Results
Car Accident Settlement
$100,000 (Andrew Heitman)
Med Mal Defense Verdict
Successfully defended a neurosurgeon whose patient was left paralyzed in the lower extremities following a decompressive thoracic laminectomy to treat worsening spinal stenosis that was causing loss of strength and numbness. The plaintiff alleged the surgeon was negligent for failing to adequately maintain the blood pressure and respond to intraoperative monitoring during surgery while the defense maintained that an unforeseeable reperfusion event occurred. At the conclusion of a lengthy trial, including almost a dozen expert witnesses, the jury returned a unanimous verdict for the defendant. (Andrew Heitman)
Med Mal Defense Verdict
Obtained a defense verdict for a general surgeon who after performing a fem-tib bypass on a diabetic patient, who was doing relatively well postoperatively, examined the patient’s foot following complaints of pain and discovered a blood blister on his big toe. The surgeon debrided the skin to allow the wound to heal appropriately on its own. In the days following, the patient presented to the ER with pain, swelling, and redness in the same toe and it was ultimately amputated. The plaintiff alleged the surgeon failed to adequately treat and render care. At the end of trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant. (Andrew Heitman)
Med Mal Defense Dismissal
Successfully defended a trauma surgeon sued by the family of a 24-year-old man who died in the emergency department from internal injuries he sustained when he fell out of a moving vehicle. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant was negligent for failing to take the patient to the operating room very soon after he arrived in the ER. After the surgeon’s deposition, the plaintiff dropped the case against him. (Steve Snyder)
Med Mal Defense Dismissal
Secured a voluntary dismissal of a radiologist who was alleged to have misread post-operative x-ray studies by failing to recognize misplacement or malalignment of surgical screws placed in a spinal fusion procedure, which allegedly resulted in severe pain, suffering, subsequent surgery and permanent injuries caused by nerve root impingement. The defense established that the studies in question were interpreted appropriately and, further, that there were no clinical indications at the time in question to suggest recommendation of definitive studies. No settlement was paid in exchange for the dismissal of the defendant radiologist and practice. (Steve Snyder)
Med Mal Defense Dismissal
Obtained summary judgment in favor of a hospital sued by a woman who entered the hospital to provide professional counseling services to a trauma patient but then slipped, fell and injured herself in a hospital common area. The plaintiff alleged she slipped on a wet and sticky substance on the floor as a result of the hospital’s failure to discover and remove the alleged unsafe substance and/or its failure to properly warn of the alleged unsafe condition. Following depositions and discovery, counsel filed a Motion for Summary judgment showing that the plaintiff failed to produce evidence of the alleged unsafe substance and, further, that the hospital appropriately maintained the area in question pursuant to proper policies, protocols and practices. The Court granted the hospital’s motion and dismissed the case. (Steve Snyder)
Med Mal Defense Dismissal
Successfully defended a large regional hospital system sued for medical malpractice by the estate of a female patient who suffered respiratory distress and hypoxia after having a total knee replacement, which allegedly retarded her postoperative recovery and physical rehabilitation. One day after defense counsel deposed the plaintiff’s expert, the plaintiff dropped the case. (Steve Snyder)
Med Mal Defense Dismissal
Favorably resolved a wrongful death action against a cardiologist who allegedly prescribed an excessive amount of amiodarone to a male patient to keep his heart in normal sinus rhythm after an electric cardioversion. After six months of amiodarone therapy, the patient rapidly developed acute respiratory distress syndrome and did not improve when the amiodarone was discontinued. His workup for possible amiodarone-induced lung toxicity was equivocal. Two experts in cardiology opined that the amiodarone dose prescribed by the defendant was appropriate and within the prevailing clinical guidelines, and experts in pulmonology and pulmonary pathology opined that the patient’s death most likely was not due to amiodarone toxicity but to either a bacterial or viral infection. A few months before trial, the case was favorably resolved at mediation. (Steve Snyder)
Med Mal Defense Verdict
Obtained a jury verdict for an anesthesiologist who was sued for allegedly failing to perform an adequate pre-procedure cardiac workup and allegedly failing to adequately conduct the anesthesia. The patient suffered respiratory arrest shortly after induction and at the beginning of the procedure. He was promptly resuscitated and admitted, but remained unresponsive and subsequently died a few days later following another arrest. (Steve Snyder)
Med Mal Defense Dismissal
Secured a dismissal for an emergency medicine physician sued for malpractice by female patient who alleged that she should have been treated with tPA, a clot-busting drug, when she presented to the ER with symptoms allegedly due to a stroke. The defense established through expert testimony that the defendant met the standard of care in evaluating the patient in the ER and having her admitted to the hospital for further evaluation, and that administering tPA was not indicated under the circumstances. After full discovery, the plaintiff voluntarily dismissed her case against the defendant. (Steve Snyder)
Med Mal Defense Verdict
Successfully defended a general surgeon whose patient died suddenly of a cardiac arrhythmia approximately four hours after being discharged from a hospital following outpatient surgery for an abdominal hernia. The plaintiff alleged the surgeon was negligent for failing to order a pre-operative cardiac evaluation and clearance and for allowing the patient to be discharged. The hospital and an anesthesiologist were also named as defendants. At the conclusion of a lengthy trial, the jury returned a unanimous verdict for all defendants. (Steve Snyder)
Med Mal Defense Dismissal
Obtained a voluntary dismissal of a general surgeon who was emergently called to assist with treatment of a patient who had become unstable and arrested during a transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion being performed by a neurosurgeon. The general surgeon performed a small emergent exploratory laparotomy but was unable to identify the complication resulting in arrest or a source of a possible bleed. The patient ultimately died without being resuscitated and, on autopsy, was found to have lacerations in both the vena cava and aorta. The plaintiff alleged the general surgeon failed to properly or adequately perform the exploratory procedure which resulted in the patient’s death. The defense established that the approach under the emergent circumstances was appropriate and did not contribute to the fatal outcome. The general surgeon was ultimately dismissed without having to pay any settlement. (Steve Snyder)
Med Mal Defense Dismissal
Secured a dismissal in a medical malpractice case against several obstetricians, alleging that they negligently ruptured an artery during the patient’s C-section. Several days after the C-section, the plaintiff began bleeding in her pelvis and had to be transferred to Charlotte for emergency surgery and an embolization which saved her life. The plaintiff’s expert witnesses opined that the bleeding occurred due to an injury to her right lateral sacral artery. After a thorough review of the radiology films and studies of the embolization procedure, the defense determined that the injury had been to the uterine artery instead. After the plaintiff’s expert witnesses testified that there was no negligence if in fact the injury occurred to the uterine artery, the plaintiff dismissed the case. (Steve Snyder)
Med Mal Defense Verdict
Obtained a defense verdict for a surgeon in a case in which the patient, after an emergent referral by his primary care physician, presented to a hospital with severe pain and a surgical abdomen, and the defendant surgeon performed an exploratory laparoscopy only to find a benign appendix. The surgeon thoroughly explored the abdominal cavity and “ran the bowel” without finding an explanation for the patient’s presentation. The patient was admitted, did not improve clinically, and eventually started deteriorating and showing lab value changes, at which time the surgeon ordered a CT scan that came back non-specific and then performed an exploratory laparotomy, finally discovering a small full-thickness perforation in the bowel after again running the bowel two times. The plaintiff alleged negligence for performing the initial exploratory laparotomy rather than treat the pain, wait and watch; for the manner in which the procedure was performed and allegedly caused the perforation; and for failing to timely discover and treat the complication. The jury rendered a unanimous verdict in favor of the defense. (Steve Snyder)
Med Mal Defense Verdict
Obtained a defense verdict for several gynecologists in a medical malpractice case in which the plaintiff alleged the gynecologists negligently perforated her bowel during her hysterectomy and failed to timely diagnose and repair the perforation. The patient incurred a lengthy hospital stay and underwent a colostomy procedure, which was later reversed. At trial the defendants showed that the injury was a delayed perforation which was not due to negligence and that the defendants had timely diagnosed the injury and prevented further harm to the patient. (Steve Snyder)
Med Mal Defense Verdict
Obtained a defense verdict at trial for an anesthesiologist and his practice in a medical malpractice case in which the plaintiff alleged the anesthesiologist failed to administer adequate amounts of anesthesia during a teenager’s appendectomy, which allegedly caused the teenager extreme pain, fear, and severe post-traumatic stress disorder. Based on the youthful age of the patient, the plaintiffs sought millions of dollars in damages for the lifelong suffering the patient claimed she would experience. In this complex case involving the minimum alveolar concentrations of anesthesia with respect to sevoflurane and the potentiating effects of multiple anesthetic drugs, the defense offered as an expert witness the nation’s leading expert in “anesthesia awareness.” The jury returned a verdict for the defendants. (Steve Snyder)
Med Mal Defense Verdict
Obtained a defense verdict for a general surgeon sued by the mother of a 43-year-old man who underwent a sleeve gastrectomy procedure for weight loss and died a month later of complications resulting therefrom. Within 24 hours of the surgery, the patient became ill due to a gastric leak. The surgeon timely re-operated and determined that it was necessary to convert the sleeve gastrectomy to a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass to preserve the healthiest part of the stomach. The patient’s postoperative course was complicated by pneumonia, acute renal failure, gastrointestinal bleeding, and sepsis, to which the patient eventually succumbed. At trial, the defense proved that the surgeon met the standard of care in every respect and was not at fault for the very unfortunate death of this patient. (Steve Snyder)
