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Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

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Drive_Thru_DrugsDispensing errors occur when a pharmacy commits a medication error and patients receive a different drug, a different dosage or a different drug quantity than their doctor prescribed. Sometimes when the doctor prescribed several medications, the pharmacy might also miss one. While most patients realize when the pharmacy did not give them the proper medication, some don’t. Medication errors by pharmacies can result in more harm to a patients and even death in some cases.

As doctors, pharmacies and patients are adapting to new safety guidelines related to Covid-19, pharmacies should also create new protocols to prevent the risk of medication errors.

The increase in phone prescriptions as well as not delivering the medication at the counter but offering curbside pick-up, drive-through window, home delivery, or mailing the medication can lead to an increase in medication errors if the pharmacy doesn’t take extra safety steps to prevent them.

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New York Personal Injury Attorney Marijo AdimeyIn a 2nd Department decision decided June 24, 2020, (see decision here), the Court reversed a trial court’s reduction of a $2.5 million jury verdict in a medical malpractice action involving a perforated intestine during an upper endoscopy.  When conservative treatment failed, Mrs. Garzon required an exploratory laparotomy to resect a perforated diverticulum, as well as a feeding jejunostomy, during a nine-day hospital stay.  Due to presence of intra-abdominal scarring and adhesions from the surgery, Ms. Garzon is at an increased risk of developing a bowel obstruction in the future.

At the trial, our partner NY Medical Malpractice Attorney Marijo C. Adimey obtained a unanimous verdict of $2,500,000 on behalf of her client, Elsa Garzon, from a Queens County jury.  The verdict awarded Mrs. Garzon $1,500,000 for past pain and suffering and $1,000,000 for future pain and suffering (see our previous post for full case details).

Defendant filed a post-trial motion pursuant to CPLR 4404(a) to set aside the jury verdict as excessive and against the weight of the evidence.   In granting defendant’s motion, the trial court reduced the award for past pain and suffering to $550,000 and reduced the future pain and suffering award to $100,000. The court held that the award for future pain and suffering was speculative and against the weight of the evidence.

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pregnant woman700 women die from medical complications related to child birth on average every year in the US. 60% of these fatalities are preventable. Maternal health was ranked the number two patient safety concern in the Top 10 Patient Safety Concern 2020 recently released by the ECRI Institute.
The CDC recently released alarming data related to the maternal mortality rate in the US. Non-Hispanic black women are 3 to 4 times more at risk of dying from child birth complications than non-Hispanic white women.  The rate of mortality also increases as women giving birth get older. Women who get pregnant after 40 year old are 7.7 times more at risk of dying from child birth complications than women under 25.

The lack of standardized care is a significant contribution factor in maternal mortality

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doctor-and-x-rayMissed and delayed diagnoses are common medical errors that can lead to serious injury and death. This morning the Daily Mail wrote about an 11 year old boy who died from severe bowel obstruction after a doctor misdiagnosed him with constipation and sent him back home. The doctor neglected to send him for an X-ray despite symptoms consistent with bowel obstruction.
Failure to diagnose or delay to diagnose a medical condition occur so often that the ECRI institute ranked this type of medical malpractice its number one concern out of its Top 10 Patients Safety Concern in 2020.

In the US it is estimated that 12 million adults or 1 out of 20 patients are misdiagnosed every year

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Jeff-Bloom2Congratulations to our partner Jeffrey Bloom for being listed as the 19th most politically powerful lawyer in New York in the 2020 Law Power 100. Jeffrey serves as the Co-Chair of the Medical Malpractice Committee and LAWPAC of New York (the Trial Lawyers’ political action committee) for the New York State Trial Lawyers Association.  Gov. Andrew Cuomo described the trial lawyers as “the single most powerful political force in Albany”.

Jeff has been with our firm since he graduated from law school in 1979.  He is recognized as one of the best personal injury and medical malpractice attorneys in New York and has helped his clients successfully achieve numerous multi-million dollar recoveries.  Among his notable cases, he served as lead counsel representing the Estate of Joan Rivers in a medical malpractice action arising from her death following surgery at an ambulatory surgical center. Jeff also specializes in cases of  cancer patients  who have been misdiagnosed. He was instrumental in the 2018 enactment of“Lavern’s Law,” which, for the first time in New York, mandated that the statute of limitations in cases on behalf of cancer patients and their families begins to run when the patient reasonably discovers that he/she has been the victim of malpractice.

A 2020 Law Power 100 Reception will take place tomorrow at The Ainsworth Chelsea in Manhattan.

 

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New York Medical Malpractice Lawyer Jeffrey BloomOur partner Jeffrey Bloom will be speaking about Medical Malpractice at the “Bridging the Gap” Seminar organized by the New York State Bar Association on February 20.

This two-day program dedicated to young attorneys who just finished law school will help them “bridge the gap” between law school and the reality of practicing law in New York State. Participants will built a foundation in the practical skills, techniques, and procedures that are essential to the practice of law.

Jeffrey Bloom will be a member of the program faculty among 12 other lawyers coming from different types of law practices. He will cover the subject of Medical Malpractice. Since graduating from law school in 1979, Jeffrey became one of the most prominent Medical Malpractice Attorneys in New York. He has represented numerous clients who suffered catastrophic personal injury as the result of medical malpractice such as improper care resulting in brain damage and Erb’s palsy or failure to diagnose cancer. He was instrumental in the recent passing of the Lavern Law. He also served as lead counsel representing the Estate of Joan Rivers in a medical malpractice action arising from her death following surgery at an ambulatory surgical center.

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SUNY-DownstateTwo top level transplant surgeons are alleging that they have been fired by SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn after they raised the alarm on gross medical malpractice occurring in the cardiothoracic surgery and cardiothoracic intensive care units.

Dr Gruesser, a top transplant surgeon who operated on Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford after she was shot and saved her life, was hired by SUNY as Downstate’s Chair of the Department and Chief of Transplant. When hiring him SUNY’s goal was that he would turn Downstate’s Cardiothoracic Program and General Surgery Residency program around.

During his tenure, DR Gruesser and his team uncovered several serious patients safety issues including:

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mayo-logoNew York Medical Malpractice Lawyer Ben Rubinowitz

Next week our managing Partner Ben Rubinowitz will be speaking at the prestigious  Mayo Clinic annual Review on Medical Malpractice.

The physicians at the MAYO clinic have asked Ben Rubinowitz, a plaintiff’s lawyer,  to speak on healthcare and medical issues that have resulted in medical malpractice claims in which patients were injured.   This year Mr. Rubinowitz will not only lecture but will conduct demonstrative cross examinations of physicians, basing his examinations on real cases, in which patients have suffered injury due negligent treatment of prostate cancer, kidney stones, ureteral injury and inappropriate surgical technique. Mr. Rubinowitz has been regarded as an expert in the field of Medical Malpractice for more than 25 years and has lectured throughout the country on these issues. “I am honored to have been asked to speak by the physicians at the MAYO clinic.  This is an institution often regarded as the top institution in the country”  said Ben Rubinowitz.
Indeed, the Mayo Clinic was recently ranked as the Country’s Number 1 Hospital overall and top ranked in 12 specialties by US News and World Report.
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doctors-wearing-gown-inside-room-operationHospitals all over the US are cancelling elective and non emergency surgeries as they are facing a shortage of surgical gowns after one of the main providers in the country, Cardinal Health, announced  a voluntary recall of 9.1 million defective surgical gowns.

The sterility of the gowns might have been compromised

The recall includes “AAMI Level 3 surgical gowns that have been produced in unapproved locations that did not maintain proper environmental conditions as required by law, were not registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and were not qualified by Cardinal Health”. The sterility of these gowns might have been compromised. Level 3 surgical gowns are commonly used in emergency rooms, in trauma cases, when inserting IVs or during arterial blood drawn. They protect hospital workers and patients from infections and illnesses.

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Mount-Sinai-HospitalPatient safety, infection control staffing ratio as well as patient boarding and conditions are out of control at the Emergency Room of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Executives who 3 years ago hired medical experts to assess the ER department issues, are fully aware of the situation but are doing nothing to improve it. According to former employees at all levels, at Mount Sinai Hospital profit comes before patient safety.  Staffers and doctors who worked there, were so horrified by the conditions of the ER that most of them quit after a few months. Dr. Eric Barton was the head of the emergency department for the Mount Sinai hospital Network for less than a year. He told the New York Post that he had to leave because the organization was not caring for patients. Nurses who quit because of the horrendous wok conditions remember seeing patients going into cardiac arrest without anyone noticing. Patients requiring critical care are often not admitted in the critical care unit timely because it is overloaded. ER Nurses who according to medical safety standards are supposed to care for five to six patients a day are assigned 14 to 18 of them a day.

Globally Mount Sinai has a solid reputation because some excellent doctors work there. It ranks #3 in New York and #14 in the US Best Hospitals Honor Roll of the US News ranking. It also ranks nationally in 9 adult and 5 pediatric specialties. Additionally the hospital was rated a high performer in 4 adult specialties and 7 procedures and conditions. The problem with Mount Sinai is that to access this high ranked care, patients are being parked in very unsafe conditions for up to two days in the emergency room or in the nearby hallways. The conditions are so bad that a worker said the emergency room at Mount Sinai look like Times Square.  While the hospital ranked well in the US News ranking  it ranks very poorly  – 3,874 out of 4,221 hospitals – in term of patient satisfaction on the NY department of Health website.

Shortly after the Post denounced the horrendous conditions at the Emergency Room, Governor Cuomo announced that he had ordered the State Health Department to probe the allegations in the Post.

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