Kentucky Injury Lawyer Blog

A Knox County woman, 55 year old Clara Brewer, underwent a temporal lobe biopsy at Knox County Hospital when her face caught fire, resulting in severe third-degree burns. According to Brewer's family, the doctor used a cauterizer to close a wound which caused a spark and created a dangerous reaction with the oxygen. Brewer was taken to the University of Kentucky Hospital and spent several days in the burn unit. She is now back home recovering but continues to be at risk for infection.

Knox County Hospital has declined to comment on the situation, except to confirm the incident occurred and an internal investigation is being conducted.

A Knox County woman, 55 year old Clara Brewer, underwent a temporal lobe biopsy at Knox County Hospital when her face caught fire, resulting in severe third-degree burns. According to Brewer's family, the doctor used a cauterizer to close a wound which caused a spark and created a dangerous reaction with the oxygen. Brewer was taken to the University of Kentucky Hospital and spent several days in the burn unit. She is now back home recovering but continues to be at risk for infection.

Knox County Hospital has declined to comment on the situation, except to confirm the incident occurred and an internal investigation is being conducted.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA') said it is stepping up interviews of surgeons about robotic surgery devices after a new series of mishap reports. "Since it is difficult to know why the reports have increased, the FDA has elected to talk with surgeons to better understand the factors that may be contributing to the rise in report numbers," the FDA said in a statement. Hospitals spend more than $1 million on each of the da Vinci-brand surgery units and are under pressure to keep them busy.

On a related note, the Colorado medical licensure board has charged Dr. Warren Kortz with 14 counts of unprofessional conduct after a series of failed procedures with Porter Adventist Hospital's robotic surgery arm, as federal officials launch a wider review of the procedures.

The state alleges that from 2008 to 2010, Kortz cut and tore blood vessels, left sponges and other instruments inside patients after closing, injured patients through improper padding and positioning, subjected some to overly long surgeries, and had to abort kidney donations because of mistakes. Kortz also failed to document the mistakes in patient charts.

The formal complaint comes as federal officials seek more information on robotic surgery results and mistakes around the nation.

Considering the recent laws that have taken place in Kentucky it is noteworthy that a pain-medicine doctor faces a fifth malpractice lawsuit in another state.

Dr. Daniel Baldi of Des Moines was sued this week by the family of Chad Martin, 39, of Johnston, who died last September. The lawsuit, filed in Polk County District Court, says Martin died of an overdose of oxycodone. It says Baldi was “grossly negligent” in prescribing the narcotic painkiller without properly assessing Martin’s need for it or setting up a proper monitoring plan to track using the pills.

Martin’s death was one of eight cited by prosecutors on Sept. 5 when they filed criminal charges of involuntary manslaughter against the doctor. Prosecutors said Baldi recklessly prescribed large amounts of narcotic painkillers to patients. The Iowa Board of Medicine, which licenses physicians, also has filed administrative charges against him, saying he failed to take precautions against abuse of the drugs.

The lawsuit does not say why Martin sought treatment from Baldi, who helped run an Iowa Health System pain-relief clinic in Des Moines. The company, which is listed as a defendant, closed the clinic in June without explanation. Iowa Health officials said when they had suspended Baldi from the clinic earlier in the year. They have said they will have no further comment on him or the clinic.

Lawsuits against Baldi have been filed this year by the families of three other patients who died of overdoses and by a patient who said the doctor botched the insertion of a pain-medication pump. One of the wrongful-death lawsuits has been settled for an undisclosed sum.

The question has been debated for years: does circumcision affect a man’s sexual performance? According to a man in South Dakota it has a negative affect, which is why he has filed a federal circumcision lawsuit against the hospital where he was born. He claims he only recently learned of his missing foreskin, and that doctors misled his mother into believing the procedure was medically necessary.

Dean Cochrun is the man in question and he is asking for $1,000 and free reattachment surgery. Of course, the reattachement surgery will have to wait until Cochrun, 28, is let out of prison, where he is currently housed on a kidnapping conviction.

He is alleging that he “was robbed of sensitivity during sexual intercourse.” The circumcision lawsuit further states that he lost “the sense of security and well-being I am entitled to in my person.” It will be interesting to see how far this lawsuit goes, and what, if any, medical expert proof the plaintiff intends to offer.

A lawsuit, filed against New York Presbyterian Hospital, accused medical staff of failing to provide a new mother with adequate care. The family announced last week that the case was settled for $5.3 million dollars.

According to the facts that have been made public, the mother had visited the hospital for observation and treatment while pregnant. Still, she gave birth at 32 weeks, and the baby was diagnosed with quadriplegic cerebral palsy. The lawsuit asserted that "not enough steps were taken to prevent this premature birth."

While this settlement is certainly does not represent the true value of the damages the family in question has suffered, it will at least help to ease their burden. These types of birth injuries injuries are caused by a lack of proper medical care. Sometimes hospital staff didn't properly monitor the baby, or the doctor failed to take precautions during a high-risk pregnancy. Other times, poor decisions were made in the delivery room.

Defense lawyers for New York Presbyterian obviously felt that there was sufficient evidence to meet this standard, and therefore settling the case was their best option.

A stalwart of the conservative political movement in the United States recently broke ranks with other conservative and tort-reform groups. The conservative CATO Institute has issued a new study that takes the position that caps on medical malpractice damages might harm patients and promote further unsafe medical care. The Institute’s close affiliation with many conservative groups, politicians, and policy positions should give this paper all that much more credibility in insurance defense and medical provider communities who are pushing a tort-reform agenda, including placing caps on damages in medical malpractice cases around the country. For decades, conservative tort-reform groups have pushed the position that “excessive” or “runaway” jury verdicts in medical malpractice cases have all but sounded the death toll for medical providers around the country. Claims that doctors and other medical providers have been put out of business or forced to leave practices in certain states due to high malpractice insurance rates are a common rallying cry seeking sympathy from voters and consumers.

It seems, however, that the CATO Institute has come to the same conclusion that trial lawyers have known for years: caps on damages only harm patients and victims of malpractice, not doctors and hospitals. The American system of trial by jury and the right to seek compensation for harm and damage caused by the negligence of others is the only way to ensure that quality medical care continues to be the norm, not the exception. Placing caps on the amount of damage that victims of malpractice can seek is an outright assault on that fundamental right. Fortunately, it seems that the CATO Institute agrees. Hopefully, so-called tort-reformers will carefully review the well thought out evidence and arguments presented by the Institute and embrace the concept that the preservation of our jury trial system will only result in safer and better care for everyday Americans.

Continue reading "Conservative CATO Institute Issues Policy Statement Condemming Caps on Medical Malpratice Damages" »

Norton Hospital has closed its psychiatry unit after a preliminary investigation into a patient’s death. The death occurred last weekend and officials have indicated that Norton's level of safety and quality of patient care was not acceptable.

Norton officials said the death occured last weekend in a 21-bed unit for adults, prompting officials to temporarily close the unit to new admissions. They also are working to transfer the 10
remaining patients to other facilities.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is launching an investigation into the death.
Lee Millman, a spokeswoman for the Atlanta office of CMS, said that the agency has started an investigation. She also said her agency has notified the state of Kentucky, which employs investigators contracted by CMS. Gwenda Bond, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said her agency’s Office of Inspector General has been in contact with CMS and will investigate.

A patient in the psychiatric unit of Norton Hospital in downtown Louisville allegedly committed suicide last week according to local news reports. The hospital says there is an ongoing investigation into the safety and quality of patient care in its inpatient psychiatry unit but wouldn't comment further to local news.

The unit was closed as of the time of this writing and no new patients have been admitted.

I have represented several families of individuals who have committed suicide while in the the care of others - either in the hospital or incarcerated There are complicated medical and legal issues that must be explored and handled by an attorney knowledgable and experienced in suicide cases. Whether the individual's death was a foreseeable event and whether the hospital took all precautions to prevent the death will be two of the primary questions needing to be answered. I hope the family of this individual is able to get those answers.

Robert Gant, a former Metro EMS employee was fired by the agency on September 23, 2011 after failing a drug test. According to the Courier-Journal, there has been a rash of drug-related disciplinary activity at Metro EMS related to drug use by employees. In addition to Gant, four other employees were suspended without pay in July of this year as a result of a Louisville Metro Police Department investigation involving allegations of distributing illegal substances.

Gant was cleared by the police and returned to work, only to test positive for marijuana on September 14. EMS says that it is now routinely drug testing all employees. It is not clear if drug tests were used prior to the police investigation or if that prompted a new policy.
Gant was an EMT who would have worked directly with injured patients. However, things seem to be worse than just routine employees using drugs. In August, Major Roger Parvin was involved in a scandal that included the theft of 180 vials of a controlled substance going missing from the agency. Many of the vials were later recovered after Parvin confessed, but not all. Also, in July, another employee was arrested for drunken driving.

Whatever the reason for the drug abuse and other problems, the large number of incidents in such a short period of time is very troubling. What is more worrisome is that these folks, like Gant, are often first responders to major traumas and accident. Having a drunk or drugged EMT or other medical personnel working on injured patients could lead to serious lapses in care, or worse. Moreover, often these employees are operating large ambulances at high speeds in order to get to the injured.

Continue reading "Continued Drug Abuse Problems at Metro Louisville EMS Prompt Concerns" »