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Archive for the ‘West Virginia Medical Malpractice’ Category

Medical Malpractice Claims Lead To Legal Malpractice Claims

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

A Putnam County, West Virginia attorney and his two former law partners are being sued for legal malpractice for the third time in a year for their alleged wrongful handling of medical malpractice claims against the same doctor. In this most recent case filed on April 13, 2012, the three plaintiffs allege that their former attorneys failed to timely file their medical malpractice claims against former osteopathic physician, John King.

The former physician had been sued for medical malpractice in over 100 cases in 2006 for acts of alleged medical malpractice that occurred between November 2002 and June 2003 while the physician practiced at Putnam General Hospital (for more information regarding the former Dr. King and the medical malpractice claims against him, see our blog posting on February 20, 2012).

The most recent legal malpractice claim alleges that the holders of a durable medical power of attorney for the medical malpractice claimant had contacted the lawyers in October 2003 regarding the alleged medical malpractice that occurred earlier in 2003. The lawyers did not file the medical malpractice lawsuit until October 25, 2006, which was after the two-year West Virginia statute of limitations for medical malpractice cases had expired. Their medical malpractice case was dismissed a little over one year later, for failing to file the medical malpractice claim within the two-year statute of limitations. A motion to reconsider the dismissal was denied on March 5, 2010.

The other two legal malpractice lawsuits filed against the attorneys were filed in April and December 2011, respectively. As with the most recent legal malpractice claim, the other two legal malpractice cases allege that their lawyers failed to timely file their medical malpractice lawsuits against the osteopathic physician. Their medical malpractice cases were also filed in October 2006 and were dismissed in November 2007 because they were not filed by the deadline. Both of these cases also had motions to reconsider the dismissals filed which were denied by the court in March 2010.

The lawyers’ law firm was dissolved in 2005, according to records. One of the lawyers has since moved to Florida. The three legal malpractice lawsuits on behalf of the plaintiffs are being handled by the same attorney.

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The three legal malpractice cases based on their lawyers’ alleged failures to handle their three medical malpractice claims timely and appropriately must be devastating for the medical malpractice claimants — it appears that they have been victimized twice: once by their trusted physician and then a second time by their trusted lawyers.

If you or a loved one have suffered injuries and losses as a result of possible medical malpractice in West Virginia or in another state in the United States, it is important that you promptly and timely obtain the legal advice of a competent medical malpractice attorney regarding your rights concerning your possible medical malpractice claim.

Click here to visit our website or call us toll free at 800-295-3959 to be connected with local medical malpractice lawyers in your state who may be able to assist you with your medical malpractice claim.

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Posted in Client Updates, Hospital Medical Malpractice, Lawyer Updates, Legal Malpractice Claims, Medical Malpractice Case, Medical Malpractice Claims, Medical Malpractice Facts, Medical Malpractice Lawyers, Medical Negligence, Medical News, West Virginia Medical Malpractice | No Comments »

West Virginia Medical Malpractice: 124 Medical Malpractice Claims Against 1 Doctor In Only 7 Months Of Medical Practice

Monday, February 20th, 2012

Wow.  A former osteopathic doctor who performed surgeries at a West Virginia hospital has had 124 medical malpractice claims filed against him arising out of his only 7 months of medical practice at that hospital. In the most recent medical malpractice court hearing against him, the former doctor failed to appear for a court hearing on February 17, 2012. Another hearing against the former osteopathic surgeon is scheduled for March 15, 2012.

Source

The hospital that hired the doctor, Putnam General Hospital, was found negligent in its hiring of the doctor as an orthopedic surgeon without properly checking his medical credentials and therefore the hospital became a co-defendant in 122 medical malpractice claims arising out of the doctor’s employment at the hospital between 2002 and 2003. The medical malpractice claimants were also permitted to seek punitive damages from the hospital. Many of the medical malpractice claims alleged that the doctor negligently performed surgeries and that many of the surgeries were medically unnecessary.

It was also determined that the doctor failed to disclose to the hospital all of the medical malpractice claims pending against him and failed to disclose to the hospital his arrest in 1999 regarding his alleged removal of log books from a Florida medical facility.

When the hospital fired the doctor in May, 2003, the doctor gave up his West Virginia medical license, left the state, and allegedly changed his name.

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On December 4, 2007, the doctor filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. However, a federal bankruptcy judge determined in March, 2009, that the doctor fraudulently failed to disclose at least $670,000 in assets and therefore denied the doctor the discharge of his debts in his bankruptcy proceeding.

The corporation that owned Putnam General Hospital when the doctor was employed there paid approximately $100 million in 2008 to settle 124 of the medical malpractice claims against the hospital.

Source

124…7…1 — 124 medical malpractice claims arising from only 7 months of medical practice against 1 doctor.

We don’t know for a fact that these repeated episodes of medical malpractice by a single doctor in a single hospital in West Virginia is an unwelcome medical malpractice record in the United States, but we certainly hope so. If there are other hospitals in the United States that are harboring repeat medical malpractice offenders, we hope that they are promptly discovered, they are immediately removed from providing patient care, and that the hospitals accept full responsibility for their own shortcomings that have allowed known miscreants to have access to patients who may be harmed due to medical negligence (or worse).

If you or a family member or a close friend have become the victim of medical malpractice committed by a negligent (or worse) medical provider in West Virginia or in any other U.S. state, you should promptly inquire about your legal rights with a local medical malpractice attorney.

Click here  to be forwarded to our website to be connected with medical malpractice lawyers in your local area who may be able to investigate your potential medical malpractice claim for you and represent you in your medical malpractice case, if appropriate. You may also contact us at our toll free number 800-295-3959, if you prefer.

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Posted in Client Updates, Lawyer Updates, Medical Malpractice Case, Medical Malpractice Claims, Medical Malpractice Facts, Medical Malpractice Lawyers, Medical Negligence, Medical News, West Virginia Medical Malpractice | No Comments »

West Virginia Medical Malpractice Death Caused By Bowel Perforation Misdiagnosed By Telephone

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

When a 67-year-old man who was suffering from multiple sclerosis and was paralyzed from the chest down went to a local West Virginia hospital to be treated for a urinary tract infection, the last thing he or his family would have anticipated would be that the man would never make it home again. Instead, the man died from a misdiagnosed bowel perforation that went untreated until it was too late.

Two weeks ago, a West Virginia medical malpractice jury began to hear the medical malpractice case filed on behalf of the man’s surviving son. At first, the man seemed to be improving in the hospital and his doctor advised his family that he expected the man to be discharged from the hospital the next day. As the day progressed, the family became increasingly concerned about the man’s deteriorating condition, including his increasingly distended abdomen, and was asking for a doctor to examine the man instead of the nurses conferring with a doctor by telephone. The doctor reached by telephone ordered an x-ray based on what the nurses told him. The family alleged that the radiologist who read the x-ray misinterpreted the findings.

The doctor reached by telephone believed that the man was suffering from a less-serious fecal impaction instead of a life-threatening perforated bowel. Finally, at 3:00 a.m., a doctor examined the man and immediately transferred him to the intensive care unit in preparation for emergency surgery. The man died about 5:00 a.m. that same day.

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As the trial continued into its second week of testimony last week, the parties settled the medical malpractice case for an undisclosed sum after the trial judge’s ruling made it difficult for the plaintiff to obtain punitive damages. Since the cap (limit) on noneconomic damages that applied to the son’s claim in West Virginia was $500,000.00, the plaintiff’s lawyer said it made sense to settle the case.

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There is no excuse for a hospital to not have available on a 24 hours per day, seven days per week basis the proper medical personnel to respond to any foreseeable medical situation or medical emergency that may occur. The necessary medical personnel must be either physically at the hospital or able to respond to the hospital to treat patients in a short period of time. A telephone consultation with a doctor without a hands-on examination by the doctor of an acutely ill patient is gambling with the patient’s health and life that the telephone diagnosis is accurate. If the wagered diagnosis is wrong, it is the patient who loses, sometimes paying with his or her life.

If you have been the victim of a misdiagnosed or undiagnosed medical condition in a hospital or otherwise, you may have the basis for bringing a medical malpractice claim to be compensated for your expenses and losses due to the medical negligence. Medical malpractice attorneys may be able to investigate your possible medical malpractice claim to determine if your claim should be brought.

Visit our website  or call us toll free at 800-295-3959 to be connected with medical malpractice lawyers in your local area who may be willing and able to bring a medical malpractice claim on your behalf, if appropriate.

Turn to us when you don’t know where to turn.

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Posted in Client Updates, Lawyer Updates, Medical Malpractice Case, Medical Malpractice Claims, Medical Malpractice Lawyers, Medical Malpractice Victim, Medical Misdiagnosis, Medical Negligence, Medical News, West Virginia Medical Malpractice, Wrongful Death | No Comments »

Today’s 300th Consecutive Daily Blog Posting For MedicalMalpracticeLawyers.com

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

Today, MedicalMalpracticeLawyers.com is proud to celebrate its 300th consecutive daily blog posting. Over the course of 299 postings, we have explored numerous medical malpractice topics, including states’ medical malpractice laws, states’ statistics regarding medical malpractice claims, results of medical malpractice jury verdicts in various states, and relevant and timely medical information useful to our readers.

Our medical malpractice research over the last 10 months has revealed the constant assault on the rights of medical malpractice victims to receive fair and adequate compensation for their losses that has drastically, unfairly, and indiscriminately reduced the compensation received by them for their permanent, painful, and debilitating injuries and losses.

Our blog has examined the well-financed and highly-organized efforts of the health care industry promoting “tort reform” legislation drafted on its behalf by politically-connected, highly-paid lobbyists who employ public fear tactics (for example, telling patients that their doctors will need to give up their medical practices due to too high medical malpractice insurance premiums or preaching the often-recited but rarely-supported mantra about “frivolous” medical malpractice lawsuits) to wage a war that they inappropriately call ”tort reform” (“reform” implies that something was wrong to begin with). Their high-powered tactics are intended to elevate the financial interests of the very few doctors, hospitals, and other medical care providers who fail to provide the medical care that their peers have established as the bare minimum required level of medical care that should have been provided under the circumstances, over the long-established legal and moral rights of the innocent victims of negligence to be fairly and adequately compensated for their injuries and losses caused solely by the wrongdoing of others.

We have tried to bring to light the processes of certain federal agencies, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), that affect the health of our citizens, such as the federal drug-approval process that can be influenced by political considerations and the financial power held by massive drug manufacturers. We have discussed the objective findings of studies undertaken by independent federal government organizations such as the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that were relevant to medical malpractice issues, to help our readers determine for themselves the unbiased, honest information that will help them form their own opinions on medical malpractice issues relevant to their lives.

While our name, MedicalMalpracticeLawyers.com, and our website  are dedicated to helping the innocent victims of medical malpractice be connected with medical malpractice lawyers in their local area throughout the United States who may be able and willing to investigate their possible medical malpractice claims for them and represent them in their medical malpractice case, if appropriate, we have always provided the source of our information and the link to our source in our blogs so that our readers can read for themselves the original source information.

MedicalMalpracticeLawyers.com will continue to seek out and explore interesting and useful medical malpractice information for our future blogs. If you have information or a request for information regarding medical malpractice issues important to you, please contact us with your information or your request so that we can provide the information to our blog readers.

We wish all of you the best of health, happiness, and enjoyment of life for the New Year!

Please visit our website  or call us toll free (800-295-3959) if we can assist you.

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West Virginia Medical Malpractice Jury Places High Value On Life

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

An 87-year-old woman suffering from dementia and Parkinson’s disease died as a result of dehydration and renal failure in a West Virginia nursing home, allegedly due to medical malpractice at the negligent nursing home where she had been a patient for only 20 days. The medical malpractice lawsuit alleged that the woman was not provided proper hydration during her stay in the nursing home which led to her death.

The West Virginia medical malpractice jury that heard the claims of the parties over a two-week period was so incensed by the trial testimony and evidence presented to them concerning the nursing home’s actions (and lack of action) that it awarded $91.5 million in damages on August 5, 2011 ($11 million for the wrongful death of the elderly woman and $80 million in punitive damages against the nursing home based on its alleged intentional misconduct).

The medical malpractice lawsuit alleged that the nursing home was understaffed and that the nursing home administrators knew about the understaffing but did not adequately address and resolve the understaffing issues, and that the nursing home failed to provide necessary medical care to the elderly woman.

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The elderly woman was able to walk and to communicate when she was first admitted to the nursing home. Twenty days later, she was comatose and unable to walk or feed herself.  She was transported to a hospital, where she later died. (Her son tried to transfer his mother out of the nursing home but, despite his best efforts, was unable to do so.)

The jury’s verdict ignited furious debate regarding West Virginia’s cap on medical malpractice damages, last changed in West Virginia in 2003. If the West Virginia cap is applied to the amount of the verdict, then the recovery will be reduced by over 99%.

Some question whether juries in West Virginia should have their verdicts reduced by the law that applies without a rational basis and without exception to verdicts over an artificial ceiling.

Others question whether the life on an 87-year-old is worth $11 million, believing that the lives of the elderly, who may be infirmed and whose life expectancy may be short,  are worth less than the lives of those who are healthy and young. Who’s most qualified to make that determination? Our forefathers’ answer: our federal and state constitutions that assign that task to the province of juries who are chosen among our brethren and who have been trusted for hundreds of years to make those determinations on behalf of society.

If you or a loved one have been injured as a result of neglect or abuse suffered in a nursing home, the law holds the nursing home responsible for its actions. Click here to visit our website  to be connected with medical malpractice lawyers in your state who handle medical malpractice cases against negligent nursing homes or call us toll free at 800-295-3959.

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Posted in Client Updates, Medical Malpractice Case, Medical Malpractice Claims, Medical Malpractice Facts, Medical Malpractice Lawyers, Medical Malpractice Verdict, Medical Malpractice Victim, Medical Negligence, Nursing Home Medical Malpractice, West Virginia Medical Malpractice | No Comments »