Posted on March 11th, 2010
The New Hampshire Supreme Court has refused to reconsider its ruling that the state has no right to a $110 million surplus from a fund that underwrites medical malpractice insurance.
The Supreme Court upheld policyholders' claim that they had a constitutionally protected, contractual right to the money. The state asked the court to rehear the case, claiming the court disregarded facts, expanded definitions of vested rights to apply to policy holders and improperly shifted the burden of proof to the state.
The court refused to rehear the case and said the state could not change law to apply retroactively to the contracts and take the surplus.
The ruling is good for policyholders, but adds $45 million to New Hampshire's budget deficit.
If you or someone you love has been the victim of Philadelphia medical malpractice or negligence, please contact the experienced Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. to learn more about the legal options available to injured patients. Please call 215-238-1130 today.
Posted on February 16th, 2010
A jury in Pomona awarded a $12 million verdict Thursday to a woman in a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Prosecutors claimed that 22 year-old Jessica Ramirez's current vegetative state could have been avoided by prompt surgery.
Ofelia Reynaga, Ramirez's mother, brought the lawsuit against Greater El Monte Community Hospital after her daughter waited hours at the facility in 2007 for surgery to remove an air-rifle pellet from her brain. Ramirez was eventually sent to another hospital for treatment. Attorney for Ramirez's mother, Dr. Bruce Fagel, said that "employees of [the hospital] delayed in their evaluation of [Ramirez's] condition and also delayed in transfer to another hospital after an x-ray showed a bullet in her brain."
The jury found the hospital to be negligent and awarded Ramirez's mother more than $10.6 million for future medical care, $373,000 for past medical expenses, and $1 million for pain and suffering.
A Philadelphia medical malpractice claim cannot undo the pain and suffering you and your family has experienced. However, legal action can help you battle the severe financial losses that victims of medical negligence commonly experience as well as prevent damage to future patients by calling attention to flaws in a particular hospital's system.
If you or someone you love has been the victim of Philadelphia medical malpractice or negligence, please contact the experienced Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. to learn more about the legal options available to injured patients. Please call 215-238-1130.
Posted on February 11th, 2010
New Hampshire is asking the state Supreme Court to reconsider a recent claim to a $110 million in surplus from a fund that underwrites medical malpractice insurance.
The court ruled last month, in a 3-2 decision, that policyholders' had a constitutionally protected contractual right to the money. The court said the state could not change law to apply retroactively to the contracts and take the surplus.
On Monday the state asked the court to rehear the case. The state claims that the court disregarded important facts and expanded the definition of vested rights to apply to policyholders, shifting the burden of proof to the state.
The state Supreme Court's ruling adds $45 million to New Hampshire budget shortfall.
If you or a loved one has been the victim of medical malpractice or negligence, please contact a Philadelphia medical malpractice attorney of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. by calling 215-329-3511.
Posted on February 11th, 2010
New Hampshire is asking the state Supreme Court to reconsider a recent claim to a $110 million in surplus from a fund that underwrites medical malpractice insurance.
The court ruled last month, in a 3-2 decision, that policyholders' had a constitutionally protected contractual right to the money. The court said the state could not change law to apply retroactively to the contracts and take the surplus.
On Monday the state asked the court to rehear the case. The state claims that the court disregarded important facts and expanded the definition of vested rights to apply to policyholders, shifting the burden of proof to the state.
The state Supreme Court's ruling adds $45 million to New Hampshire budget shortfall.
If you or a loved one has been the victim of medical malpractice or negligence, please contact a Philadelphia medical malpractice attorney of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. by calling 215-329-3511.
Posted on February 11th, 2010
The family of a young boy who was killed at the Westchester Medical Center in 2001 has reached a $2.9 million settlement with the hospital.
6-year-old Michael Colombini of Croton-on-Hudson was struck in the head by an oxygen tank while receiving an MRI. Colombini was lying in the MRI chamber when a hospital staffer brought a metal tank into the machine's magnetic field. The large magnets attracted the tank, which struck the boy in the head.
The boy's family filed a medical malpractice lawsuit in early July of 2002. According to Colombini's attorney, the case was close to going to trial when the settlement was reached.
If you or a loved one has been the victim of medical malpractice or negligence, please contact a Philadelphia medical malpractice attorney of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. by calling 215-329-3511.
Posted on February 11th, 2010
A jury in Baltimore City has returned a $250,000 medical malpractice verdict against Johns Hopkins Hospital in favor of the parents of a 17 year-old girl who sufferes from a rare disorder which prevents her body from aging.
Brooke Greenberg had been a long-standing patient at Johns Hopkins, requiring regular treatment for her condition. Greenberg was scheduled for surger to replace her feeding tube in March of 2007. Upon his arrival at the hospital, Greenberg's father discovered her unattended in a swing in the hallway. Her body was covered with inexplicable bruising.
Nurses called to testify in the trial gave conflicting accounts of the days events.
If you or a loved one has been the victim of medical malpractice or negligence, please contact a Philadelphia medical malpractice attorney of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. by calling 215-329-3511.
Posted on February 5th, 2010
A California man and his brother are suing the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and its former chief of transplantation over allegations of medical malpractice.
45 year-old peter Cullen and 43 year-old Timothy Cullen have filed separate lawsuits that name UPMC and Dr. Amadeo Marcos as defendants. Timothy Cullen donated a liver for his brother but both men claim that UPMC failed to provide them with all of the information concerning the dangers oflive liver transplantation.
Attorney for the two brothers, Harry Cohen, says that both men are suffering complications from the surgery.
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has yet to make a public comment on the lawsuit.
If you or someone you love has been the victim of medical malpractice or negligence, please contact the Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. by calling 215-329-3511.
Posted on February 5th, 2010
A jury in Riverside, California has awarded an Arizonacouple $16.5 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit.
The jurors found neurosurgeon Christopher Pham negligent inhis treatment of Trent Hughes. Hughes claims that following a back injury ChristopherPham did not treat him until the next day and did not operate for another twodays.
The jury were unanimous on all counts except for one inwhich one juror said the court should have awarded more money.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said in court that Pham hadplanted documents that made it appear as if he were at the hospital when he wasnot.
“It appeared to be one lie after another in an effort tocover his tracks,” said attorney for Hughes David Bricker.
If you or someone you love has been the victim of medicalmalpractice or negligence, please contact the Philadelphia medical malpracticelawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. by calling 215-329-3511.
Posted on January 14th, 2010
A 60-year-old woman was overadiated 17 times and which caused the perforation of her bowel and her death.
In 2003, the woman was diagnosed with stage-three endometrial cancer and began raditation right after. The first 11 treatments went fine. Then the woman was overadiated 17 times. She received 270 centigrays instead of 180 centigrays. Her husband sued for medical negligence and he claimed that the hospital was negligent by not looking at her charts and catching their overadiation mistake. The overadiation caused the perforation of her bowel that caused a bacterial infection in her blood and her death.
If you or someone you love has been the victim of medical negligence, contact the Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams P.C. by calling 856-667-8666 today.
Posted on December 10th, 2009
A new study shows that surgeons who are exhausted are morelikely to say they had recently committed a major error on the job.
The study, conducted by Johns Hopkins University School ofMedicine, is the largest study to date on physician fatigue. Charles M. Balch,M.D., one of the study’s leaders, said of the findings “people have talked aboutfatigue and long working hours, but our results indicate that the dominantcontributors to self-reported medical errors are burnout and depression… All ofus need to take this into account to a greater degree than in the past.Frankly, burnout and depression hadn’t been on everybody’s radar screen.”
Out of the 7,905 surgeons who responded to the study, ninepercent reported having made a major medical mistake in the previous threemonths. Forty percent of the surgeons surveyed described themselves as “burnedout.”
If you or a loved one has been the victim of Pennsylvaniamedical malpractice, please contact a Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyer of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. by calling 215-329-3511.
