If you are a personal injury victim wondering about how to find the best attorney, or a personal injury attorney interested in the latest results, LawCash has provided a brief digest of some important successes and developments across the United States this past week in the medical malpractice and Risperdal product defect contexts.
1. Ohio Medical Malpractice Verdict- Wrongful Death of Mother After Delivering Baby
An Ohio jury awarded $6,067,830 in a medical malpractice lawsuit to Terrance Fountaine. Fountaine’s wife died after giving birth to their son in 2009. The plaintiff’s attorney argued, and the jury agreed, that the doctor who delivered the baby, who is healthy and thriving, was not authorized to deliver babies in high-risk pregnancies and that this negligence resulted in the mother’s death.
Attorney/Firm: Dwight Brannon, founder, Brannon Law Firm, Dayton, Ohio.
Significance: Failure to recognize and treat classic signs of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia was negligence; obstetric consultation should have been conducted and preventable death was caused by physician’s negligence.
2. Pennsylvania Medical Malpractice- Failure to Detect Fatal Blood Clot
A Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas awarded $7.7 million to the family of Ingrid Clark. Clark died from a blood clot which the plaintiff alleged should have been detected. Pennsylvania’s Thomas Jefferson University Hospital allegedly failed to properly test to see whether she had a pulmonary embolism following surgery two weeks prior to her admission in the Emergency Room.
Attorney/Firm: Robert Morris, Morris Wilson, Philadelphia PA.
Significance: A post-surgical patient who has spent weeks in a wheelchair presenting in the Emergency Room with dizziness, chest pain, vomiting, shortness of breath, and an abnormal EKG should receive tests such as ultrasound, chest scans, and blood work before the doctors make a diagnosis. Failure to conduct such tests and rule out serious conditions such as pulmonary embolism constitutes negligence.
3. Philadelphia Judges Urges Affirmation of Risperdal Punitive Damage Award
Philadelphia Judge Kenneth J. Powell Jr. urged the Pennsylvania Superior Court to affirm a $500,000 verdict awarded to Timothy Stange, who alleged he suffered excess growth of breast tissue as a result of taking Risperdal. Powell asked the Superior Court to affirm the jury findings that Janssen Pharmaceuticals failed to warn Stange about Risperdal’s known link to excess growth of breast tissue and that Janssen’s negligence caused Stange’s injuries.
Attorney/Firm: Thomas Kline of Kline & Specter, Philadelphia, PA.
Significance: This is the first time a state appellate court will address whether punitive damages claims should be imposed in Risperdal cases.
