Washington Injury Attorney Blog

An Illinois family has agreed to a $9.5M medical malpractice settlement after mediation with an Illinois hospital, nurse midwife and the nurse's employer after she claimed that her son's birth injury, resulting in cerebral palsy, was caused by negligence.

Helen O'Came filed a cerebral palsy lawsuit claiming her son was deprived of oxygen during the birth process which caused a brain injury. According to O'Came's lawsuit, the nurse midwife, Mary Traub, was required to have a sponsoring physician on call but her sponsoring physician, Dr. Han, was away in Korea and Traub did not call another physician in to the case.

Patrick, who is now 14, has a permanent disability which requires lifetime care. In the settlement, the hospital has greed to pay $7.5 million and Dr. Han and Traum will each pay $1 million as part of the settlement.

Cerebral palsy can be caused by the lack of oxygen at birth which can cause permanent disabilities including seizures, blindness, mental retardation and physical impairments.

This information is provided by Washington Injury Attorney blog, a service of The Farber Law Group. We have more than 30 years experience representing families whose babies have suffered a birth injury including cerebral palsy.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

Source:
Chicago Breaking News Center
$9.5M settlement in case of boy born with cerebral palsy
Posted: April 15, 2010

The King County Medical Examiner (ME) released its annual report on deaths in the county in 2008. The leading cause of non-traffic accidental deaths were falls, primarily in the elderly. The second largest cause of accidental deaths in this category was accidental overdoses of drugs and/or poisons. Highlights of the report are below, or click here to read the full report.

Of the 739 non-traffic accidental deaths, 18% of the accidents occurred outside of King County but the injured person was taken to medical facilities, usually Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, for treatment.

Falls

The ME reported that there were 739 non-traffic accidental deaths in 2008 and that 44% of these deaths were attributed to falls. Approximately 81% of people whose deaths were attributed to falls were 70 years old or over and many of these falls were ground-level falls which resulted in fractures and complications including pneumonia.

Overdose

In 2008, 232 of the 739 -- or 31% -- of non-traffic accidental deaths were caused by overdoses of drugs and/or poisons. In this category, 32% of the deaths occurred in people between the ages of 40-49, 31% occurred in adults between the ages of 5-50. It is interesting to note that there were no accidental drug deaths of children or infants under the age of 15.

Burns

There were 13 fire-related deaths in King County in 2008. Many of these deaths (9 of the 13) were from people who were injured outside of King County but were brought to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for treatment at the Burn Intensive Care Unit.

Drowning

There were 23 drowning deaths in King County in 2008. 18 of the 23 drowning victims were male.

Aspiration

Ten people died from choking in 2008. All of these deaths occurred in adults over the age of 50 and 40% were in the 50-59 age group.

Complication of Therapy

In 2008, there were 81 "complication of therapy" deaths. These are deaths of people who die while being treated using a medical therapy and a complication arises which kills the patient. Complications of therapy sometimes involves medical malpractice and it includes hospital falls or injuries in hospitals, wrong-site surgeries, and prescription errors such as overdose or allergic reaction to a medication.

Of complication of therapy deaths, 37% were related to a medical procedure, 25% were drug related and 38% were surgery related.

Other accidental deaths

Other accidental deaths include:

• 14 people who died of asphyxia
  
• 2 people who died after being hit by an object
  
• 3 people who were struck by trains
  
• 4 people who succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning
  
• 4 people who died of of hypothermia
  
• 1 person who died after being electrocuted

This information is provided by Washington Injury Attorney blog, a service of The Farber Law Group. We represent people who have been seriously injured in accidents due to the negligence of another. We also represent families who have wrongful death claims when they have lost a loved one due to the negligence of another.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

Information for this posting is from:
King County Medical Examiner's Office - 2008 Annual Report prepared by David Fleming, MD and Richard Harruff, MD, PHD.

Medical malpractice victims and their families traveled to Washington DC this week to pressure Congress not to take away their rights as work is being done on a national health-care bill. The victims -- many of them seriously injured by medical negligence -- are asking Congress not to limit their ability to redress wrongs that have been done to them.

An article on the Common Dreams.org web-site told about the families from nine states, including victims of catastrophic injury due to medical malpractice, who met with lawmakers. Congress has been attempting to reduce malpractice awards of patients in an effort to reduce health care costs. Says David Arkush, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch division, "Congress should work on curing this epidemic [medical malpractice and negligence], not compounding the damage by shielding bad doctors and limiting the rights of victims."

Every year 98,000 people die of medical errors. Obstetrics and birth injury malpractice can be some of the most noteworthy because the damages last a life time. Parents who have severely damaged or injured child due to negligence during child birth may have a life time of educational and medical expenses and putting caps on awards can severely limit the care a family obtains for their child.

You might want to read the full article, Injured Medical Malpractice Survivors Travel to Washington, D.C., to Protect Patients' Rights here.

This information is provided by Washington Injury Attorney blog, a service of The Farber Law Group. We represent people who have been seriously injured by medical malpractice and their families. We will fight the big insurance companies to obtain the compensation you deserve.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

A Maryland jury awarded parents of a newborn son who died two days after birth $1.85 million in a wrongful death lawsuit after deliberating just three hours.

The medical malpractice jury awarded Sandra and John Ketterman, Benjamin Ketterman's parents, $752,000 in damages for medical bills, funeral bill sand loss of services; $100,000 for the infant's conscious pain and suffering; and $500,000 to each parent for "mental anguish" reports The Frederick News-Post.

The jury decided that the Benjamin died because of their obstetrician's --Dr. Leonard Bienkowski -- decision to use a vacuum extractor during delivery. Benjamin's head was wedged in the birth canal, a condition called cephalopelvic disproportion (CPD) which is when the pelvis is inadequate to allow the baby to go through the birth control.

The crux of the Ketterman's lawsuit was that Dr. Bienkowski failed a "reasonable standard of care" in not explaining the risk of delivering the baby using the vacuum extractor. If they had known the risks involved, they said they would have opted for a cesarean section delivery.

Benjamin died of complications two days after his birth. He had bleeding between his skull and scalp.

This information is provided by Washington injury Attorney blog, a service of The Farber Law Group. We represent victims of obstetric and birth injury malpractice. We have experience representing families whose babies have suffered serious injuries during birth including traumatic brain injury, hypoxia and cerebral palsy.

Contact The Farber Law Group at 1-800-244-9087 or attorney@hgfarber.com to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. We have offices in Seattle and Bellevue to assist you.

Beacon News on-line reports that the family of Roberto Morales, Jr. has been awarded $6.5 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit. The settlement is a result of a brain injury that Roberto received during his delivery at Provena Mercy Medical Center. The lawsuit claimed that Roberto's cerebral palsy was as a result of reduced oxygen flow due to the administration of the drug Pitocin during labor and childbirth..

The Medical Malpractice Settlement was made in Cook County Circuit Court.

Negligence during child birth can result in very severe injuries. While medical malpractice awards can seem very large in these cases, they are necessary to support a family with enormous educational and medical expenses caused by a child's injury. In this case the child has cerebral palsy with very limited mobility.

This information is brought to you by Washington Injury Attorney blog, a service of The Farber Law Group. We are a personal injury law firm with offices in Seattle and Bellevue, Washington. If your child was injured during birth due to the negligence of the hospital, physician or nursing staff, we will work to help you receive compensation so that your child can receive the treatment and care that he or she needs now and in the future.

Contact The Farber Law Group today for a thorough and confidential case evaluation.

In a birth injury lawsuit, the Birth Injury Malpractice Lawyer brings together the resources that provides for the child's future care. Some children with birth injuries will need for special care their entire life especially if they have been born with a traumatic brain injury or cerebral palsy caused by hypoxia. In planning for a child's future, the attorney brings together people with expertise and these may include a physician, therapist, nurse and economist to plan and estimate a child's future needs including:

• Educational expenses
• Therapy expenses including occupational, speech and physical
• Medical expenses
• Care giver expenses
• Adaptive equipment needed for the home or automobile
• Home remodel expenses to modify the home for a child that might be in a wheel chair

Once a child's future needs are assessed and quantified, the attorney can factor this into the malpractice settlement when asking the court for an award.

This information was brought to you by Washington Injury Attorney Blog, a service of The Farber Law Group. Our medical malpractice attorneys represent children and their families with injuries due to negligence at birth. With our help, you may be able to recover compensation that will enable your child to obtain the care they deserve.

Contact us today for a free case evaluation.