Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Tagged with failure to diagnose

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webinar on Ben's medical malpractice verdict of $120 million
NYSTLI Dean Anthony Pirrotti, Jr., Esq., will be hosting a Discussion with our managing partner and celebrated Trial Attorney Ben Rubinowitz, Esq.; Trial Judge Paul. I. Marx; and Defense Attorney Alfred Vigorito, Esq. next Monday May 20, 2024 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM ET.

Ben and our law firm handled a complex Stroke case  involving a 41-year-old individual who was employed, married, and had children. Due to alleged malpractice, he ended up in a nursing home, unable to care for himself or his family. We will discuss the development of this malpractice case, including medical and defense aspects, discovery, depositions, and Motions in Limine. We will emphasize the significance of pleadings and expert responses for both the plaintiff and defendant and how these issues influenced the trial.

Topics include jury selection, binding statements and omissions during jury selection and openings, cross-examination of plaintiff and defendant witnesses, dismissal of a third-party defendant, the potential repercussions of aggressively attacking a witness, leveraging the defendant doctor as an expert, and the introduction of newly asserted cross-claims at trial. Additionally, we will explore the understanding of 50-A and 50-B statutes, the concept of “Loss of Chance,” the valuation of loss of consortium claims, directed verdicts against a defendant, and the strategy of defendants pointing fingers at each other.

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case-analysis

Our managing partner, Trial Attorney Ben Rubinowitz going to be doing a Case Analysis hosted by Nathan Werksman on Trial Lawyers University about the $120 million medical malpractice verdict he just received in Westchester.  The webinar will be on January 10, 2024 at 1:30pm.

“Lee v Westchester Medical Center” is a legal case revolving around medical malpractice and delayed treatment. The patient, a 41-year-old man, suffered a Basilar artery stroke. His wife found him unconscious at 3 am, and he was subsequently transferred to Westchester Medical Center. Initially, the stroke was misdiagnosed by resident radiologist and neurologist as an infection or dissection, delaying the correct treatment by three hours. When a more experienced radiologist later identified the stroke, a thrombectomy was performed.

The plaintiff’s claim focused on this delay, arguing that it resulted in significant brain damage and severe short-term memory issues, depriving the patient of a chance for a better recovery. The defense conceded the misdiagnosis but argued that the stroke’s severity, not the delayed treatment, caused the brain damage. They posited that the damage occurred between 10 pm and the patient’s hospital arrival, and earlier treatment wouldn’t have altered the outcome.

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Misdiagnosis can lead to serious harm and deathMisdiagnosis of diseases and medical conditions is leading to an estimated 800,000 cases of permanent disability or death each year according to a recent study published by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute Center for Diagnostic Excellence, in partnership with researchers from the Risk Management Foundation of Harvard Medical Institutions Inc.

Misdiagnosis is not a mere statistic; it is a human tragedy that affects hundreds of thousands of patients and their families every year. The report reveals that approximately 371,000 people lose their lives, while another 424,000 suffer from permanent disabilities annually due to misdiagnosis. These disabilities encompass brain damage, blindness, loss of limbs or organs, and even metastasized cancer. Behind these numbers are real individuals whose lives have been irreversibly altered or lost due to medical negligence.

The Top Culprits: Stroke and Other Common Diseases

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doctor-and-x-rayMissed and delayed diagnoses are common medical errors that can lead to serious injury and death. This morning the Daily Mail wrote about an 11 year old boy who died from severe bowel obstruction after a doctor misdiagnosed him with constipation and sent him back home. The doctor neglected to send him for an X-ray despite symptoms consistent with bowel obstruction.
Failure to diagnose or delay to diagnose a medical condition occur so often that the ECRI institute ranked this type of medical malpractice its number one concern out of its Top 10 Patients Safety Concern in 2020.

In the US it is estimated that 12 million adults or 1 out of 20 patients are misdiagnosed every year

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alcohol withdrawal symptoms vary depending on the level of addictionFailure to diagnose alcohol withdrawal symptom (AWS) can be medical malpractice that may cause severe injury or even death in some cases. The ECRI Institute  is looking at options to  better “Identify Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms Early and Ease Patients’ Care”.

An estimated 20 % of the patients that are admitted in US hospitals show symptoms of alcohol abuse or dependence. Those that are admitted for alcohol poisoning and detoxification may be difficult to treat but their alcohol withdrawal symptoms will usually be properly diagnosed and addressed.

Patients at a higher higher risk to be misdiagnosed for alcohol withdrawal symptoms are those who are admitted for a different medical condition than alcohol intoxication or dependence.

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newbornFailure to diagnose or delay to treat a bacterial infection in a newborn can be medical malpractice. Doctors (and also parents) may sometimes be reluctant to submit a young infant  to a lengthy and complicated process in order to  find out if a fever may  be caused by a bacterial infection. Thanks to new research this process may become much easier in the future.

Fever is usually one of the first symptom of a bacterial infection. However it can also be caused by other medical conditions. When a health care provider evaluates a young infant with fever and suspect an infection, there is no quick way to find out if the infant suffers from a bacterial infection. The actual method consists in isolating live bacteria from blood, urine or spinal fluid and grow a bacteria culture in a laboratory. This may require difficult and traumatizing medical procedures such as spinal tap. Additionally the  infant may necessitate hospital admission and an antibiotic prescription until the results of the tests are available.

A recent study that was published on Aug. 23, 2016 in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that through advances in genetic sequencing technology it may soon be possible for doctors to diagnose bacterial infections in infants with fevers quickly and in a non invasive manner.  More work is needed but in the future only a small blood sample may be enough to immediately determine if an infant suffers or not from a bacterial infection.

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Desmoid-type_fibromatosis.gross_pathology Although very rare, failure to diagnose and treat desmoids tumors, also called aggressive fibromatosis, a tumor that develops in the fibrous tissue that forms tendons and ligaments, can be medical malpractice. Desmoids tumors are very rare and difficult to diagnose and doctors are still debating what is the most appropriate categorization and treatment. In a recent article in the Washington Post, Sandra G. Boodman writes about a 24 year woman who suffered several episodes of excruciating stomach pain before being diagnosed and treated for a desmoid tumor.

Johanna Dickson was 23 years old when the first symptoms of the disease occured. She had just come back from South Africa when she suffered a first episode of acute abdominal pain. She thought she caught some type of stomach bug in her last trip. The family doctor sent her to the hospital for various tests but nothing was found and the pain disappeared.

Another crisis happened six months later but it went away quickly so she didn’t even bother to see a doctor.

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renal mass

renal mass in a 3 year olds child

Failure to timely diagnose Denys-Drash syndrome can be medical malpractice that can lead to renal failure and ultimately death. Denys-Drash syndrom is a very rare congenital disorder that affects young children. There are only 150 known cases in the world therefore very little information is available for doctors to diagnose and treat this disorder.

What is known so far is that  90% of the children with this disorder develop a rare pediatric kidney cancer known as Wilms tumor. Undescended testes and severe proximal hypospadias are also associated with this disorder. The Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (JAAPA) recently released an article describing the case of a 3 year old patient affected by this syndrome. The authors Shawn C. Smith,  Barry Chang and Laura Beth Fleming are all from the Cardon Children Medical Center in Mesa, AZ where the patient was admitted.  The article describe how the authors of the article diagnosed the disorder and which treatments were used to treat the patient. The complete article can be found here 

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Distribution of the maxillary and mandibular nerves, and the submaxillary ganglion. Source: Wikipedia

Facial nerves, Source: Wikipedia

Failure to diagnose a rare disease called trigeminal neuralgia (TN) can be medical malpractice. The disorder can cause pain so extreme to a patient that it has been nicknamed “the suicide disease”.

In a recent article in the Washington Post, Sandra G. Boodman describes the story of a 59 year old man who almost died after a cohort of doctors he visited were unable to make a proper diagnosis.

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Urgent Care Centers have been opening all around New York City and the US these recent years  but are they really safe? Here are the most common acute care medical malpractice risks:

  • Patient is being send home with a very abnormal vital sign without a re-evaluation of that abnormal sign
  • Poor risk factor evaluation happens when  practitioners forget to ask important questions about the medical history of the patient
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