Philadelphia Injury Lawyer Blog

If you are suffering from severe pain and ongoing disability after surgery, you may need to consult with a Philadelphia injury attorney who is experienced in medical malpractice litigation even while you are still seeking to determine whether you have an injury as a result of the surgery. This is an underlying message in the February 2009 decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Wilson v. Samir El-Daief M.D., 964 A.2d 354 (Pa. 2009). This case demonstrates that Pennsylvania's "discovery rule" presents a complex obstacle course that may trip up even the most diligent patient.

Mary Wilson suffered from constant persistent excruciating pain after her hand surgery and within several weeks her hand contracted into a fist, her right elbow bent inward and her right shoulder drew upward. Despite 20 appointments with her surgeon and his consultant there was no diagnosis given to her that let her know her problems were from a medical mistake that happened during her surgery. Indeed the two doctors did not believe her serious pain and disabling injuries were related to her surgery, so how could she have? When she finally lost confidence in her doctor and sought a third opinion, it was more than two years from the surgery. Exploratory surgery then revealed that her radial nerve had been lacerated. Despite filing suit seven months after this discovery, her case was dismissed by the trial court and the first level appellate court based on the two year statute of limitations. The Supreme Court allowed her appeal and while the opinion reinstated her lawsuit, it was with the burden of proving to the jury that for less than two years before the suit was filed, she did not have either actual or constructive knowledge that she was injured and that the injury was from her surgery, despite using reasonable diligence to find out.

While her suit is "still breathing", proving medical malpractice in a court room is hard enough without the extra burden of proving that the statute of limitations hadn't run before suit was filed. The Supreme Court in footnote 21 in Wilson gives good advice to avoid such a situation. "...this Court has stressed that the timely pursuit of legal representation may be necessary...It is certainly possible that discussions with an attorney may expedite medical diagnosis, since attorneys have access to litigation resources and can supply advice concerning what measures (such as exploratory surgery) will best maximize an injured person's chance of recovery." The dissent which would have allowed the suit as a matter of law, pointed out in footnote 2 that your doctor's self preservation instincts may overcome their duty to you saying: "While it is not in the record, as a matter of common sense, we can divine that Dr. Nutt was appreciative of Dr. El-Daief's referral of this as well as other patients, and was not about to jeopardize the referral relationship by explaining to appellant that Dr. El-Daief's malpractice was the cause of her difficulties."

Continue reading "CONSULT YOUR PHILADELPHIA INJURY LAWYER AS WELL AS YOUR DOCTOR IS THE 2009 LESSON FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA SUPREME COURT IN WILSON V. SAMIR EL-DAIEF" »

In what will be viewed by Philadelphia area medical malpractice lawyers as a welcome or dreaded decision, depending on whether the reader is a Philadelphia injury attorney for the plaintiff or for the defense, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has clarified who can testify as an expert on causation in nursing home and hospital negligence cases.

In a 4-2 majority opinion, the Court in Freed v. Geisinger Medical Center and Healthsouth Corp., made it clear that the strict standards for expert testimony in a professional malpractice case under the MCare Act apply only when opinions are rendered against physicians.

In Freed, the majority written by Justice Debra Todd held that a person “need only possess greater expertise within the ordinary range of training, knowledge, intelligence, or experience” to qualify as an expert witness. Therefore, a nurse could offer her opinion that the care rendered by nurses was negligent, as it fell below the standard of care in the nursing profession AND that the negligent nursing care was the cause of injury and harm to the plaintiff.

In so ruling, the High Court expressly overruled the 1997 case of Flanagan v. Labe that had precluded such testimony as allegedly violative of the intent of the Legislature in promulgating the nursing licensing statute. This precedent was argued to be necessary in order to follow the dictates of the MCARE Act. Justice Todd declared that the express limitations of the MCARE Act had to be strictly construed and, since its language was limited to liability against physicians, it could not be extended to nurses in a case involving nursing care. Nevertheless, in a footnote Justice Todd emphasized that the current decision did not permit a nurse to act as an expert witness in medical professional liability cases against physicians.

This is an important case and will hopefully instruct the Bench and Bar on who may as an expert witness in a professional liability case and the strict construction that must be applied to the limitations imposed by the MCare Act in medical malpractice cases brought in Philadelphia and throughout Pennsylvania against physicians.

The Philadelphia injury lawyers at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis have been handling medical malpractice cases for decades and are here to evaluate your potential cases with free consultations, make an experienced review of appropriate records and secure appropriate expert witnesses to help you win your case throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Filing of Philadelphia medical malpractice lawsuits has decreased 54% according to a recent report from the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts. While this at first glance might appear worrisome, it has a silver lining, if you or someone you know has a med mal claim. One, since insurance rates for doctors are not rising due to this drop in filings, there is less likelihood that any cap will be placed on pain and suffering awards in Pennsylvania. Two, the claims that are being brought have the imprimatur of Certificates of Merit and will be considered more carefully as being valid claims by defendants. Still to warrant filing suit it is probably necessary that the victim of the malpractice has suffered either a permanent injury or death.

Lawyers are right to carefully examine claims for medical negligence. The cost of bringing such claims is very high, with the need for expert reports and testimony. If you bring your claim to the experienced Philadelphia medical malpractice attorneys at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis, you can be assured that it will be carefully investigated and if accepted vigorously and competently litigated and if necessary tried before a jury.

Our Pennsylvania medical negligence lawyers have achieved multi-million dollar verdicts. We have recently settled a medical malpractice case for one of our clients for more than $2 million dollars. Be assured that while the number of cases filed has gone down, good cases as determined by an experienced Philadelphia injury lawyer can both be settled and won in court.

Continue reading "PHILADELPHIA MEDICAL MALPRACTICE ATTORNEYS FILING FEWER LAWSUITS" »

A twelve person jury in the U.S District Court in Philadelphia on January 16, 2009 awarded $2.5 Million to Mr. Jerry Kurchner against Temple University Hospital and the operating surgeon, Dr. Harbison arising from their medical malpractice that led to the death of Mr. Kurchner's seventy-four year old wife.

Mrs. Kurchner underwent an elective laparoscopic hernia repair. Unfortunately, Dr. Harbison perforated her bowel during the April 29, 2004 surgery. The defendant admitted on cross-examination that he elected not to re-examine the bowel at the end of the operation. Both the plaintiff and defense experts agreed that the failure to re-examine was a breach in the standard of care. After the procedure into the weekend when Dr. Harbison was away, the doctors at the hospital failed to properly interpret her clinical signs & symptoms, and her lab results. The two bowel perforations were only found four days later – when fecal material poured out of the laparoscopic port sites on May 4, 2004. By that time all attempts to save her life would prove unsuccessful. She still suffered for eight months from the devastating sepsis and other complications from her consequent fecal peritonitis.

The case tried by Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis' lead counsel, Norman Perlberger with assistance by his partner, Eliot H. Lewis lasted five days. After the jury's decision on February 3, 2009, Judge Rufe molded the verdict to include delay damages. The verdict, expected to be appealed, now stands at $2,859,794.52..

To get help form an experienced Philadelphia injury attorney, call us today at 215-569-8866.

Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis obtained a $1.7 Million verdict before a Philadelphia jury against Temple University Hospital in a medical malpractice trial on behalf of siblings of an elderly man who was hospitalized for angioedema (allergic reaction manifested by tongue swelling) and suffocated to death when his endotracheal tube developed an undetected mucous plug. The result was notable because there were essentially no recoverable out-of-pocket expenses and the Philadelphia jury came back with its award based on conscious pain and suffering during a six-hour period.

This result culminated three recent settlements on the eve of trial against doctors and hospitals:

$2.5 Million Negligent cardiac bypass surgery [New York City]
$1.55 Million Missed necrotizing fascitis diagnosis [Philadelphia]
$650,000 Delayed melanoma diagnosis [New Jersey]

All four of these cases were referred to our firm by other attorneys who realized that they could best serve their clients by having the lawyers at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis represent them in Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York courts.

When you have been the victim of a missed medical diagnosis, surgical error or other medical negligence occurring during a hospitalization, in a physician’s office or diagnostic center, and if you want to maximize the outcome of your personal injury claim, contact the PA medical malpractice lawyers at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis, where your consultation is free and your representation will, in most cases, be taken on a contingent fee basis, so that we recover when you win.

A Philadelphia medical malpractice attorney needs to be aware of a significant, but perhaps little known, change in Pennsylvania law, when evaluating whether a new death case can be timely filed. There are two actions that are typically filed when a person dies due to medical negligence. A wrongful death action and a survival action. The two actions allow for different areas of damages. (A subject for another blog entry) Prior to the enactment of the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error (MCARE) Act, the law that controls professional liability lawsuits in Pennsylvania; the date on which the survival action had to be filed to preserve the claim was two years from the date of the negligent act that caused injury. (Possibly extended by the “discovery rule” - also a subject for another entry) For the wrongful death claim, the suit needed to be filed within two years of the date of death.

An example of where this could create a problem is found in a current medical malpractice case being readied for trial by the offices of Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis. During a laparoscopic hernia repair at a local Philadelphia hospital, the surgeon punctured two holes in a woman’s small bowel during an April operation. Unfortunately the doctor negligently failed to recognize the injury and also carelessly missed signs of a serious infection for another six days, by which time the poor plaintiff developed a severe peritonitis. Although this wife and mother fought valiantly, while enduring horrible pain and suffering over the next eight months, her medically caused injury tragically proved fatal the following January. See specially created Exhibit below.

Had the surgical mishap occurred before the March 20, 2002 effective date of the act and such a case had come to the offices of a medical malpractice wrongful death lawyer more than two years after the injury, but less than two years after death; it would have already been too late to file a survival claim, drastically lowering the value of the case by eliminating recovery for pain and suffering To the rescue came Section 513 (d) of the MCARE Act. Now both actions may be filed within two years of the date of death.

(d) Death or survival actions.--If the claim is brought under 42 Pa.C.S. § 8301 (relating to death action) or 8302 (relating to survival action), the action must be commenced within two years after the death in the absence of affirmative misrepresentation or fraudulent concealment of the cause of death.

Even today, lawyers who are not experienced in medical malpractice cases may be unfamiliar with the change in law and either not pursue an important and valuable claim for the decedent or turn down a good case altogether. The experienced wrongful death medical malpractice attorneys at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis will help you recover all of the damages to which you are lawfully entitled for the tragic death of your loved one due to medical negligence.

A West Virginia man was recently awarded over $1 million dollars by a jury due to botched eye surgery. Dr. Mark Whitten from Rockville, Maryland was ordered to pay $850,000 to David N. Cantalupo after operating on the man’s eye and leaving him with permanent eye damage.

Mr. Cantalupo alleged that Dr. Whitten knew about his unusually thin corneas prior to LASIK surgery but did not inform Cantalupo of the risk involved in LASIK with thin corneas.

Dr. Whitten is known for performing laser eye surgery on pro golfer, Tiger Woods.

If you or a loved one has suffered due to medical malpractice in Philadelphia or anywhere in Pennsylvania, please contact Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis today to schedule your confidential consultation.

There are suspicious deaths occurring in emergency rooms of hospitals in Philadelphia and throughout Pennsylvania. It is important to have these cases investigated by an experienced emergency room medical malpractice attorney. This is not only a local phenomenon.

An Arizona woman is suing the emergency room of St. Mary’s Hospital in Tucson, Arizona following the death of her husband. The suit claims “reckless disregard” by hospital staff led to the death of her 39-year-old husband. The hospital is denying any wrongdoing.

According to the claim, Robert Sweitzer went to the emergency room of St. Mary’s with symptoms of coughing, loss of energy and severe back pain. The ER was very crowded at the time due to an outbreak of the flu.

Rachel Sweitzer says her husband was assessed at 7:00 p.m. but was never re-assessed over the next eight hours. A report from the CDC states that Sweitzer died of necrotizing pneumonia, which is caused by Staphylococcus aureus.

The investigation is ongoing.

If your loved one has died due to medical malpractice in Philadelphia or anywhere in Pennsylvania, please contact Pomerantz, Perlberger & Lewis today to schedule your confidential consultation.

In New York City, a woman had to have both hands and both feet amputated after an egregious medical mistake left her with blocked blood flow to the limbs. Tabitha Mullings, 32, went to Brooklyn Hospital Center where she was admitted two months ago for a kidney stone. She was given painkillers and sent home but an infection went untreated and blocked blood flow to the hands and feet. She lapsed into a coma for two weeks. When she awoke, she was told by doctors that they had to amputate both hands and both feet. The mother of three is also blind in one eye now.

Mullings is suing the hospital for $100 million and claims she was never even given a blood test to check for the infection that led to her having her hands and feet amputated.

She faces a very long, difficult rehabilitation process.

If you have suffered due to medical malpractice in Philadelphia, please contact Pomerantz, Perlberger & Lewis, LLP today to schedule your confidential, no-cost consultation.

Kimberly Kallestad, a former cheerleader, was recently awarded almost $15 million by a Spokane County, Washington court after she was left disabled and disfigured following a series of surgeries performed by Dr. Patrick C. Collins, an oral surgeon. Collins’ and his lawyers are planning an appeal.

Kallestead, now 29, claims she is permanently disabled and suffers chronic pain; she cannot work and is now being cared for by her parents. She initially went to Dr. Collins after injuring her jaw while sledding. Collins claimed he had a “near-perfect” success rate with the surgery technique he would employ and that he’d be her “hero” after “fixing” her jaw.

At trial, many other patients testified that Collins had made similar promises to them and that they suffered with chronic pain now, too. Collins’ lawyer, John C. Versnell III said he intends to appeal because other patients were allowed to testify and jurors heard a reference to a previous lawsuit against Collins.

If you or a loved one has suffered due to medical malpractice in Philadelphia or anywhere in Pennsylvania, please contact the experienced medical malpractice attorneys at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis, LLP today.

Expect to hear more about MRSA ever since the government’s first assessment of the potentially deadly staphylococcus infection finds its growth is out of control. No one knows why it is mutating into strains with unique properties that make it a more virulent form of infection.

Many people would rather not worry. MRSA has been identified in hospital settings for the past two decades. What has changed is that the drug-resistant bacteria is increasingly found outside of hospital settings and affecting more than the weak and vulnerable.

In the latest reports - four siblings attending public school in Far Rockaway, New York have been diagnosed with the bacterial infection. The school is being cleaned.
The mother of a boy who died from the so-called “superbug” is filing a $25 million lawsuit against New York City alleging negligence in the death of 12-year-old Omar, her only child.

Aileen Rivera says Kings County Hospital showed recklessness and carelessness when an emergency room attending physician failed to diagnose Omar with MRSA. Instead, they prescribed an antihistamine and sent him home. Omar died two days later.

If you or a loved one has suffered or died due to a medical issue, please contact the experienced medical malpractice attorneys at Pomerantz, Perlberger & Lewis today.

The Mississippi Supreme Court recently upheld a $4 million award to the family of a woman who was misdiagnosed with cancer and then given a dose of painkillers that killed her. Reith Sanders, the daughter of the victim, Ersel Allen sued Hospice Ministries and Dr. William Causey; the hospice settled mid-trial for $1 million. Ms. Sanders claims that a simple lab test could have prevented this tragedy.

In 2001, the 66-year-old woman was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the University of Mississippi and was sent to Hospice Ministries in June. She died a month later. She had been receiving massive doses of painkillers though she never even had cancer. Dr. William Causey was the medical director of the hospice at the time. He is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting a young boy in 2002.

If you or a loved one has suffered or died due to medical malpractice in Philadelphia or anywhere in Pennsylvania, please contact the experienced medical malpractice attorneys at Pomerantz, Perlberger & Lewis, LLP today.

In Fayette County, Kentucky, a woman was awarded just under $10 million after routine heart surgery left her paraplegic. Thirty-one percent of the fault was assigned to the surgeon. Verdicts against the other defendants (two facilities) were moot because they were already settled before trial. This could be the largest medical malpractice award in Fayette County’s history.

The plaintiff in the case, Latricia Satterwhite, had surgery on her mitral valve in April of 2006; the surgery was successful. But according to medical experts, the surgeon misplaced the cannula (long thin tubing) for a machine that pumps blood during the surgery. Misplacement of the cannula caused too much blood and oxygen to be pumped to her right hand and too little to her brain and spinal cord. Ms. Sattterwhite can no longer walk. She also suffered brain damage.

If you or a loved one has been harmed during surgery or some other medical procedure, please contact the experienced medical malpractice attorneys at Pomerantz, Perlberger & Lewis, LLP today.

A woman in Sweden went in to the hospital to have her appendix removed, and instead, she had an ovary and a Fallopian tube removed. This egregious example of medical malpractice took place last year but the story has just now hit Swedish newspapers. A Council that managers the hospital named in the suit says the surgery’s complex nature may have contributed to the mistake. The incident is still being investigated.

If you or a loved one has suffered or died due to medical malpractice, please contact Pomerantz, Perlberger & Lewis, LLP to schedule a confidential consultation.

A Delaware woman went to a hospital due to a severe case of indigestion; an hour later, she was pronounced dead by hospital staff. But when someone noticed that her dead body was still breathing. She was not dead after all, and she and her family are suing the hospital and staff for compensatory and punitive damages.

Judith Johnson is now brain injured but she can walk and talk, according to her attorney. The 61-year-old was actually having a heart attack when she arrived at the Delaware hospital in May 2007 and went into cardiac arrest 45 minutes after her arrival. She was treated in the ER but records reveal she "never regained a pulse." She was pronounced dead at 8:34 p.m.

The woman now suffers from memory loss, speech problems, liver damage, seizures, personality changes, and permanent neurological injury as a result of the care she received in the hospital, according to her attorney.

If you or a loved one has suffered or died due to medical malpractice in Philadelphia or anywhere in Pennsylvania, please contact the attorneys at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis, LLP today to schedule a confidential consultation.

Lynn Flaherty visited her family doctor in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania on December 4, 2001 complaining of headaches and nasal discharge-symptoms consistent with a sinus infection. But the physician's assistant who treated Flaherty failed to make that diagnosis and failed to prescribe antibiotics. Instead, the patient received a prescription for steroids, was told to undergo additional testing and instructed to return in one week.

Just five days later, Flaherty developed stroke-like symptoms, including facial drooping and disorientation. She went to an emergency room where a CT scan revealed a brain abscess. She was immediately flown to Allegheny General Hospital and underwent emergency brain surgery.

After a jury deliberated five hours, Mrs. Flaherty and her husband received $3 million in a medical malpractice verdict.

If you or a loved one has suffered or died due to medical malpractice in Philadelphia or anywhere in Pennsylvania, please contact the medical malpractice attorneys at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis today to schedule your initial consultation.

A Florida man was recently awarded $12 million by a jury that blamed two emergency room doctors for ignoring a brain infection that left him brain damaged and paralyzed. Joey Crume, 43, went to the emergency room at Mission Viejo Hospital in September 2004 with what he thought was a very bad headache. A CT scan showed that Crume had a brain infection that forced his brain to crush itself against his skull. Crume had worked at a nuclear power plant testing radiation levels.

A radiologist who testified on behalf of Crume said he could not understand how someone in Crume's condition could even be alive. The radiologist discussed the CT scan results with the ER doctor, Dr. Andrew Lawson, but Crume was given some pain pills and was sent home. Five days later, Crume's brother found him in a coma; Crume had suffered two strokes resulting in permanent paralysis on the left side and brain damage.

The jury decided that while both doctors were negligent in this case, Dr. Lawson was to blame because he sent Crume home even though the radiologist had made him aware of the CT scan results. Crume, who now requires 24-hour care, was awarded a total of $12 million; his wife, Judy, has had to quit her job to take care of her husband.

If you or a loved has suffered or died due to medical malpractice in Philadelphia or anywhere in Pennsylvania, please contact the experienced medical malpractice attorneys at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis today to schedule your initial consultation.

New York Governor David Paterson announced a freeze on medical malpractice insurance rates for a year, heading off the surcharge for OB/GYNs that had been feared to exacerbate the obstetrics crisis in New York. The freeze was a bill passed by the NY legislature, and signed by the governor last week.

The hope is that the stopgap measure will allow the state to find a comprehensive solution to the problem by targeting bad doctors who are responsible for the majority of medical errors, and prevent profit-taking by the insurance companies. The overall goal, they say, is to reduce the incidence of medical malpractice and increase patient safety.

If you have been hurt as a result of medical malpractice, contact the experienced medical malpractice lawyers at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation and case evaluation.

According to a new study by the Agency for Heathcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, preventable surgical errors cost $1.5 billion per year, as much as 30 percent more than previous estimates. The study was based on insurance claims filed as a result of surgical errors, and therefore is based on what insurance companies actually paid as a result of the complications.

The most expensive errors were acute respiratory failures, which cost insurance companies an average of $28,218, or 52 percent, more than successful surgeries without complications. Post-operative infections, one of the most easily avoidable post-surgical complications, cost nearly as much, at an average of $19,480 (48 percent). Other noteworthy costs related to surgical errors included

Nursing care associated with errors $12,196 (33 %)

Metabolic difficulties, such as kidney failure or erratic blood sugar $11,797 (32 %)

Blood clots & other vasculo-pulmonary problems $7,838 (25 %)

Wound opening $1,426 (6 %)

Technical problems like accidental laceration $646 (3 %)

Of course, these are costs at the discounted rates offered to insurance companies. Uninsured patients could pay twice as much or more for a preventable surgical error. The study concluded that preventable surgical errors are responsible for 2 % of all medical expenditures.

And this is just the monetary costs associated with surgical errors. The study also concluded that as many as 11 percent of all deaths within 90 days of surgery were the result of preventable surgical errors.

If you have suffered additional costs or even lost a loved one as a result of a preventable surgical error, contact an experienced medical malpractice lawyer at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.

Former osteopathic surgeon John A. King has become infamous in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the rest of the region for the sheer number of medical malpractice lawsuits that have been filed against him. With 122 medical malpractice suits filed against him resulting from only 8 months in practice at Putnam General Hospital in Winfield, West Virginia. He has previously made the claim that he was a victim of retaliation by doctors who were involved in health care fraud. Now he has filed a lawsuit against his former hospital and its former owner, the Hospital Corporation of America, whose name alone sends chills down the spine of a person concerned about corporate medicine.

King, whose victims have nearly all reached settlements, claims that the hospital paid bonuses to surgeons who processed patients more quickly. If true, this would show one way in which a corporate administration sacrifices quality of care for profits.

Even if King's claims are not true, and his credibility is certainly very low, his case highlights how poor is the oversight at many hospitals. With 122 claims as a result of 8 months of practice, he was generating a malpractice claim four days a week. Some of the cases are chilling, too, cases of unnecessary amputations, operations on non-existent bone fractures, inappropriate use of medical equipment, even so-called secret human experiments. With this level of malpractice, you cannot help but wonder where was the administration? How was this allowed to go on for so long?

If you have been injured as a result of medical malpractice, chances are the doctor is not the only one at fault. At Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP, we can make all of those responsible pay for their part in your tragedy. Contact our experienced medical malpractice lawyers today for a free initial consultation and case evaluation.

One of the common accusations leveled at the tort system is that it causes doctors to practice so-called "defensive medicine," ordering numerous tests and procedures to protect themselves against medical malpractice lawsuits. Supposedly extra tests run by doctors cost us $124 billion a year, and they run these tests only to protect themselves from accusations of medical malpractice. Perhaps this is the case in New York City, where medical malpractice insurers are asking a premium of $50,000 per medical malpractice insurance policy for obstetricians, forcing many obstetricians out of practice. One central Bronx hospital has even stopped delivering babies.

Perhaps defensive medicine is the reason why cesarean-section rates are skyrocketing all around the country. From 2000 to 2006, c-section rates rose 41 % to 31 % of all births. This must be because doctors are afraid of medical malpractice lawsuits and are taking extra precautions to avoid causing birth injuries like cerebral palsy or fetal death, right?

Wrong. Actually cesarean births are significantly more dangerous than natural vaginal births. The definitive study of complications related to different birth methods, known as the Towner study, based on the records of 583,340 live born singleton infants born to first-time mothers, found that the rates for almost every form of birth complication were increased following c-section birth as compared to vaginal birth. In fact, the rate of neonatal death, death of the infant between delivery and discharge, was four times higher for c-section births than for vaginal births. If this is true, it seems that the rise in medical malpractice insurance rates may be due to the increase in c-section births rather than the other way around.

So why are c-section rates rising so dramatically? There are a number of reasons. Doctors might think they are practicing defensive medicine. This seems increasingly unlikely, unless doctors are obstinately ignorant of recent studies.

Doctors may also be performing more c-sections for their own convenience. Instead of having to get out of bed at night to deliver babies, the babies can be delivered during normal business hours.

Another possibility is that doctors and hospitals love c-section deliveries because they are profitable. Studies have shown that c-section deliveries cost 76 - 100 % more than vaginal births, and that is just in immediate costs. Women who had c-section deliveries were twice as likely to be rehospitalized in the first month after delivery than mothers who delivered their babies vaginally.

Is it cynical to suggest that doctors and hospitals see increased c-section rates as a way to increase revenues? Perhaps. But since they're obviously not being done to protect women and children, it remains a possibility. And the case of c-sections casts doubt on the entire "defensive medicine" hypothesis.

Whatever the reason, the increase in c-section rates is most likely hurting women and babies. If either you or your infant were injured by an over-intervention during the birthing process, contact the experienced medical malpractice attorneys at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.

In this blog we have often discussed that it is not medical malpractice lawsuits that are driving doctors out of practice in some states, but, rather, it is the rising cost of medical malpractice insurance which drives doctors out of practice. For example, the obstetrics crisis in neighboring New York was brought on by the possible approval of a $50,000 surcharge on every medical malpractice insurance policy for an obstetrics doctor. Statistics from a recent report by the Manhattan Institute for Public Research show that on average, costs at least twice as much for doctors as the amounts paid to innocent victims of medical malpractice (including lawyers' fees). It seems, then, that doctors might be able to save money by taking the risk of not having insurance.

In fact, many doctors in Florida (35 % in the Miami area, 25 % in Broward County, 21 % in Palm Beach County, and 12 % statewide) are trying this very solution (allowed under a state law), and for them it works well. Doctors know that bankruptcy laws will protect them in the event of a large decision against them, and, at any rate, doctors are not obligated to pay more than $250,000 per medical malpractice award, and no more than $750,000 per year. When doctors can be asked to pay $200,000 or more per year for premiums, but only have a medical malpractice claim every eight years on average, the math for doctors is clear. And financial advisers have begun specializing in sheltering doctors' assets from malpractice verdicts. They advise doctors to drop coverage and, if sued, offer patients a paltry settlement or no settlement when the doctor goes bankrupt.

This is clearly "solution unsatisfactory" to the problem for patients and society as a whole, even if we discount the corrosive effect such cold calculations have on the morality of the medical profession. If a doctor makes a mistake, a person can be permanently disabled or can die, leading to a life of hardship for dependants. And, without money from insurance companies or doctors, the disabled patient or his or her dependants end up depending on the state for support.

Even Florida legislators could see the flaw in the system, but their attempt to fix the problem is just as botched as the initial flaw. To make insurance a better option, legislators passed a law in 2003 limiting damages for pain and suffering to $500,000 for most cases, $1,000,000 for wrongful death cases. In response to this, medical malpractice insurance rates have fallen by 10 %, but insurer profits have grown by 20 %.

If doctors are to be allowed to go without insurance, they must face the full consequences of their mistakes. At the very least, every dollar a doctor earns by providing care must be vulnerable to medical malpractice settlements. This gives doctors a very real incentive to provide good care. An even better solution might be to force doctors to pool their money, so that one doctor is vulnerable to the mistakes of another doctor. This would encourage doctors to police one another, something that is currently taboo. A very few doctors are responsible for the vast majority of medical malpractice claims. According to a study by Public Citizen, less than 5 % of Pennsylvania doctors (all of whom had more than 3 medical malpractice settlements a year) were responsible for more than 50 % of the payouts. Less than 11 % of doctors were responsible for over 84 % of payments. Simply getting rid of bad doctors would be a tremendous stride toward reducing the cost of medical malpractice to the population as a whole.

If you have been hurt as a result of a doctor's medical malpractice, contact an experienced medical malpractice lawyer at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.