|
 |
||||||||
NewsSECOND DEFENSE VERDICT IN THE KEYS
Partner Michael Petruccelli recently obtained another defense verdict in the Florida Keys in a medical negligence case involving claims brought against a Board Certified General Surgeon. Briefly, the Plaintiff was hospitalized through the Emergency Room at Fishermen’s Hospital in Marathon for complaints of severe abdominal pain. Mr. Petruccelli’s client was asked to see the Plaintiff in consult and three diagnostic studies were inconclusive for the diagnosis of appendicitis. On the day following the admission the Plaintiff, complaining of pain out of proportion to objective data, signed out of the hospital against medical advice after the surgeon refused to increase his IV pain medications. The Plaintiff signed out after the defendant surgeon saw him at 6PM and appeared the following evening at a hospital in Broward County, some 150 miles away, complaining of abdominal pain. Workup done at the second hospital showed a perforated appendix(the studies done at Fishermen’s were negative) and the Plaintiff underwent an appendectomy. Plaintiff recovered from this process but nonetheless sued, claiming that Mr. Petruccelli’s client was below the standard of care in not taking him to surgery sooner despite the negative radiologic studies at Fishermen’s Hospital. In fact, the Plaintiff was able to get an expert from California to opine on that issue, but that expert’s testimony on balance was somewhat favorable for the defense, The case was defended and no offers were made to settle. Interestingly, the Plaintiff stated at trial that he left AMA because he was afraid for his life, but of course had some difficulty convincing the jury why it took him 20 hours to get medical care for his “ life threatening condition” after he left AMA, coupled with the fact that he also drove past many hospitals without stopping before he ended up at a West Broward hospital. The jury quickly returned a verdict in favor of Mr. Petruccelli’s
client sending the Plaintiff home to Maryland with nothing to show
for his efforts. No appeal was filed by the Plaintiff. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ANOTHER DEFENSE VERDICT IN WRONGFUL DEATH TRIAL Attorneys Michael Petruccelli and Steven Osher recently obtained a defense verdict on behalf of a urologist who was sued in connection with the death of a 54-year-old woman at Fishermen’s Hospital in the Florida Keys. The woman, who had a long history of kidney problems, presented to the emergency room at the hospital with complaints of back pain that had persisted for over a week. Despite recommendations from her primary care physician that she go to the hospital for evaluation, the patient had stayed home until her pain became so severe that she could not stand it. After evaluating the patient, the emergency room physician contacted our client, a urologist who was on staff at the hospital but happened to be out of town that weekend. The urologist, who had advised the hospital that he would be out of town for the weekend, told the emergency physician that he was not available but would be happy to see the patient the following day. Unfortunately, the patient became septic overnight and her condition deteriorated to the point where she was no longer salvageable by the time the urologist, who was never advised of any change in her condition, returned. Despite all efforts to save her, she died the following day from complications of her longstanding kidney disease. The plaintiff hired an expert witness from Washington D.C., who testified that even though the urologist was not on call and had notified the hospital that he would be out of town, he assumed total responsibility for this patient simply by answering his cell phone on his day off. In response, Mr. Petruccellli’s firm introduced the jury to a local urologist, who confirmed that in the real world physicians talk to each other all the time on an informal basis, and that a simple telephone conversation does not turn a physician into a consultant. Following four days of trial, the plaintiffs asked the jury for $4.4 million dollars in damages. One potential juror, who was not selected for the trial, actually showed up at the courthouse every day just to observe the proceedings. At the close of evidence he congratulated Mr. Petruccelli for an excellent presentation of the case. Apparently, the jury agreed, since they returned a complete defense verdict for our client after less than two hours of deliberation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TWO CARDIOLOGISTS EXONERATED IN RECENT WRONGFUL DEATH CASE Attorneys Michael Petruccelli and Steven Osher successfully defended,through verdict, two local cardiologists in a wrongful death medical malpractice trial in Broward County. The case involved medical care rendered to a 64 yr. old male who sustained a myocardial infarction of sudden onset and presented to the Emergency Room at Memorial Regional Hospital for treatment. The Emergency Room physician called in the on call interventional cardiologist, represented by Mr. Petruccelli’s firm, who emergently took the patient to the cath lab and successfully stented the blocked artery which caused the myocardial infarction. During the procedure the interventionalist saw stenotic lesions, chronic in nature, and planned to address those lesions a couple of weeks later after the patient recovered from his heart attack. The interventionalist’s partner followed up with the patient over the weekend, and given the patient’s stable condition and lack of cardiac symptoms, discharged the patient with instructions to follow up with the interventional cardiologist for further intervention for the stenotic lesions on the left side of the heart.
Four days after discharge, the patient expired and the Medical Examiner’s office ruled that the cause of death was essentially atherosclerotic heart disease, but the mechanism of death was not able to be determined as the decedent’s widow/Plaintiff refused an autopsy on religious grounds. The Plaintiff’s attorney filed suit and alleged that both cardiologists were negligent in failing to call in a heart surgeon who would have done bypass surgery, and were negligent in discharging the patient when they did. Fann & Petruccelli retained a well qualified interventional cardiologist who was fully supportive of the care rendered, stating that the risk to the patient of having sudden cardiac death was not increased by waiting to revascularize the patient two weeks after discharge. Additionally, the defense successfully argued that the risks of mortality secondary to bypass surgery, as Plaintiff’s expert contended, likely exceeded the risks under the treatment plan instituted by the defendant cardiologists. After 8 days of trial, the jury deliberated 45 minutes and returned defense verdicts for both cardiologists, awarding the Plaintiff no money damages. The Plaintiff’s attorney asked the jury to award the Plaintiff 2.25 million dollars. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Defense Verdict for Local Ophthalmologist In a recent medical malpractice trial in Broward County, attorneys Michael Petruccelli and Steven Osher obtained a defense verdict for a local ophthalmologist and his professional association after an eight day trial. The case involved allegations of medical negligence relating to the treatment of a corneal ulcer sustained by the Plaintiff, a 48 year old roofer, who eventually sustained a loss of vision in his left eye secondary to the ulcer. The Plaintiff and his wife sought damages for loss of earning capacity, lost wages, pain and suffering and loss of consortium. The defense contended that its ophthalmologist client correctly treated the condition by sending the Plaintiff to the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute for cultures and appropriate treatment on an emergency basis given the seriousness of his condition. Mr. Petruccelli stressed to the jury that his client had the right to rely upon the input of the physicians at Bascom Palmer, one of the foremost Eye hospitals in the nation, and once the Plaintiff’s condition worsened, his client acted appropriately by sending the Plaintiff back down to Bascom Palmer for re-evaluation. Through careful cross examination of Plaintiffs’ witnesses, including their standard of care expert, the defense was able to show that the care rendered by its client was appropriate. Also, Mr. Petruccelli and Mr. Osher called well qualified experts on the defense, including an FBI trained documents expert, to show that others may have been involved in the delay in starting the Plaintiff on the correct treatment for his corneal infection. The Plaintiffs were represented by a high profile Plaintiff’s personal injury firm from West Palm Beach, who asked the jury to award damages exceeding three million dollars in closing arguments. The jury came to the correct result shortly after they finished their lunch. The defense currently has its motion to tax costs pending before the Court. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Michael Petruccelli Recognized by Florida Super Lawyers Based on a statewide nomination process, including peer review evaluation,
Partner Michael Petruccelli has been selected for inclusion in Florida
Super Lawyers 2008, in the area of Medical Malpractice Defense. Only
five percent of the attorneys in The State are included on this list
of recognized attorneys. The listing appears in Florida Super Lawyers
magazine and recently was included as a supplement in the Miami Herald,
South Florida Edition. Back to Back Defense Verdicts! In two large exposure medical malpractice cases, Partner Michael Petruccelli obtained defense verdicts for two physicians in March and April of this year. The first case involved allegations of negligence against a local orthopedist in Dade County, for failure to diagnose bone cancer, in a 14 year old girl. The damages claimed at trial included a pathologic fracture at the tumor site in the leg, past medical expenses approaching one million dollars, and a life care plan approaching 3 million dollars. Plaintiff underwent multiple surgical procedures allegedly as a result of the failure to timely diagnose the cancer. On behalf of the orthopedic surgeon, defense counsel Petruccelli claimed that the Plaintiff did not have the clinical signs/symptoms that would lead a reasonably careful physician to suspect that diagnosis. At closing, Plaintiff’s counsel asked the jury to award damages to the minor plaintiff and her parents in the amount of $18,000,000.00. The jury deliberated over the course of two days and returned a verdict of favor of the defense on all grounds. The second case involved the claim of a husband and his four minor children stemming from the death of his 37 yr old wife due to an aortic aneurysm. The plaintiff claimed that the decedant’s aneurysm was present in two echocardiograms interpreted by Mr. Petruccelli’s client, a well respected local cardiologist. The Plaintiff claimed that the aneurysm in the ascending aorta went undiagnosed and ruptured a few months after the echos were read. The defense claimed that the echocardiograms were properly interpreted through demonstration to the jury. During closing, Plaintiff’s asked the jury to award the husband and the children upwards of $15,000,000.00. The jury deliberated for 52 minutes after a 3 week trial, and returned a verdict on favor of Mr. Petruccelli’s client. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Defense Verdict! "Attorneys Michael Petruccelli and Steven Osher, in Fort Lauderdale, recently obtained a defense verdict in a medical negligence action in Miami-Dade County. The case involved allegations of medical negligence against a local board certified neurologist stemming from medical care rendered to the patient in connection with TIA/stroke related symptoms at a community hospital. The Plaintiff, a 68 year old male, claimed inadequate workup secondary to his stroke like symptoms which were diagnosed as a TIA. The patient was stable on discharge from the facility after a carotid Doppler was read as showing no significant stenosis and the patient was hemodynamically stable. Two weeks after discharge, the Plaintiff in that case suffered a major stroke with resultant permanent neurological disability. At trial the Plaintiff claimed that further diagnostic studies such as a MRA or CT angiogram should have been ordered by the defendant neurologist which would have shown significant carotid stenosis, that could have been treated before the major stroke. The defense contended that the clinical presentation of the patient coupled with the results of the carotid Doppler did not justify further workup by the neurologist before his discharge. The trial lasted one week and the Plaintiff asked the jury for 4.4 million dollars in closing argument."
|
|||||||||
