYN / Howard County General Hospital (filed August 18): During labor and delivery, the baby’s shoulders became stuck in the birth canal, a situation known as shoulder dystocia. The doctor used a maneuver to try and release the baby, and the baby was then born unable to move her right arm and with a weak grasp of the right hand. The maneuver had caused a brachial plexus injury, otherwise known as Erb’s palsy. Because the doctor used excessive force and traction during the maneuver, the baby suffered a permanent arm and shoulder injury that will require significant follow-up care.
- Starrett v. The Center for Total Eye Care (filed August 21, 2017): In order to treat a woman’s lupus and arthritis, her doctor prescribes her Hydroxychloroquine. Even though the medication poses a known risk of retinal toxicity, which can lead to permanent vision loss, the doctor ignores the woman’s symptoms of declining vision over several years of follow-up appointments. The woman is now almost completely blind.
- Beale v. Gastroendoscopy Centers (filed August 21, 2017): In this wrongful death case, a woman presented to her doctor for a colonoscopy. The procedure was never completed due to inadequate preparation, but in the two minutes that the procedure was underway, the doctor administered an excessive dose of anesthetic. After the procedure, the doctor failed to properly monitor the woman and failed to timely recognize the signs of her respiratory failure. The woman was not given the medications that would address her reaction to the anesthetic in time, and 911 responders were called. She eventually passed away at Southern Maryland Hospital.
- Vasquez v. Anne Arundel Medical Group / St. Agnes Hospital (filed August 22, 2017): Even though the woman had been experiencing vaginal bleeding and the fetus appeared to be in distress, a C-section was not performed until three hours after the woman initially presented in the emergency department. Because the health care providers did not act in time, the baby now experiences seizures and she has been diagnosed with hearing loss, sleep apnea, and cerebral palsy among other health concerns.
- Eichelberger v. Powerback Rehabilitation, Brightwood Campus (filed August 22, 2017): Under the care of the rehabilitation center, a man developed a pressure ulcer which requires ongoing care.
- Harris v. Capital Orthopedic Specialists (filed August 23, 2017): When a woman complained to her doctor of leg pain after a spinal fusion and decompression surgery, the doctor failed to provide adequate follow-up care. Two weeks after her initial surgery, the woman went to the emergency room and learned that she would have to undergo an additional surgery to correct a complex spinal condition that was caused during the initial surgery. The delay in post-operative treatment likely caused the woman to suffer permanent neurological deficits.
- Taylor v. Grace Healthcare (filed August 24, 2017): A man was free of bedsores at the time when he was admitted to Frederick Villa. He was unable to care for himself and required professional nursing services due to a recent stroke. The staff failed to treat the man properly and he developed a stage four pressure ulcer, causing his skin tissue to decay and die.
- Brown v. Patapsco Valley Center (filed August 25, 2017): The nursing home facility failed to provide a woman with properly working specialized oxygen equipment, which she needed to breathe. The woman died after she couldn’t get enough oxygen to support her.
- Johnson v. Greater Baltimore Colorectal Specialists (filed August 25, 2017): During surgery to remove part of a woman’s colon, doctors noticed a congested area of the bowel with restricted blood supply. The doctors did not determine the reason for restricted blood supply or make the necessary repairs. The woman later suffered a cardiac arrest, sepsis, multi-organ failure, and death as a result of damage to the mesenteric artery that occurred, unnoticed, during her surgery.
- Boggs v. Center for Advanced Orthopaedics (filed August 25, 2017): A woman lost the ability to use her left hand after a surgery to treat her carpal tunnel syndrome. Her doctor was unable to remove her sutures because of a potential infection.
- Blockinger v. Baltimore Washington Medical Center (filed August 25, 2017): Doctors surgically removed a man’s gallbladder without performing the tests that were necessary to determine whether he was a good candidate for the surgery. As a result, the man has had to endure ongoing treatment, including additional surgical procedures and hospitalizations, for a recurrent umbilical hernia.
- Davis v. Howard County General Hospital (filed August 28, 2017): A man was admitted to the hospital with a possible stroke. He had been experiencing dizziness, a headache, and trouble walking. During his hospitalization, the man fell several times. The falls caused a series of health complications, which contributed to his decline and death.
- Bratt v. Wexford Health Sources (filed August 28, 2017): A man was not timely made aware of his Hepatitis C diagnosis, and was therefore unable to receive timely medical treatment. The diagnosis was issued in 2014, but the man was not informed until a chronic care appointment in 2017.
- Wible v. Women’s Imaging Center (filed August 28, 2017): In this wrongful death claim, healthcare providers improperly classified calcifications in a woman’s breast as “benign” when the lesions and masses were actually breast cancer. Due to the misdiagnosis, the woman’s breast cancer was not detected or treated until it had reached Stage 4.
- Brown v. McKenna Surgical Associates / Frederick Memorial Hospital (filed August 28, 2017): Improperly placed surgical instruments perforated a woman’s colon during a laparoscopic hernia repair surgery. As a result of the malpractice, the woman had to undergo a temporary colostomy and continues to suffer from abdominal pain.
- Coleman v. MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital (filed August 28, 2017): After suffering an aspiration, a man was intubated. A radiological examination showed that the tube had been improperly placed, but it was left uncorrected for more than a week. A tracheostomy tube was then placed in his throat due to excessive mucosal secretions, but its external balloon was sheared off, diminishing the man’s ability to breathe. The man then suffered another aspiration and pneumonia. Eventually, the man died because his brain tissue was deprived of the oxygen he needed to survive.
- Shepherd v. Doctors Hospital (filed August 29, 2017): A man was working as a hospital security guard when he saw a patient striking a technician. The patient had been admitted to the hospital for a psychological evaluation after exhibiting dangerous behavior and an altered mental state, even though the hospital did not have a psychiatric ward. The patient stopped hitting the technician and attacked the security guard instead. As a result of the attack, the guard suffered physical and emotional injuries.
- Anderson v. Tri-State Surgeons / Meritus Medical Center (filed August 29, 2017): During a surgical procedure to repair a ventral hernia, the surgeon caused a perforation to the woman’s colon. The woman was discharged from the hospital a few days later, even though she had been showing symptoms of acute bowel perforation and sepsis ever since the procedure. The woman returned to the emergency room with complaints of abdominal pain, and her doctor was required to remove a portion of her colon as a result of the perforation.
- Scott v. Rockville Gynecology (filed August 30, 2017): A physician caused a rectal perforation during a woman’s laparoscopic excision and ablation of endometriosis procedure. The woman underwent multiple procedures to treat the perforation and accompanying sepsis.
- Perry v. Holy Cross Hospital (filed August 30, 2017): Healthcare providers failed to obtain informed consent before performing an incision and drainage procedure on a patient who had arrived at the hospital for treatment of an allergic reaction. The patient was left with sutures from the procedure for nearly two months. The sutures were tight and required surgery to remove.
- Byers v. Harbor Hospital (filed August 31, 2017): During labor and delivery, an anesthesiologist attempted to administer an epidural. The anesthesiologist attempted the epidural eight times, sticking the woman with eight needles, and was still unsuccessful. The woman felt stinging, numbness, and tingling after the third attempt. Months later, the woman continues to experience pain, difficulty walking, and seizures.
