Medical malpractice plaintiffs receive a median award of $934,487 for medical malpractice claims involving surgical negligence and improper medication, according to a recent Jury Verdict Research study that looked at malpractice cases nationally in the last seven years. Plaintiffs have a 36% chance of prevailing in these cases. The following statistics are the likelihood of a successful verdict:
Failed Sterilization 35%
Catheterization 39%
There are a variety of treatment modalities to treat blocked coronary arteries: drugs, bypass surgery, and vessel-clearing procedures like angioplasty. In Elyria, Ohio, doctors are four times more likely to direct patients towards angioplasty. This procedure typically involves threading balloon catheters through arteries and sometimes placing drug-coated stents to unblock them.
Virtually all the procedures at the Elyria hospital are performed by a group of cardiologists who dominate cardiovascular care in Elyria. These doctors have a unique enthusiasm for angioplasties which, relative to the other available treatment options, is the most profitable. Medicare pays Elyria’s community hospital, EMH Regional Medical Center, about $11,000 for an angioplasty involving the use of a drug-coated stent.
There is no medical malpractice action to be had for this high rate of angioplasties which is probably why this practice has gone on unchecked (although the insurance companies and Medicare are growing concerned at the cost of these procedures and have investigated). This reminds me that medical malpractice lawyers in Maryland and around the country serve a great public utility to keep patients safe. You often hear how doctors complain that medical malpractice lawyers make them practice medicine too defensively. This seems like a tough argument because the federal government’s data shows that 100,000 people die from medical malpractice every year. But perhaps this is so. But if this also means that doctors will take a little extra care to avoid committing medical malpractice, I do not care what the motive is. It is a good thing. In fact, one would think even doctors themselves, considering this medical malpractice statistic, would not mind the legal community keeping them on their toes with so many lives at stake.
In Maryland, to bring a medical malpractice complaint against a doctor, you must get a certificate of merit by a medical doctor that the negligent doctor breached the standard of care and caused injury to the injured plaintiff. The qualifications of the medical doctor depend on the subject of the particular claim.
But this there is no getting around this statute. The certificate of a qualified expert is a required step in pushing a malpractice case forward. If it does not follow the certificate requirement, the court will dismiss a circuit court action.
Certificate of Merit Hurdle in Maryland
On Friday, I gave a small diatribe about the foolishness of allowing a doctor’s attorneys, after getting hit with a $28 million medical malpractice verdict, to bring back the jurors to essentially cross-examine them on their answers during voir dire. I explained that Maryland lawyers could not pull this stunt under Maryland law and why I thought the law prohibiting the losing lawyers from bringing back jurors after a trial was prudent. I wrote that I hoped the Florida court would treat this case similar to the approach a Maryland court would take.
This was a jinx. The Associated Press reports that Florida Circuit Court Judge Debra S. Nelson ordered the jurors back to court, questioning them about their answers during voir dire. After two hours of argument after this questioning, the judge threw out the $28 million verdict and ordered a new trial because three of the jurors did not respond affirmatively to the Plaintiff’s malpractice attorney’s question during voir dire about prior lawsuits in which they were involved.
One of the driving forces behind tort reform in malpractice, both in Maryland and around the nation, is that these claims are usually frivolous and result in undeserved compensation for patients and their medical malpractice lawyers.
This month, the New England Journal of Medicine addressed this issue in a study of 1,500 randomly selected malpractice cases. The neat thing about the study is that impartial doctors reviewed the experts’ opinions in the pending cases and then assessed whether each patient was injured and, if so, whether medical malpractice caused the patient’s injury. They allowed the independent experts to act as judge and jury.
(2019 Update: This Johns Hopkins tells us that malpractice is the third leading cause of death in the country.)
The Life News in Kentucky reported last week the story of a medical malpractice suit brought by a Louisville couple against an obstetrician, claiming the wrongful death of their one-day-old baby girl. Plaintiffs’ Complaint alleges that Dr. Ronachi Banchongmanie delivered their baby girl using “vacuum extractions.” Although the baby appeared pale and had rapid respirations, she was not sent to ICU but sent to the newborn nursery where further complications developed in the absence of emergency care.
Allegations made in a medical malpractice lawsuit are just one side’s version of the facts. But Dr. Banchongmanie is what medical malpractice lawyers refer to as a frequent flyer. This medical malpractice action was the second filed against him in the last two years, and one of more than a dozen medical malpractice lawsuits filed against this doctor in the last fifteen years.
Maryland Injury Law Center