Calls to our law firm by bedsore victims and their families have ballooned in recent months. We have a few more law firms sending all of their nursing home cases to us and our Internet presence has increased the number of calls we get directly from victims.
There are a lot of questions about how bedsore cases and which cases typically get compensation, the type of cases our firm will take, and what really is the deal with bed sore cases.
I try to address some more common questions below.
I stumbled across a just brutal 9th Circuit opinion in S.H. v. United States earlier this year. This case reversed a $10 million verdict in a birth injury case, finding that the foreign country exception bars plaintiffs’ Federal Tort Claims Act (“FTCA”) malpractice claims against the military doctors who treated the mother and child.
Facts of S.H. v. United StatesA U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant is transferred to Spain. I don’t know if he wanted to go to Spain, but it does not really matter, right? He was ordered to go to Spain. Before leaving for Spain, they go to Andrews Air Force Base so the military can verify that the family is medically suitable to travel overseas. At Andrews, he and his wife learn they are pregnant with their third child. She had experienced two prior preterm deliveries and a miscarriage in the past.
Jury Verdict Research found that the median jury verdict in arm nerve damage cases over the last 10 years was $81,095. Arm nerve damage is defined by the study as injuries to the median nerve, radial nerve, ulnar nerve, musculocutaneous nerve, and axillary nerve which are all branches of the brachial plexus. Carpal tunnel injuries were, however, specifically excluded from this study. Why? The vast majority of carpal tunnel injury cases are not the result of medical malpractice or a motor vehicle accident. Before you get outraged, it is absolutely true that people get CPS all of the time from tensing up and gripping the steering wheel before a crash. It is just that most of these injuries are not caused by car accidents. 
JVR provides more median verdicts for arm injuries:
More often than not, a jury trial in a wrongful death or severe injury case is about assigning blame. Jurors want someone to blame for the harm that was caused. Usually, this is either the plaintiff or the defendant. In medical malpractice cases, jurors may also point to bad luck as the cause.
For defense lawyers, one of the best targets for responsibility is an empty chair, either a dismissed or unnamed defendant. This is a more substantive target than mere bad luck and it allows the jury to meet its perceived obligation of assigning clear responsibility. It is also just helpful to point the blame to someone who is not in the room to defend themselves. In Copsey v. Park, the Maryland high court addressed the question of whether the defendant could point to the empty chair of doctors who had already settled before trial.
If you are considering bringing a wrongful death lawsuit, one question may have is what is the most you can sue for in a wrongful death case?
The better question is how much money can a jury award you. Because in a wrongful death case in Maryland, you no longer ask for a specific amount of money in the Complaint. Assuming the plaintiff’s lawyer understands Maryland law, the days of the Baltimore Sun publishing a story about a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit are over. Today, we do not sue for a specific amount, but we ask for what a judge or jury deems just.
A wrongful death claim is a statutory cause of action governed by the specific rules of Maryland law. It bears repeating that actions for wrongful death in Maryland must be commenced within three years of the death of the injured person. To date, the Maryland General Assembly has only enacted exceptions for deaths caused by occupational disease and criminal homicide.
The Maryland Court of Appeals granted cert in five cases yesterday. One of the cases, Davis v. Frostburg Facility Operations, is of interest to Maryland medical malpractice lawyers because it addresses the question of what constitutes an allegation of medical malpractice that invokes the Maryland Health Claims Act.
Davis is a nursing home type case. According to the Complaint, the Plaintiff was admitted to Frostburg Village, a nursing rehabilitation center in Allegany County, following back surgery. Two days later, Plaintiff’s mattress came loose from her bed and “slid off the bed frame, causing Ms. Davis to fall to the floor.” The facility used a mechanical lift to put the woman back in bed because Frostburg is a no lift facility. The nurse allegedly used the lift improperly — releasing the net holding the patient too soon — and dropped her on the floor.
Last week, in Henneberry v. Pharoan, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals looked at whether there can be a breach of contract lawsuit that runs concurrently with a medical malpractice claim. The case clarifies Maryland law on when a breach of contract claim might jibe with a medical malpractice claim.
The gist of the plaintiff’s complaint is that the doctor failed to completely resect the entire appendix, which necessitated another surgery. While undoubtedly a traumatic event for the plaintiff, this is not a serious case by medical malpractice standards. We have been making it a point to follow every malpractice case that gets filed in Maryland. This is the bottom 10% of medical malpractice lawsuits in Maryland regarding the severity of injury (of non-dental malpractice claims).
Sepsis is a silent killer that should be diagnosed and treated with the same urgency as a heart attack. But it is not treated with urgency, making it is the one reason why so many medical malpractice lawsuits in
Maryland involve either missed sepsis diagnosis or a failure to adequately treat this infection. Sepsis is a catastrophic health problem responsible for over 250,000 deaths per year in this country. There are over 20,000 cases of sepsis in Maryland hospitals every year. Do you think Donald Trump’s wall is too expensive? We spend more $20 billion dollars on the diagnosis and treatment of sepsis. It is the most expensive condition treated in hospitals and a lot of that cost is care rendered after a doctor makes a mistake. Continue reading
If you are a lawyer with a nursing home bed sore client in Maryland, I want you to refer your case to Miller & Zois (with an attorneys’ fee-sharing relationship). This post is directed to lawyers who 
rarely handle bed sore care to better understand the pros and cons of bed sore nursing home claims in Maryland and what types of claims are the most viable.
Nursing home cases are medical malpractice cases in Maryland. You have to file in Maryland Health Claims Arbitration and follow the malpractice statute. But bedsore cases are the exact opposite of medical malpractice cases. In a malpractice case against a doctor, the presumption the patient or the patient’s family must overcome is that the doctor is competent and did her very best. You start behind the eight-ball and need to present overwhelming facts to win. It is hard to win jump ball medical malpractice cases even in victim-friendly jurisdictions.
Our primary focus at Miller & Zois is to further the interest of our clients by maximizing the value of their injury or wrongful death claims. But it is also an absolute joy when we can be a part of 
changing Maryland law that helps all injury victims get a fair shake in their claim. We did this last week when the Maryland Court of Special Appeals gave a victory for our client and justice in Peeler v. FutureCare Northpoint, a wrongful death nursing home case.
At stake in Peeler v. FutureCare Northpoint was the breath of an agreement to arbitrate any claims that arise between a resident and a nursing home. Our client’s mother in Peeler entered a nursing home after she had a femoral-femoral bypass graft at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. She was asked upon arrival to sign an arbitration agreement. Clearly, this was not a moment of great clarity, right? This is not uncommon. Most decisions you make when entering a nursing home are made in crisis mode resulting from a precipitous decline in health. So amid this emotional powder keg, the incoming resident or their family must sign a million documents. There is no time to plan or weigh options. I’m a lawyer. There is no way I’m reading all of those documents in that situation. I’m not feeling free to negotiate with the nursing home. I’m in the most unequal bargaining position imaginable. I just want — or I wanted my loved one to get — the needed care to get through the days ahead.
