Medical Malpractice

• Woman Awarded $2.4 Million for Sponge

  Shannon Weidemann | October 04, 2007 10:33 PM | 0 CommentsCharlotte, NC

  A woman underwent a c-section and the doctor performing the operation left a surgical sponge inside her body. The sponge was not discovered until two weeks later and now the woman cannot have any more children. She sued her doctor and the hospital for medical malpractice. A jury awarded the woman $2.4 Million after finding them negligent. The woman was in and out of the hospital following...

• West Virginia Woman Sues for Medical Malpractice

  Shannon Weidemann | August 12, 2007 9:09 PM | 0 CommentsCharlotte, NC

  A woman from Mercer, West Virginia is suing a doctor, physician's assistant and hospital for medical malpractice. She had surgery at Greenbrier Emergency Services and returned the month after she was discharged with an illness. She claims that she was sent home without a proper diagnosis. Baker returned to the hospital Nov. 14 in acute respiratory distress and was placed on ventilation...

• Medical Malpractice Trial Begins Over Gastric Bypass Surgery

  Shannon Weidemann | July 16, 2007 3:51 PM | 0 CommentsCharlotte, NC

  Notre Dame's football coach is back in court for the second trial involving the medical malpractice case he filed against two doctors. He had surgery in 2002 for a gastric bypass. There were complications that required a second surgery and put him into a coma. In opening statements to the jury, Weis's lawyer, Michael Mone, said the doctors acted negligently by allowing Weis to bleed...

• California Man Awarded $11 Million in Medical Lawsuit

  Shannon Weidemann | June 23, 2007 2:38 PM | 0 CommentsCharlotte, NC

  A man went to a Mission Viejo hospital in 2004, was misdiagnosed and later suffered a stroke. He was awarded $11.7 Million by a jury in the medical malpractice case he brought against the doctors who treated him. He had an infection that spread to his brain and caused the stroke. When Crumes went to the emergency room at Mission Hospital, he told doctors that in 1993 he was operated on for...

• Mississippi Appeals Court Upholds Medical Malpractice Award

  Shannon Weidemann | May 26, 2007 6:52 PM | 0 CommentsCharlotte, NC

  The family of a woman that died from complications of a Caesarean section performed at the University of Mississippi Medical Center was awarded $534,000 in a medical malpractice lawsuit. The hospital appealed the decision to the Mississippi State Appeals Court. Easter died on August 22, 1999 at Leake County Hospital after experiencing trouble breathing.An autopsy showed she suffered from...

• Virginia Bill May Require Medical Malpractice to be Posted Online

  Shannon Weidemann | February 27, 2007 3:48 PM | 0 CommentsCharlotte, NC

  The Virginia State House and Senate are working on versions of a bill that would require medical malpractice suits against doctors be published online for the public to view. Before going under the knife or just in for a routine checkup, patients might like to know if their doctor has a propensity for mishaps. After all, a small percentage of doctors are repeat offenders who generate a majority...

• FDA Issues Guidelines to Prevent Hospital Bed Entrapment

  Staff Writer | August 03, 2006 9:40 AM | 0 CommentsCharlotte, NC

  Earlier this year the Food and Drug Administration issued long overdue guidance to the healthcare industry to reduce the risk of hospital bed entrapment. The FDA has identified over 400 deaths from this serious problem since 1985, although there is reason to believe this figure underestimates the true number of deaths. View the FDA press release here. While these numbers appear small, we...

• Soaring Profits for State's Largest Malpractice Insurer

  Staff Writer | June 23, 2006 9:45 AM | 0 CommentsCharlotte, NC

  North Carolina's largest medical malpractice insurer saw its 2005 profits from premiums increase by 224 percent, according to a recent article. During the same year the combined pay for the top two executives at the company approached $1.5 Million. Meanwhile, the premiums Medical Mutual has charged its physician-insureds have risen by a combined average of about 45 percent over the last five...

• Expert Witness Vindicated by North Carolina Appeals Court

  Staff Writer | June 07, 2006 4:27 PM | 0 CommentsCharlotte, NC

  The North Carolina Court of Appeals has reinstated the medical license of a Miami, Florida neurosurgeon who had been disciplined by the North Carolina Medical Board for his testimony on behalf of the plaintiffs in a medical malpractice case. The court's decision reversed the findings of the Board and the Wake County trial court, both of which had decided that Dr. Gary Lustgarten's North...

• Do You Really Need That Invasive Procedure?

  Staff Writer | June 02, 2006 12:10 PM | 0 CommentsCharlotte, NC

  Consumer Reports offers a list of 12 invasive surgeries you may be better off without - meaning there may be safer, successful alternatives. Among them, weight-loss surgery, hysterectomy, and wisdon tooth extraction.Such overuse typically arises when surgeons don't keep up with the research and either perform discredited operations or do proven procedures in inappropriate patients, embrace...