A 50-year-old Long Island woman has been awarded $15 million in a malpractice lawsuit after her doctors failed to initially detect her breast cancer.

The mother of three went to her doctor’s office in 2002 after noticing a lump in her breast. She underwent a mammogram,  and her doctor deemed that the area was not malignant, and that she did not have breast cancer. She was told to return for an annual mammogram in a year. When she returned, the lump had grown in size and a different doctor determined that she had breast cancer.

Chemotherapy and a mastectomy followed the diagnosis. She went into remission for a short period of time, and that is when she filed the malpractice lawsuit against her doctor. The jury in her case decided that the doctor did act negligently in his misdiagnosis, and awarded the woman $15 million in damages. The cancer returned, and has spread to her bones. She will most likely undergo chemotherapy treatments for the rest of her life in order to combat the cancer.

If you have breast cancer, and your condition was initially misdiagnosed, please contact the Philadelphia breast cancer lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. by calling 215-238-1130 today.

Bobby Jenks, a relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, recently told sources that he suspects a surgical error may have occurred during a spinal decompression surgery he had in December, causing him to need a second surgery to treat serious post-surgical complications. The pitcher had four bone spurs on his spine, and had to be placed on the Red Sox’s disabled list twice last year due to the pain they caused.

Jenks went to have surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, and agreed with doctors that only the top two bone spurs on his spine should be removed in the surgery. However, after the procedure, the baseball player’s incision began leaking spinal fluid, and he suffered severe headaches. Jenks was in Arizona at the time and sought treatment in Phoenix.

Tests revealed that part of the 30-year-old pitcher’s third bone spur had been removed, but was not finished. This caused fluid to leak from the spine and collect at the bottom of his incision. The incision then became infected, causing the pitcher to experience extreme pain. 18 days after the first surgery, he went into emergency surgery to repair the error. Jenks is not sure whether or not he will be able to play in the team’s upcoming season.

If you or someone you know has been injured or become ill because of an error made during a surgical procedure, contact the Philadelphia surgical error lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. at 215-238-1130 to speak with one of our attorneys.

A dentist in New Jersey is being investigated after a second patient of his died during a routine dental procedure. The 64-year-old has been on probation with the New Jersey State Board of Dentistry due to the death of the first patient.

This month, a mother took her 3-year-old son to the dentist to fill a cavity. During the procedure, which called for local anesthetic, the mother saw that her son was in distress and urged the dentist to stop. The dentist assured her that her son was fine, but 15 minutes later her son stopped breathing. The patient was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

In a similar procedure the dentist performed in 2004, a 6-year-old patient stopped breathing and passed away. In this case, a coroner ruled that the cause of death was related to various medical conditions the patient suffered from. However, the New Jersey Board of Dentistry investigated the death and believed the doctor was negligent and committed dental malpractice.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim’s family and friends.

In December, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in favor of allowing a medical malpractice claim involving negligent infliction of emotional distress to proceed, despite the fact that the alleged medical negligence did not result in any physical injuries.

The case involved a woman whose son was born without arms below the elbow, legs below the knee, and with several other deformities. The mother claimed that had a radiologist who performed a pelvic ultrasound or doctors at Chester County Hospital noticed that her pregnancy was not normal, as they told her it was, she could have prepared herself and avoided severe emotional distress.

The case was initially dismissed by a trial court in Pennsylvania because the defendants’ failure to detect the boy’s deformities did not cause any physical injuries to him or his mother, and had they detected them, no injuries could have been prevented. The mother appealed the case, and a Pennsylvania Appellate Court felt the negligent infliction of emotional distress claim should be heard, even though it did not involve any physical injuries.

Then, the defendants named in the case appealed the appellate court’s decision to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which upheld the appellate court’s decision, sending the case back to trial court to be heard. This decision sets precedent for all Pennsylvania state courts hearing medical malpractice claims.

To speak with an experienced medical malpractice attorney about a claim, contact the Philadelphia medical negligence lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. by calling 215-238-1130 today.

Lower Bucks Hospital will be paying a mother $525,000 after a court determined that the hospital and two of its nurses were negligent in a foreign object left medical malpractice lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed by a woman who gave birth to her daughter at the hospital last March via C-section.  For two months after her daughter’s birth, the mother consistently suffered abdominal pain.  Then, a CT scan administered at a different hospital revealed that one of the 25 sponges used in her C-section surgery had been left inside her.

The scan also showed that the sponge had perforated the woman’s bowel.  Lower Bucks and the doctor and nurses who performed the C-section were accused of medical negligence in the suit.

The obstetrician was not found to have acted negligently, testifying that counting sponges and other materials used in surgery is the job of nurses, and that the nurses aiding in the C-section had to have miscounted the sponges during the surgery.

If you or someone you love has suffered any of the many possible complications resulting from a foreign object left behind, contact the Philadelphia foreign object left lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. at 215-238-1130 to discuss your case with one of our experienced medical negligence attorneys.

A Minnesota couple recently filed suit against a doctor who failed to diagnose their 5-year old daughter with cancer for a year.  According to the misdiagnosis lawsuit, the physician’s delayed diagnosis decreased her chances of survival from 60 percent to 40 percent.  Now, doctors estimate the girl has a 5 percent chance of surviving.

A lower court would not hear the case because of a “reduced-chance” law in Minnesota that prevents misdiagnosis cases from being heard unless the victim’s chances of survival are less than 50 percent.  The lower court felt that the child’s chance of survival was still likely, and that their claim fell under the state’s “reduced-chance” law, preventing them from being able to address the case.

However, the parents appealed to a Minnesota Court of Appeals, which ruled that the case could proceed because their daughter’s chances of survival were made unlikely by the doctor’s negligence.

Last week, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a measure designed to limit the punitive damages awarded in nursing home abuse lawsuits filed in the state with a 103-89 vote.  Senate members will now vote on the bill–HB 1907.

Specifically, the legislation proposes capping punitive damages at 200 percent of compensatory damages awarded in medical negligence lawsuits that name nursing, long-term care, assisted living, and personal care facilities as defendants.  However, HB 1907 does not apply when the defendant intentionally or knowingly acted negligently.

The bill, which is sponsored by Rep. Glen Grell, is similar to a measure which limits punitive damages in medical negligence cases filed against doctors in Pennsylvania.

If you or a loved one has been the victim of nursing home abuse, contact the Philadelphia nursing home abuse lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. at 215-238-1130 to learn more about how we can help you.

Friday, a Florida teen won $12.6 million in a medical negligence lawsuit concerning a medication error that caused her to lose both of her arms and legs.  Defendants in the lawsuit included the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, a nurse, and several doctors.

According to the lawsuit, the teenager was born with multiple intestinal problems, leading doctors to remove her spleen and other organs.  Because the spleen protects the body from viruses and bacteria, a nurse at the medical school administered a medication created to protect individuals without spleens from infections.

8 months after receiving the medication, the girl became sick and had to go to the emergency room.  Doctors discovered that she had a bacterial infection.  The infection caused several blood clots to form in the girl’s legs and arms, and eventually she developed gangrene.  All four of her arms and legs had to be amputated above the joint.

The medication that the nurse administered at the medical school was found to be expired for 5 months when it was injected into the patient.  Experts testified that the nurse was negligent for not administering a sufficient dose of medication to protect the girl from infection.

Last month, a jury in in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania found a hemorrhoid doctor negligent in the delayed diagnosis of a patient with rectal cancer.  The patient, a 32-year old mother of three, was awarded $2 million for past medical expenses and pain and suffering.

According to the lawsuit, the mother went to the defendant’s office in May 2008 after experiencing rectal bleeding.  The doctor administered an anoscopy, but no other testing, and subsequently diagnosed the patient with hemorrhoids.  Over the following 16 months, the doctor performed hemorrhoid treatments on the patient, despite the fact that the patient did not experience any relief in symptoms.

The mother then decided to see another doctor who determined that she was suffering from Stage III rectal cancer.  The plaintiff needed chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery.

The court found that the defendant did not follow the guidelines put in place by the American Gastroenterology Association and other medical regulators that require doctors to perform an endoscopy, colonoscopy, or flexible sigmoidoscopy if a patient is experiencing rectal bleeding.

Contact the Philadelphia delayed cancer diagnosis attorneys of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. by calling 215-238-1130, if you or a loved one experienced a delayed cancer diagnosis and would like to speak with a medical malpractice lawyer about your situation.

A Santa Fe couple have filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against a hospital after the wife almost died after being given the painkiller Dilaudid.

The woman was admitted to the hospital for severe abdominal pain in 2010 when she was intravenously given Dilaudid. According to court documents, she became sick and the pain intensified, but nurses continued to give her the medication. Later that day her husband says he found her twitching, foaming at the mouth, eyes rolled back, and turning purple.

The complaint states that the hospital staff should have known that patients who are morbidly obese are at a higher risk for obstructive sleep apnea, which can intensify when given narcotic analgesic medication like Dilaudid. She says she has suffered emotional trauma after experiencing cardio-pulmonary arrest.

If you or someone you love suffered due to hospital negligence, contact the Philadelphia hospital negligence lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C., at 215-238-1130.