Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matt Arnold answers the question: “What can you sue for in a personal injury case?”

In a confusing case recently filed in Texas, a personal injury attorney has filed a personal injury suit against a personal injury law firm related to a personal injury suit the firm is pursuing on behalf of other personal injury clients. The case concerns a class action litigation surrounding inferior vena cava filters, or IVCs. A Texas attorney sued an Arizona law firm, the Arentz Law Group, for making unsolicited phone calls in an attempt to round up potential claimants.

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matt Arnold answers the question: “What can you sue for in a personal injury case?”

Going under the knife can cause anyone a lengthy list of concerns, but catching on fire is not usually one of them.  However, numerous stories in the news this year have highlighted the disturbing frequency with which operating room fires actually occur.

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matt Arnold answers the question: “What can you sue for in a personal injury case?”

If you’ve ever had a stress nightmare about losing all your teeth, this one will make you cringe; an Indiana man made headlines this month after coming forth about a March dental appointment to remove four wisdom teeth that left him covered in blood, in a medically-induced coma and missing all his teeth.

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matt Arnold answers the question: “What can you sue for in a personal injury case?”

Male circumcision is an ancient practice that is still so prevalent in modern times that it is almost a norm. However, it is important to be aware of the rights of the parents and child involved. An uptick in legislation in recent years has shown an increasing trend for courts to recognize the consent issues surrounding the topic and a child’s right to “bodily integrity.”

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “May I choose my own doctor in a personal injury case?”

Injured patients have been watching and waiting for a result in the second of what will likely be many personal injury lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson over its DePuy metal-on-metal hip implants. The wait is now over as a jury in Texas came back after a week of deliberations and found that the hip implants were defectively designed. As a result of the defective design and lack of warning by Johnson & Johnson, jurors awarded a total of $500 million to a pool of five plaintiffs.

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “Do I have to sign a release allowing the insurance company to get my medical records?”

Everyone has heard horror stories of what can go wrong in surgeries. These tales often involve scalpels or bandages left behind inside a patient’s body or amputation of the wrong appendage. Though these mistakes are gruesome and terrible, they’re also fairly rare occurrences. Though medication errors may not be nearly as attention getting as some of the more extreme examples of medical malpractice, experts say they present a far greater danger to patients, occurring with alarming regularity and potentially causing serious damage when the mistakes do occur.

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What exactly is a wrongful death claim?”

 

Dr. J.B. Perdue says “ambulance-chasing lawyers” are to blame for the first known settlement of a lawsuit ever made by North Carolina’s medical examiner system.

Body Bag Charlotte Injury Lawyer North Carolina Wrongful Death AttorneyThe lawsuit was filed after Dr. Perdue declared a living man dead.

Larry Green was found by emergency responders lying face down beside a road in Franklin County, North Carolina on January 24, 2005. Green had a noticeable head wound, and one paramedic could find no vital signs.

Dr. Perdue was summoned to the scene. After examining Green, Perdue ordered the man to be placed in a body bag and transported to a morgue. A paramedic suggested to Dr. Perdue that Green might be breathing, however Dr. Perdue dismissed this by saying that left-over air was merely escaping Green’s body.

According to court documents, some eight witnesses saw Green’s chest and abdomen move while on the scene. In addition, as Green was placed into the body bag, witnesses saw his right eyelid twitching. Dr. Perdue attributed this to a muscle spasm, saying it was “like a frog leg jumping in a frying pan.”

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Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What if a loved one dies from the injuries sustained in a serious accident while the case is pending?”

 

Loretta MacPherson underwent successful brain surgery at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle last month. During her recovery from surgery, she sought out medication advice at a local hospital near her Oregon home.

IV Bag Charlotte wrongful death Lawyer North Carolina Medical Malpractice AttorneyTwo days later, she was dead.

Michael Boileau, the chief clinical officer at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, Oregon, said that medical staff had ordered the correct medication for Ms. MacPherson—Fosphenytoin, a drug intended to ward off seizures caused by brain surgery—and the Fosphenytoin had been delivered to the medical center.

However, an internal investigation at the hospital showed that a pharmacy worker had filled a bag for intravenous injection marked “Fosphenytoin” with another drug, Rocuronium. Rocuronium is a potentially paralyzing muscle relaxant used to sedate and stabilize patients during surgery.

After being administered the wrong medication, Ms. MacPherson suffered cardiac arrest and stopped breathing. Doctors advised her son, Mark, that she had suffered irreversible brain damage. Ms. MacPherson was taken off life support and passed away two days after she entered the medical center.

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Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What should I do if I have been injured by another party but I can’t afford a lawyer?”

 

How long does it take to get a medical malpractice case into the hands of a jury? Eleven years and counting, at least for one North Carolina plaintiff. Sadly, Pamela Justus did not live to see her claims against neurosurgeon Michael Rosner, Park Ridge Health and Adventist Health litigated in a court of law.

Mike Easley Charlotte Mecklenburg Injury Attorney North Carolina Wrongful Death LawyerJurors in Henderson County Superior Court viewed Ms. Justus’ video testimony on Monday. The testimony was recorded more than two years ago—before Justus’ death. Justus said she hoped her lawsuit would keep what happened to her from happening to anyone else.

Mrs. Justus has alleged that Dr. Rosner performed unnecessary spinal procedures which failed to correct her medical problems of pain and fatigue and created additional medical problems, including neck and back pain, severe headaches, nausea and a paralyzed vocal cord. Dr. Rosner performed the surgeries in 2000 and 2001. Mrs. Justus died on Sept. 20, 2012.

Dr. Rosner’s medical license has been suspended repeatedly by the N.C. Medical Board. The board found in 2003 that Dr. Rosner had performed unnecessary surgeries on at least eight patients, including Mrs. Justus. In his spinal decompression surgeries, Dr. Rosner would carve away portions of the spine and the back of patients’ skulls in order to treat chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia. More than 20 lawsuits have been filed against Dr. Rosner alleging medical malpractice and professional negligence. Mrs. Justus filed her lawsuit in 2003.

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Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matt Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question: Can I wait a few months to pursue a personal injury claim?

 

Medical treatments involving stem cells have been hailed as holding the promise of a new generation of treatments for a variety of diseases, ailments and disorders. Now an American woman is learning that experimental stem cell treatments performed in Portugal eight years ago may have produced some unintended results.

Nose closeup Charlotte Mecklenburg Injury Lawyer North Carolina Medical Malpractice AttorneyThe woman was suffering from paralysis. Doctors had used a similar method on some 20 other paralysis patients; more than half reported recovery of movement or sensation. The American woman’s treatment did not involve the controversial method of transplanting of embryonic stem cells; instead, doctors removed tissue from her nose and implanted it in her spine. Doctors hoped the cells would turn into other cell types similar to cells near the site of the woman’s injury, acting as a kind of bodily “repair kit.”

Instead, after the stem-cell operation, the woman experienced increasing pain. In 2013—eight years after the stem cell operation—doctors discovered a three-centimeter-long growth made up mainly of nasal tissue on the woman’s back. Doctors also found small pieces of bone and nerve branches that had not connected to the woman’s spinal nerves.

Doctors said this circumstance occurred in less than one-percent of operations and that many patients receiving the treatment had seen a “remarkable recovery.”

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