“We understand the burden that in-camera inspections put on busy trial judges,” the panel said. “Nevertheless, that burden may be necessary to protect privacy rights.”

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1814333?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2024-03-19&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=11?copied=1

The post Med Mal Plaintiffs (Still) Have Privacy Rights appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

Lee’s family successfully argued that inexperienced doctors on call at the hospital waited three hours before removing the clot from a major artery, leading to brain damage, according to Lee’s attorneys with Gair Gair Conason Rubinowitz Bloom Hershenhorn Steigman & Mackauf, who said the verdict is the largest award ever in a medical malpractice case in Westchester County.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1779270?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-12-21&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=0?copied=1

In many cases, the front-line providers use inexperienced providers as a shield to hold themselves at a remove from patient care. Frequently, the experienced providers will blame the inexperienced providers with not sharing important information. This often results in substandard or negligent care and treatment.

The post Who’s In Charge? appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

In this Pennsylvania case, things were a little more clear.

Central to the appeal is text of the MCARE Act that protects as privilege documents that arise “out of matters reviewed by the patient safety committee,” and while the hospital conceded that the safety committee did not review the documents, it argued the law does not require the documents actually be reviewed, but just that they be documents that would typically be reviewed by the committee.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1777854?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-12-19&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=5?copied=1

The post This Privilege Ruling Reminds Me Of Our Charles v. Baptist Hospital Case appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

A Florida jury tacked on $50 million in punitive damages to a roughly $211 million award to the family of Maya Kowalski, the child at the center of the Netflix documentary “Take Care of Maya,” against Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital for mistreating Maya to the point that her mother took her own life.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1739675?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-11-13&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=0?copied=1

I have been following this case and blogged about it

here (“A Difficult Case”), 

here  (“I Was Afraid This Would Happen”), and    

here (Juror Questions).

Medical malpractice cases are difficult on their own. When you add novel issues regarding damages and liability, they can become overwhelming. In addition, this case was tried in a jurisdiction considered by most trial lawyer to be relatively conservative.

I tackled similar issues in a neighboring county. You can read the results of that successful appeal

here (Estate of Thomas versus Lee Memorial Health System).

I have nothing but complete admiration for Maya’s family and their legal team for this brilliant result and wish the best for them during the inevitable appeal.

The post A major victory for Maya’s family, their lawyers, and patients everywhere. I cannot overstate how impressive this work is under difficult circumstances. appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

As I noted a month or so ago, in this post, when Maya’s trial started – these cases are “trying for all involved”.

From the trial of Maya’s case …

Johanna Klink, who was Maya’s bedside nurse in the pediatric intensive care unit, testified that the 10-year-old girl repeatedly cursed at staff and would tell her “I want my effing sedation” during her stay at All Children’s in October 2016, with the nurse using a euphemism for the expletive.

At one point when the two of them were alone in Maya’s room, Klink says Maya told her, “I’m tired of all these lies. My life is a lie.” Klink noted the exact words in Maya’s chart, which was shown to jurors Thursday.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1734420?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-10-20&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=0?copied=1

I spend a lot of time with my clients preparing them for all aspects of litigation. This is time well spent because it reduces the stress my clients experience.

The post I Was Afraid This Would Happen appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

Trying to parse out what may remain confidential, whether you have a “qualified protective order” or not, is an interesting but unclear area.

Doe’s lawyer explained that the primary caselaw relied on by the defendants, a 1985 Illinois Supreme Court case, Novak v. Rothnam, was inapplicable because in Novak, a psychiatrist testifying at a criminal trial waived the confidentiality of that information. His client’s information was subject to a qualified protective order under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, Paris told the justices.

“There was a qualified protective order in this case that made very clear the limits of waiver,” he said. “Here, we have a qualified protective order that says [the waiver is] for the litigation. … The statements that [the firm made] were made outside of court, outside the litigation.”

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1724261?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-09-22&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=0?copied=1

The post Do Qualified Protective Orders Maintain the Privacy of PHI Related to the Claim? appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

A Pennsylvania appellate court’s recent ruling makes clear that a hospital’s internal documents are generally considered fair game for discovery in medical malpractice suits and the onus is on health care providers to prove otherwise, experts said.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1723936?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-09-21&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=0?copied=1

The post Peer Review Privilege is Boken: we’re going to keep chipping away state by state appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

“Defendant UW lost the surgically removed tumor prior to conducting the requisite pathological review and left plaintiff without a clear diagnostic or care plan,” according to the complaint seeking medical negligence damages.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1696219?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-07-06&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=17?copied=1

The post Univ. Of Wash. Hospital Sued Over Allegedly Lost Tumor appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

“From the limited record, Dr. Rao practices at a clinic that specialized in lung issues. Plaintiff was there presumably seeking treatment for lung issues. Nowhere in the 18-count complaint do the allegations even remotely touch upon any mental health conditions, and we fail to see how Ursitti’s purported depression and anxiety would impact a failure to diagnose lung cancer,” said the opinion, penned by Justice Eileen O’Neill Burke.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1606489/doc-can-t-use-patient-s-mental-health-records-in-suit?copied=1

The post The Line Between Relevance and Privacy for Plaintiffs Can Be Thin (but still exists in some places) appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

Black boxes on airplanes record detailed information about flights. Now, a technology that goes by the same name and captures just about everything that goes on in an operating room during a surgery is making its way into hospitals.

Here is the link:

Hospital ‘Black Boxes’ Put Surgical Practices Under the Microscope: Hospitals have begun to use the technology to help reduce medical errors and improve patient safety.

The post Hospitals have begun to use the technology to help reduce medical errors and improve patient safety. appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.