Philadelphia Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog

In a case in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a New Jersey man's Estate is suing the Philadelphia Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania because cancerous lungs were improperly transplanted into his body. Tony Grier died after he was transplanted with lungs from an individual with a 16 year history of smoking. The transplanted lungs were filled with cancer. The transplant was needed because Mr. Grier sufferred from severe sarcoidosis, which had badly damaged his own lungs.

The transplant occurred on January 7, 2005 after the hospital obtained informed consent tfor the transplant. However, the obtaining of consent was based on the hospital's representations that the lungs to be transplanted were from an 18 year old in good health. Only four months after the transplant, the lungs were found to be filled with cancerous tumors. Subsequently, Mr. Grier died only a couple of months later.

Mr. Grier's Estate has filed suit alleging that the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania falsely represented that the lungs were from a young and healthy person. Recently, a motion was filed to allow the Estate to add additional defendants and new allegations, including lack of informed consent, battery, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, based on new information discovered concerning the origin of the smoker's lungs. The Estate of Mr. Grier seeks to sue the hospital and doctor responsible for removing the bad lungs and the donor program that was responsible for suppling incorrect information concerning the bad organs.

Posted by Leon Aussprung | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Surgical Errors

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Donna Cameron, of Ashton Pennsylvania, who was the former Director of Nursing at St. James Retirement & Rehabiliation in Chester, Pennsylvania, pled no contest to charges that she criminally neglected patients, falsified records and perjured herself. The nurse neglected a 72 year old patient's head wound and allowed it to become infected with maggots. Although doctor's recommended the patient see a dermatologist for the lesion on her head and for nurses to apply an antibiotic ointment, the nursing director failed to do so. Even worse, the nurse then falsified medical records and lied to invesigating authorities to hide the improper care. Two other employees of the nursing home are also facing criminal charges.

Public news accounts of the incident report that the patient was cared for at a hospital prior to being transferred to the nursing and rehabilitation facility. At the nursing home in Delaware county, the physician's orders concerning wound care were never followed. The wound worsened and became infested with maggots. Eventually, the patient was transferred back to the hospital's emergency room, where a hospital staff member noticed blood coming from the bandaged wound. When the bandage was removed, it was immediately noted that there were over 50 live maggots in the wound. Upon arrival at the hospital, the patient was also described as very unkempt with soiled clothing.

Prosecutors claimed that the Cameron, who was the patient's sole nurse, failed to care for the wound over a four month period of time. Then, when being investigated, the nurse falsified the medical records to have them show that proper new dressings had been previously applied to the wound. Under the plea, the nurse will not contest the charges record tampering, criminal neglect and perjury.

Nursing home abuse is far too prevalent in Pennsylvania and all across the United States. Unfortunately, this story is one that I have heard many times. Nursing home patients are often neglected in a variety of manners. They are sometimes not given their proper medications, allowed to develop devastating skin ulcerations, not provided proper nutrition and not provided needed medical care. Such situations can result in disability and even death and require evaluation by a competent trial attorney.

Posted by Leon Aussprung | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Nursing Home Care

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A 60 year old McKeesport (Pittsburgh) Pennsylvania man recently filed administrative action against two podiatrists from the Pittsburgh VA (Veteran's Administration) Hospital for operating on the wrong foot to correct his bunion and hammer-toe deformity. Although the deformities were on the patient's left foot, the surgeons improperly operated on his right foot. Because this case is against physicians from the VA Hospital, as well as the VA Hospital itself, the case was filed in Federal court (Western District of Pennsylvania). Papers detail the patient's allegations of improper diagnosis and treatment, as well as the obvious medical error of operating on the wrong foot. There is also a lack of informed consent allegation concerning the surgery that was done on the incorrect foot.

It is reported that, before the surgery began on February 22, 2008, the patient observed the hospital staff make markings on his left foot, which was the foot for which surgery was intended. This is a practice that all patients should follow before elective surgery. However, when the patient woke up, much to his shock, he found his right foot was bandaged. No explanation for the medical error has been reported to my knowledge. The patient had no prior problems with his right foot, which was improperly operated on.

This type of surgical error concerning wrong site surgery should never occur. Unfortunately, there have been far too many reports of wrong site surgery. Recently, a hospital in Rhode Island reported three separate incidents involving brain surgery on the wrong side of the brain. Such mistakes should never be tolerated and any individual who had a wrong site surgery should immediately contact an experienced trial lawyer.

Posted by Leon Aussprung | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Surgical Errors

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A 33 year old man in California with complaints of chest pain and left arm pain died from a heart attack (myocardial infarction) after three hours of waiting in an Emergency Room. Although medical care standards required that anyone with chest pain complaints be screened within 10 minutes, the patient never received the standard screening test of an electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG). The patient was walking out of the Emergency Room when he collased on the pavement just outside the hospital. He died from his heart attack.

Unfortunately, this situation is far too common. I have personally handled several cases where individuals died (or suffered brain injuries) in waiting areas or while sitting in an emergency room triage area without getting proper and timely care for their emergency symptoms, such as chest pain (or pressure), arm or jaw pain, sweating, lightheadedness, pallor, and/or increased or irregular heart rate. Such improper care can be grounds for not only a medical malpractice lawsuit, but also for a claim under the federal law of EMTALA (Emergency Medical treatment and Actice Labor Act). Under federal EMTALA law, a hospital and doctor must follow the standard screening practices of the hospital to attempt to identify an emergency medical condition for all patients presenting to the hospital. When such a proper and timely screening does not occur, EMTALA law may be violated. Patients can base claims for their injuries on this statute in addition to the more common state law medical malpractice grounds. Hospitals and doctors can be subjected to governmental investigations and fines in addition to damages owed families for injuries caused by not properly screening or stabilizing patients.

In the California case, the hospital had been previously cited for by the Department of Health several times concernign other deaths at the hospital. Such patterns of deaths at hospitals are frequently not identified until discovered through litigation. Many medical malpractice cases can have other related claims, such as EMTALA claims, that should be brought as part of the litigation. Not only can such additional theories of liability strengthen the case, but they can sometimes create a better venue (location for the trial), permit additional types of discovery during the case and put additional pressure on defendants. Also, there can be an added benefit to future patients at the hospital if it is investigated by the federal government, fined or a corrective action program is put into place.

Posted by Leon Aussprung | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Emergency Room Care

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Medical malpractice allegations that duPont Hospital for Children (in Wilmington, Delaware) improperly performed experimental sugery for the placement of non-FDA approved cardiac stents have resulted in 17 lawsuits to date. The Delaware hospital, along with renowned heart surgeon William Norwood, M.D., performed numerous open heart surgeries on patients to prepare them to receice the experimental cardiac shunt. The hospital apparently never received, or even requested, an exception from the FDA for "compassionate use" of the heart shunts. Numerous children sufferred devastating injuries, and some died, as a result of the alleged improper conduct of the hospital and the surgical team. Attorneys in the various lawsuits have claimed that the specific heart surgeries performed, as well as the use of the shunts, were experimental and negligently performed. Additionally, there are allegations that proper informed consent for the experimental procedures was never obtained.

In the most recent lawsuit to be filed, a child had two experimental open-heart surgeries to prepare the child's heart to receive the stent. The family was eventually informed that the stent was not FDA-approved, but only two years after the last surgical procedure. The family claims that the hospital and surgical team was aware that the FDA never approved the stent and that the FDA had sent a warning letter to the hospital prohibiting the stent's use in patients. However, the lawsuit alleges that for two years the hospital fraudulently concealed and misrepresented this information to the family, whose child had heart surgery to prepare for the stent's use.

The duPont Hospital for Children has fired the heart surgeon and cardiologist involved in the experimental use of the heart stent, but the damage to patients and their families will last forever. As in these cases, claims of negligently performed procedures (medical malpractice), lack of informed consent and product liability often are intertwined in this type of complex litigation. Only knowledgeable, experienced and skilled attorneys are able to direct and litigate this type of difficult case to successfully uncover the wrong-doing of the doctors and hospitals and make a recovery for the patient and their family.

Posted by Leon Aussprung | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Surgical Errors

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