Medical Malpractice

[doctorcoug]

It looks like New Mexico is in for it...

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — New Mexico may have to pay as much as $120 million for an estimated 101 new medical malpractice claims that could be part of a potential class action lawsuit, according to a new study.

The Albuquerque Journal reports (http://bit.ly/TMP7i9) that state General Services Department Secretary Ed Burckle said the potential payouts would be in addition to about $45 million in settlements the state has paid to 118 families since 1998.

University of New Mexico hospital officials first disclosed in 1998 that children appeared not to have been given the newest drug therapies for acute lymphoblastic leukemia from 1989 to October 1996.

A copy of the state-commissioned actuarial study, obtained by the Journal, found the state's previous actuarial studies allotted only $19.6 million for future settlements of pediatric oncology cases.

But the pending class action lawsuit has changed the state's potential liability, the study stated.

"After discussion with the State, the State determined an unfavorable outcome is reasonably possible," stated the study by AON Risk Solutions.

Because the university is a state institution and because the state is self-insured, taxpayers are footing the bill for the litigation, which is now 11 years old.

Burckle said this week the new projections weren't a surprise given the payouts of the past.

But he cautioned that the $120 million estimate was just that, and could change as the case continues.

"That's our maximum exposure (projected) and we certainly don't expect to pay that." The estimate was based on the state's $1.05 million cap per tort claim.

Burckle said his agency isn't seeking any additional funds from the state Legislature in next year's budget to help pay for the possible losses.

"We're looking at how much we need to set aside," he added.

A hearing on whether there should be a class certification is still about a year away in state district court in Albuquerque.

Lawsuits against UNM and child cancer physician Marilyn Duncan began to mount after UNM announced in 1998 that about 110 children treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia from 1989 to 1996 didn't receive recommended care.

Duncan, who was chief of the UNM pediatric oncology clinic, has contended the treatments she gave to children were medically appropriate and effective. She was forced to leave UNM in 1998 and retired. She later surrendered her license to practice medicine in New Mexico.

Her attorney, Al Park, declined to comment.

None of the claims or lawsuits filed against UNM and Duncan has gone to trial.

But a potential class action lawsuit filed in 2001 by Albuquerque attorney Jacob Vigil on behalf of two parents whose children died is still pending.

That lawsuit contends the patients and their families share some common issues, such as not being adequately informed by UNM about the treatments they were receiving and about the risks of treatments proposed. Patients and their families were also dissuaded from seeking second opinions, the lawsuit alleges.

[New Mexican Disaster]

Hooray!

[wuapinmon]

Medical malpractice occurs when a hospital doctor or other health care and to be considered this process under the law.

Sentence fragment. -20.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Sentence fragment. -20.

Anatory represents a new trend in spamming. Someone in China, Pakistan, etc. creates an account and tries to blend in by posting replies to some topic. Sometimes they include a spam link in the first post, but usually they wait a few posts in order to appear sincere. Recently we had one go a couple of months before tossing out the first spam link. But it is just a waste of time as the crappy English is always a dead giveaway. We probably ban 10-15 of these per week.

If you (speaking to everyone) are going to quote a spammer, just make sure you don't quote the spam link as it just creates more work for us in the cleanup process.

[doctorcoug]

Which reminds me:

A Long Island doctor who was supposed to be treating a married model for depression committed medical malpractice by having an affair with her — but it wasn’t all his fault, the state’s highest court ruled yesterday.
The Court of Appeals sided with a jury that Kristin Dupree was entitled to $388,000 from Dr. James Giugliano — and also agreed that she was 25 percent responsible for the affair she says “destroyed her life.”
Dupree, a former model for Elite, went to Giugliano, her family doctor, “for medical treatment for depression and anxiety” in 2000, court papers say.
He prescribed anti-depressant medication, even “switching” drugs based on Dupree’s “concerns about diminished libido,” the judges noted.
They started an adulterous affair in 2001, and “their first sexual encounter occurred at a gym where defendant was showing plaintiff exercises to alleviate stress and anxiety,” the ruling said. The fling lasted for nine months.
Dupree came clean to her husband, who filed for divorce. An ugly five- year battle followed.
“This ruined her life,” said Dupree’s lawyer, Kenneth Cooperstein.

https://m.nypost.com/p/news/local/ny_court_laps_fling_doc_for_bed_WowQ8SLJw5rMTZ9DK6wSWI

via a galaxy s3 far far away

[doctorcoug]

This makes my hair stand on end...this is so easy to happen and is probably the gas doc's worst nightmare. The outcome of high spinal is treatable, except when a CRNA who has never seen this before is running the case and the physician is...nowhere to be found.

Malpractice suit claims teen suffered brain damage from too much anesthesia <span>December 30, 2012 12:40 PM</span>
By Michelle Keahey, East Texas Bureau
TEXARKANA – The family of an 18-year-old woman has filed a lawsuit that claims the new mother received negligent medical care that resulted in a permanent brain injury.
Christus Hospital St. Michael
Ezequiel Torres and Matilde Torres, both individually and as legal guardians and next friends of Mayra Torres, incompetent adult, and as legal guardians and next friends of a minor, filed suit on Dec. 19 in the Eastern District of Texas, Texarkana Division.
The defendants in the suit are Christus St. Michael Health System; Christus Health Ark-La-Tex, doing business as Christus St. Michael System, Christus St. Michael Hospital, Christus St. Michael Acute Care Hospital and Christus St. Michael Health Care Center; Dr. Thomas Watson, Gregg Anderson, CRNA and Burnett & Associates Anesthesia P.A.
According to the suit, in December 2010, 16-year-old Mayra Torres presented to Christus St. Michael Hospital in Texarkana at 41 weeks gestation with contractions.
After two hours of labor without progression, it was decided that a Caesarian section would be performed. She received an epidural for local anesthesia but the epidural catheter became dislodged, according to the suit. Torres then received a spinal anesthesia.
According to the lawsuit, Torres experienced severe complications which included cyanosis, bradycardia, decreased mental status and respiratory distress. Ultimately, Torres suffered acute respiratory failure, cardiopulmonary arrest and severe and permanent neurological damage, the suit states.
The plaintiffs claim that the dose of anesthetic used during the delivery was excessive and a smaller dose should have been given.
The defendants are accused of negligently administering anesthesia, negligently monitoring Torres condition, negligently performing a high spinal anesthesia following an epidural, negligently supervising and monitoring Torres’ condition following her delivery, and negligently failing to render safe and appropriate anesthesia care and post-anesthesia care.
The lawsuit is seeking an award of damages of physical pain and suffering, mental anguish, physical impairment, disability, mental impairment, physical disfigurement, loss of income, loss of earning capacity, medical expenses, loss of consortium, pecuniary losses, interest and court costs.
The plaintiffs are represented by Laurie M. Higginbotham, Jamal K. Alsaffar, and Tom Jacob of Archuleta, Alsaffar & Higginbotham in Austin. A jury trial is requested.
U.S. District Judge Michael H. Schneider is assigned to the case.

[doctorcoug]

Seriously? The doctor had two errors out of 1200 op notes, so they put him in jail? If that is what it takes, most physicians are destined to the super max. This is incredible. Screw you, Obama, and your task forces to stamp out "fraud". Did you know that physicians are committing fraud because they are billing self-pay patients less because they can't afford to come in otherwise? That is brilliant.

So, if I document a murmur today and forget it tomorrow, will I go to jail?

Physicians challenge S. Barrington doctor’s conviction
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons is asking to intervene in challenging the conviction of a South Barrington doctor who was sentenced in September to 10 months in prison for making false statements in reports as part of what prosecutors say was a scheme that defrauded Medicare out of at least $10,000.
In May, a federal jury convicted John Natale, 64, of making false statements, but acquitted him of health care and mail fraud. Natale, a former vascular and thoracic surgeon at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, also was fined $40,000 and ordered to perform community service upon his release from prison.
Natale is serving his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution, a medium-security prison for men in Oxford, Wis.
Jurors determined Natale, who specialized in repairing abdominal aortic aneurysms, lied in reports about the extent of two surgeries he performed in 2004.
In a recent motion for leave to file an amicus brief in federal court, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons says misstatements in medical reports should not be criminalized because it would "have a profoundly chilling effect on the practice of medicine."
"It is unprecedented to hold medically imprecise, disfavored, or even false statements in an operative report to be a crime in the absence of billing fraud," the association argues in its brief. The association claims the government offered no proof of criminal intent by Natale to defraud Medicare. It is asking the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to reverse the conviction.
In the surgeries Natale performed nearly 10 years ago, "the patients survived and did well despite an expected mortality of 90 percent," according to an association news release.
Natale "incorrectly stated that he had used a bifurcation or Y-graft in repairing an abdominal aortic aneurysm, instead of the straight tube graft actually used," the news release states. "This made no difference in the billing, and there was no evidence that Natale 'knowingly' and 'willfully' made a false statement in order to violate the law."
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20130118/new...
There is a petition to the Obama administration in this case.
we petition the obama administration to:Pardon Dr. Natale, surgeon found not guilty by jury of Medicare fraud - yet imprisoned 4 errors in op notes 4 ER surgery
Dr. John Natale, nationally recognized cardio-vascular surgeon was charged with Medicare fraud only to be found not guilty by the jury. He performed over 7500 surgeries in his career and never lost a patient on the operating table. The DOJ brought this case to court regarding 5 ruptured aneurysms performed in the emergency room on 5 elderly patients - all expected to die. Even the expert witness for the DOJ had to admit that Dr. Natale's skill as a surgeon was exemplary. The jury found that no fraud had been committed yet Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, under the strong urging of the DOJ sentenced the doctor to 10 months imprisonment for errors found in two out of over 1200 operative notes reviewed by the DOJ. The errors were clerical and misstatements in dictation which isn't a crime.