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The lawyers at GURFEIN DOUGLAS LLP have represented clients in Medical Malpractice cases involving many medical specialties:
Patient given wrong
drug for minor outpatient surgery resulting in cardiac arrest and heart damage
in 28 y.o. man. Case currently
pending; defendant admitted malpractice under questioning at deposition.
A 57 y.o. man complaining of fevers and rash is misdiagnosed as suffering from a viral syndrome without taking blood tests or cultures; resulting in untreated bacterial infection that settles in his heart causing SBE (subacute bacterial endocarditis) which damages his heart valves, leaving him an invalid. Settled.
Young mother of two has mole removed and sent for biopsy. Biopsy misread as benign, resulting in
spread of cancer. Discovered only
after metastases found in lungs and brain. Settled.
Newborn infant suffering from a rare enzyme deficiency was kept at a
community hospital where the part-time neonatologist watched as the
baby's condition deteriorated. The doctor should have transferred the
baby to a tertiary care hospital where pediatric endocrinologists could
have properly diagnosed the deficiency and treated the baby. Instead,
the baby nearly died and by the time the regional hospital got the
child and diagnosed the problem, the baby had suffered irreversible
brain damage and cerebral palsy. Settled during trial.
Failure to recognize perforation of the
esophagus during forceful attempt to widen the tube (instead of the correct
surgery) resulting in escape of food, infection, multiple surgeries, and loss
of ability to eat solid food.
Settled during trial.
After
delivery, Mom who has elevated white count, elevated heart rate, loss of normal
bowel sounds and severe abdominal pain is nevertheless released from hospital
despite being doubled over in pain.
Mom had strep infection, resulting in toxic shock, hysterectomy,
colostomy, coma, and long hospitalization. Plaintiffs’ verdict at trial sustained on appeal and
judgment paid in full.
Failure of internist to notice
worsening big hands, coarse facial features (“gigantism”) of 40 y.o. man and
failure to diagnose pituitary tumor resulting in irreversible growth of limbs,
hands and facial features and growth of the tumor, requiring extensive brain
surgery. Settled.
Laparoscopic Surgery:
Patient undergoing bariatric (“stomach tying”) surgery has blood supply
to legs interrupted, resulting in loss of control of both legs. Settled.
Newborn given too much IV fluid and too
little salt, resulting in hyponatremia (low salt in blood); child has seizures and brain
damage. Settled.
55 y.o. woman has increasing symptoms
of impingement on her cervical spine due to ossification of spinal ligament;
delay in neurosurgery results in quadriplegia. Case currently pending; in a similar but unrelated case,
patient with spinal infection untreated despite strong evidence on scans and
MRIs, also quadriplegic.
Over 100 Erbs Palsy cases have been successfully tried or settled by our
lawyers. Erbs palsy is a birth
injury caused by the obstetrician who tries to pull the baby out when the baby’s
shoulders get stuck.
Delay
in treating cancer is a common theme in these cases. In a recent case, a sixteen year old girl had a lump on her
hip which was ignored. It was
diagnosed as a lymphoma after it had already spread, and the injuries were
compounded when the radiology lab accidently put beams on the girl’s ovaries,
sterilizing her. Settled.
Failure to diagnose malignant tumor in eye of child (cat’s eye tumor)
resulting in growth of tumor into brain and loss of both eyes. Settled.
Failure to use drilling jig to make holes for repair of tendons in knee
resulting in off-line drilling causing unstable ACL repair in 40 y.o. man. Settled.
8
y.o. boy with inexplained fevers for several days, never has throat culture,
and blood tests not taken until he develops full-blown rheumatic fever. Results in damage to joints in legs and
heart valves, with a murmur.
Pending.
Misdiagnosis of migraine as seizures resulting in prescription of
anti-seizure medication with known severe side effects resulting in
Stevens-Johnson syndrome, leaving a ten year old boy blind. Settled.
Surgical errors are so common, there are too many to list. One example from our office would be a
recent case in which the doctor operated on the wrong knee, despite marking the
correct knee with a pen. This case
was the first time in NY State an award for punitive damages in a medical
malpractice case was collected.
The lawyers at GURFEIN DOUGLAS LLP have represented clients in Product Liability cases involving many products: Printing Presses These cases are typical of improper machine guarding cases. They
involve serious crush type injuries to the hands and arms of the
operators of the press. We have tried and settled many such products
cases.
The owner of the machine decided to leave it set to the "service"
position in order to speed up production. In the service position the
dual hand control was not in use and either hand could activate the
jaws of the machine. Our client followed his employers directions, but
the metal piece slipped as the machine closed and crushed our clients
hand. Settled.
In the days of vinyl LP records an hydraulic press with steam heated
dies was used to make stereo records. The press had a single electric
eye beam which would stop the press, open the jaws and release the
steam if the operator's hand "broke" the beam after the press started
closing. The employer didn't want to waste the vinyl which would have
to be thrown away if the press stopped so he moved the beam so no
worker's hands could ever "break" the beam. Our client lost her right
hand at the wrist because she was caught in the closing jaws.
A foreign made car was rear ended by a large delivery truck. A car is
supposed to be designed to protect the occupants from a "second
impact", the impact with the interior of the car after a crash. In
this case the driver's seat belt failed to comply with federal
standards and hold the driver in the seat under all accident
conditions. The driver's seat back collapsed backward, the driver
"ramped" up the reclining seat back and the back of her head struck the
head of her 6 month old baby in an approved car seat. The baby
suffered severe brain damage and cerebral palsy. The case settled
after we won a verdict on liability.
Hydraulically operated knives cut large quantities of paper and other
material in commercial settings. Our cases here involved improper
guarding or the employer bypassing the guarding system and the
manufacturer knowing about it and allowing it. Settled.
Bakeries and pizza ovens require careful settings and proper air/gas
mixtures to operate properly. Our client, a baker was severely burned
when the oven he was using wasn't properly adjusted causing a gas
explosion and burns. Settled.
The lawyers at GURFEIN DOUGLAS LLP have represented clients in General Negligence and Personal Injury cases of all shapes and sizes: An electrician was required to pass wires through a space near the top
of a ten foot ceiling. He was given an improper type of ladder by the
building owner to use for this purpose. On his way down from duct work
he was working over, the ladder slipped and he fell 8 feet, permanently
injuring his knee. Settled.
Our client ordered a prefabricated house to be erected on his property.
After the ground floor was installed the crane operator attempted to
lift the upper story onto the building, but the load wasn't properly
balanced or rigged to the crane. As the crane lifted the structure,
the load caused the crane to tip over and the second floor to crash
into and destroy the ground floor. Our client caught the whole mess on
videotape. Settled. |