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 Tagged with new york medical malpractice

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operarting roomA fire erupted in a New York hospital operating room while a patient was having surgery. The accident happened in 2014 at  NYU Langone Medical Center but the results of the investigation were only recently released by the New York Department of Health. The report was obtained by the NY Post under a Freedom of Information Law request. In the report State investigators indicate that the hospital lacked adequate safety procedures to prevent surgical fire. NYU Langone Medical Center also was not conforming with standard practices to protect patients from these type of fires.

Additional medical malpractice was also committed by the surgeon  and the anesthesiologist who failed to communicate proprely about which instrument would be used by the surgeon and which gas would be used by the anesthesiologist to check if there was incompatibility or danger.  According to the DOH report the surgeon used an instrument that sparked a fire in presence of the oxygen used by the anesthesiologist. The patient was injured but the the extent of the injury was redacted in the report received by the NY Post.

After  the accident happened at the beginning of December 2014 the hospital didn’t act to improve safety measures to prevent patients from being injured in a similar manner. It was only after the the Department of Health inspection, at the end of the same month, that the hospital instituted new safety measures related to operating room fires. The measures included changing the oxygen delivery method for surgeries posing a high risk of fire.

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brOur managing partner, New York Medical Malpractice Lawyer Ben Rubinowitz will be a panel member at the Medical Malpractice Litigation 2016 NYC Live & Webcast seminar organized by the NYSBA on April 15.   Ben will be speaking on effective methods of deposing the defendant doctor in a medical malpractice case.

This seminar is an excellent opportunity for young and experienced lawyers to keep up to date with recent issues in medical malpractice and to learn trial strategies and techniques from top litigators and distinguished judges. The Agenda includes:

  • Developments in the Substantive Law
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An 11 year old girl who suffered medical malpractice in New York received a settlement that was split $67,000 in a savings account and a structured settlement that provided for regular payments when the girl turns 18 year old.  The money in the bank account could only be withdrawn with court approval. Last year her mother asked for  $47,000 but the court turned her down. A few days later she falsified a court order and withdrew $47,000 out of the account of her daughter. She told the bank that her daughter needed additional surgery in San Diego. She then used the money for a tummy tuck procedure, a liposuction and a trip to Disneyland. According to the criminal complaint the mother also submitted forged court orders on three additional occasions for a total of $19,500. The girl had been born with a brachial plexus injury to her right arm. The mother has been charged with second-degree grand larceny and second degree possession of a forged instrument by The Queens District Attorneys office.

Read more in the New York Times

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David NewmanIn another case of medical malpractice related to sexual assault in New York, a patient filed a lawsuit against the Mt Sinai Hospital and against Dr David Newman  an ER doctor who allegedly drugged her and then ejaculated on her face.  The patient had checked in at the Mt Sinai Emergency Room for shoulder pain. She was given morphine and was asked by the nurse to remove her bra and put on a gown to get an X-Ray. After the X-Ray, Dr. David Newman walked into the room where the patient was lying on a bed. He told her “I am going to give you a shot of morphine”. The patient told him that she was already given morphine by the nurse but she felt a burning sensation on her arm and believes she was administered another shot of morphine by the doctor. The patient alleged that when the doctor was examining her he started fondling her breast. She also alledged that after forcibly touching her he started masturbating and ejaculated on her face. She couldn’t move because she was heavily medicated. After he finished the doctor wiped the semen off her face. However when the patient woke up she found some left over semen on her face and on her chest and she wiped it with her gown. She then saved the blanket and the gown as evidence. DNA tests matched Dr Newman who was arrested last month and charged with sexual abuse and forcible touching.  The doctor appeared in court yesterday.

Read more in the Gothamist

 

 

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Robert HaddenIn New York, sexually abusing a patient is not only gross medical malpractice but it is also a crime. Dr Robert Hadden, an Upper West side gynecologist who had been charged with sexually assaulting 6 pregnant patients, accepted a plea deal yesterday. The doctor admitted to sexually abusing two patients. He admitted to performing oral sex on a patient for no valid medical purpose while the patient was incapable of consent. He also admitted forcible touching another patient. Both are misdemeanors.  As part of the plea deal, the doctor will have to register as a level one sex offender and will loose his medical license. He will not have to serve jail time or do community service.

Read more in the NY Daily News

 

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roy webbAfter sustaining minor injury in a car accident, a 27 year old man died during surgery at a New York Hospital.  This morning around 4:30 am Roy Webb, an employee for the catering hall Antuns in Quens Village, was driving a co-worker home. He was driving South on Laurelton Parkway when his lost control of his vehicle. He slammed into a guardrail near 130th Ave.  The car caught fire and the passenger died at the scene of the accident. The passenger suffered such bad burns that an autopsy will be required to formally identify her. The driver suffered a broken neck and was transported to Jamaica Hospital. His girlfriend and his family said that he went for a first surgery and that he woke up fine and was expected to survive. He then went for a second surgery and died during the procedure. According to the NY Daily News, the hospital told the family that his pulse dropped and that was all they could do. The family suspects that the hospital committed medical malpractice.

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New York personal injury attorney Stuart Schlesinger won $875,000 in a medical malpractice lawsuit for a client but the client never saw the money. Margaret Last, a a former executive assistant turned to attorney Stuart Schlesinger after a treatment from a podiatrist left her in so much pain that she had to start using a wheelchair or a cane to get around. She was relieved after Stuart Schlesinger was able to win $875,000 in a medical malpractice lawsuit against the podiatrist. However a year after, Margaret Last still hasn’t received any of her money according to a lawsuit that she filed against Schlesinger.

It is not the first time that Schlesinger has committed legal malpractice. He was arrested in December for defrauding clients of over $3 Million dollars in settlement proceeds.

The conduct of this NYC personal injury attorney is a disgrace to our entire profession. This is exactly what a lawyer should not be. Most of the lawyers who practice in the personal injury field, as we do, put their clients interest first and work to serve their needs. The fact that a lawyer could steal a seriously injured person’s money is unacceptable. The harshest possible sentence should be handed down against Stuart Schlesinger because he broke the most basic bond of trust between lawyer and client.

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In Davis v. South Nassau Communities Hospital, Edward Davis sued this  New York hospital for medical malpractice after he was injured in a car accident caused by an impaired hospital’s patient. The patient was Lorraine Walsh. Walsh presented herself to the South Nassau Communities Hospital Emergency Room with stomach pain. The ER doctor gave her a very powerful pain medication and told her she could go home.  Because the patient was allergic to morphine, she was given Diluadid, an opioid, which is stronger than morphine and Ativan, a fast acting benzodiazepine with a 6 hour half life intravenously.  The medication that was given by the ER doctor can impair the ability to operate a motor vehicle. However the doctor didn’t warn the patient nor ask if she was indeed driving home alone.

As she was driving back home, Lorraine Walsh, impaired by the medication, crossed a double yellow line into oncoming traffic and struck a vehicle driven by Edward Davis. Edward Davis suffered personal injury caused by the car accident. Davis then filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the hospital and the physician. The suit was dismissed by the by the trial court and by the Appellate Division. Davis then appealed to the New York Court of Appeals.

The Court of Appeals had to rule on an interesting question: can a third party injured by an impaired patient sue a medical provider under the theory that the medical provider’s malpractice was the cause of of the third party injury even though the third party didn’t have a direct relationship with the medical provider. In a 4-2 decision, the New York Court of Appeals ruled that Davis’claim was permissible.  The Court held that defendants had a duty to plaintiffs to warn Walsh that the drugs administered to her impaired her ability to safely operate an automobile.“Our decision herein imposes no additional obligation on a physician who administers prescribed medication. Rather, we merely extend the scope of persons to whom the physician may be responsible for failing to fulfill that responsibility.” Judge Stein and Judge Abdus-Salaam dissented in a lengthy opinion

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34 year old Kelly Mayhew died from medical malpractice last May in New York. She had traveled from Maryland with her mom to get cosmetic silicone injections of her buttock in Queens New York, City. Unfortunately, the doctor who injected her was an unlicensed phony plastic surgeon who fled the scene soon  after Mayhew started to gurgle and struggle to breathe leaving her victim to die.  The fake doctor never surrendered and the NYPD believe she know lives in England. The case is currently being presented to a grand jury in front of which the city Medical Examiner said that the cause of the death was “systemic silicone emboli due to cosmetic silicone injections of buttocks” and “the manner of death was homicide”. Read more in the NY Daily News

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In 2001, Pam Tusiani died as a result of Medical Malpractice in New York  after she fatally  reacted to Parnate, an antidepressant she had been prescribed by a treatment center that was providing medical care without a license. The young woman was suffering from  borderline personality disorder, a disease often misdiagnosed.

Using the settlement from their malpractice suit, Pam’s parents started the Borderline Personality Disorder Resource Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital in 2003. Last July the Tusianis hosted some of New York’s top neuroscientists and psychiatrists at a day-long event to review the latest science on BPD and devise new avenues for research.

Read more in The Washington Post