$10.2M Malpractice Verdict Against Hospital: On December 9, 2022, a Texas medical malpractice jury returned its verdict in favor of the plaintiffs (wife and husband) in the amount of $10.2 million against a hospital for the delay in proper medical treatment that led to the wife suffering permanent paralysis. The Texas medical malpractice jury awarded $5.6 million in noneconomic damages to the couple that will be reduced to $500,000 due to Texas’ cap on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases that applies to the couple ($250,000 cap applied to each). The trial began on November 29, 2022.
The Texas medical malpractice jury awarded approximately $4.5 million in economic damages, which means that the $10.2 million verdict will be reduced to approximately $5 million.
The plaintiffs alleged that the wife received a steroid injection in her back at a clinic in 2019 after which she was brought to the defendant hospital’s emergency room due to an epidural hematoma (bleeding). The couple alleged in their Texas medical malpractice lawsuit that unnecessary delays in ordering an MRI followed by emergency surgery led to paralysis that would her been avoided with timely diagnosis and treatment.
The defendant hospital blamed the physician who had performed the injection whose failure to timely send the wife to the emergency room allegedly led to her suffering the permanent paralysis. That strategy was probably defective because the physician not only remained on the defendant hospital’s staff but he also was a part owner of the physician-owned hospital.
The Texas medical malpractice jury’s verdict far exceeded the reported pre-trial settlement offer in the amount of $450,000 as well as the discussions regarding a potential high-low agreement during trial. The defense may have been banking on Texas’ requirement in medical malpractice cases involving emergency treatment that the plaintiff establish “willful and wanton negligence” in order to hold a health care provider liable for medical malpractice. The plaintiffs’ medical malpractice lawyer said after the verdict, “That’s a high, high standard, and most hospitals and their defense lawyers look down their nose at any of these cases that come through the door … We did not pick a damages jury in this case. We picked a liability jury.”
Medical malpractice filings have dropped 65 percent in Texas since the cap on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases went into effect in 2003.
The case is captioned Judy “Jessie” Adams and Richard Adams v. Flower Mount Hospital Partners LLC, d/b/a Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Flower Mound, case number DC-20-17490.
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