Medical malpractice cases arise from injuries caused by negligence of medical professionals, including doctors, nurses or other employees of hospitals or other medical facilities. Our firm has extensive experience in representing victims of medical malpractice across North Carolina.
Record setting awards in both a jury verdict and a settlement involving children in malpractice cases are described below. Other malpractice cases involving children are described in Birth Injuries and Representation of Children. Several examples of our representation of adults in malpractice cases are described below.
- Record Setting Jury Verdict
- Record Setting Out-of-Court Settlement
- Wrongful death from failure to diagnose pulmonary embolism
- Woman dies of heart attack after leaving emergency room
- Man dies from heart attack after long wait in ER
- Nursing home death leads to punitive damage award
- Dentist fails to treat lesions in mouth
- Man died after esophagus punctured during surgery, delay in
- diagnosis
- Unneeded double mastectomy performed
- Hospital diagnoses inner ear condition, misses aneurysm.
- Heart symptoms misdiagnosed, father of three dies
- Cardiac nurse accidentally turns off implantable
- defibrillator; woman dies
- Lawyer dies after heart symptoms diagnosed as virus
- Delayed diagnosis of prostate cancer; cancer metastasizes
- Diabetic suffers blindness after change in insulin regimen
Our firm’s experience includes the representation of Bailey Griffin, a young child from Monroe who suffered a catastrophic brain injury and resulting cerebral palsy due to negligence at the time of her birth. In 1997, a Mecklenburg County jury rendered the State’s largest medical malpractice verdict ever in her case. Back to Top.
Record Setting Out-of-Court Settlement
We also represented Carli Snell, a little girl born in Gastonia concerning the catastrophic brain injury she suffered at birth due to negligence and her resulting cerebral palsy. In 2000, Carli’s case ended with the biggest birth injury settlement in the history of North Carolina. Back to Top.
Wrongful death from failure to diagnose pulmonary embolism
A 53-year-old truck driver and retired military officer died following the failure to diagnose pulmonary embolism in a military hospital. He was treated for injuries after falling from a horse, but doctors did not diagnose his pulmonary embolism. The case was settled before trial. Back to Top
Woman dies of heart attack after leaving emergency room
A 42 year-old wife and mother of five went to an emergency room complaining of episodes of chest pain over the previous week. The pain also radiated to her jaw. The emergency room doctor determined that angina or heart related pain was a possibility. He sent her home with a prescription for nitroglycerin. The woman went to get the prescription filled, and began to have chest pain while standing in line at a grocery store. She took a nitroglycerin and collapsed in the parking lot within 30 minutes of leaving the emergency room. The case settled the week before trial. Back to Top
Man dies from heart attack after long wait in ER
A 41-year-old man went to the emergency room complaining of extreme pain in his chest and his upper arms and throat. Hospital employees asked him to fill out an admission record and questioned him about his lack of medical insurance. The man and his wife sat in the waiting room for about 2½ hours without being seen by any medical professionals. Eventually, the man left to go to a pharmacy for over-the-counter medication for the man’s pain. He suffered a massive heart attack. He remained comatose for over a month before his death. The case settled. Back to Top
Nursing home death leads to punitive damage award
Mark Holt and Bill Bystrynski secured a large punitive damage award in a case in which an elderly nursing home patient was repeatedly overdosed on a blood thinner, until she eventually bled to death. The case was tried and the verdict was unanimously upheld by the N.C. Court of Appeals. Back to Top
Dentist fails to treat lesions in mouth
A 36-year-old woman went to a dentist regularly for 6 years, and during that time the dentist noticed lesions in the plaintiff’s mouth. The dentist never performed a biopsy or sent his patient to a specialist. Six years later, when the patient went to an oral surgeon to have a tooth pulled, stage T4 squamous cell carcinoma immediately was diagnosed by biopsy. Since then, plaintiff has had extensive surgery to remove her jawbone, tissue, and teeth on the left side of her face and extensive reconstructive surgery as well as cancer treatments, including radiation. The case settled. Back to Top
Man died after esophagus punctured during surgery, delay in diagnosis
A 29-year-old man died 18 days following an operation on his esophagus to prevent acid reflux. During the surgery, the man’s esophagus was perforated. He died from septic shock and peritonitis caused by the perforation of the esophagus. Despite fever, low blood pressure, low pulse oximetry, shortness of breath, excruciating stomach pain and toes that turned purple, exploratory surgery was not performed until the fifth post-operative day, at which time the perforation was found. The case was settled. Back to Top
Unneeded double mastectomy performed
A woman in her mid-forties who had a family history of breast cancer had a biopsy in her left breast that showed a malignant tumor. A lumpectomy was performed and the surrounding tissue showed no cancer. No additional treatment occurred. The next year, a needle aspiration of a lump in the woman’s right breast showed it was highly “suspicious for carcinoma.” Based on the plaintiff’s history and family history, defendant recommended a biopsy, and if the biopsy was malignant, a double mastectomy. Defendant performed the double mastectomy without first doing a biopsy. The pathology reports showed no cancer in either breast. The case was resolved in binding arbitration. Back to Top
Hospital diagnoses inner ear condition, misses aneurysm.
A woman suddenly developed a severe pain in her head and neck and began experiencing nausea. She was taken by her family to the hospital. After four days, she was discharged with a diagnosis of an inner ear condition or virus. For the next two days, the family reported continued headaches to the doctor. The family then contacted another doctor, who advised that she should be brought to the hospital by ambulance. Shortly after arriving, the woman lost consciousness as a result of a major bleed from a ruptured aneurysm. As a result she became totally blind, mentally impaired and her health severely deteriorated over the next four years until she died. Plaintiff’s experts testified that based on her symptoms, the physician should have suspected bleeding from an aneurysm. The standard of practice required a CT scan or lumbar puncture be performed which would have revealed this condition. Had the bleed been diagnosed at that time, she could have had surgical repair of the aneurysm to prevent the major rupture, the experts said. The case settled. Back to Top
Cardiac nurse accidentally turns off implantable defibrillator; woman dies
A 56-year-old woman with a history of heart problems had had an automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator surgically implanted in her body. The device is designed to monitor the heart and provide a shock if needed. During a routine visit to her cardiologist’s office, a nurse accidentally turned the device off. About 2½ months later, when she needed the device, it would not fire and she died. The case settled. Back to Top
Heart symptoms misdiagnosed, father of three dies
A 38-year-old father of three went to a medical care facility three times in 10 days, complaining of chest pains and other symptoms indicative of acute cardiac distress. On each visit, the deceased was seen only by a physician’s assistant and was sent home with various diagnoses, including inflammation of the lungs and pneumonia. He also was given over-the-counter pain medication. He was never diagnosed as having a heart-related problem. On the night of the third visit, the deceased died of a heart attack. The case settled. Back to Top
Lawyer dies after heart symptoms diagnosed as virus
A 41-year-old attorney went to his family practice doctor. He reported to the nurse who first saw him that he had been to the emergency department the night before with chest, arm and back pain. He had had three brief episodes of chest, arm and back pain in the previous 24 hours. The doctor then saw him and diagnosed him as having a virus. The doctor testified that he was not aware the patient had previously had chest pain despite the fact his nurse wrote it on the chart. The doctor stated that had he known of the previous presentation to the ER with chest pain he would have had the patient admitted to the hospital for evaluation and treatment of a cardiac problem. The case resulted in a jury verdict against the doctor. Back to Top
Delayed diagnosis of prostate cancer; cancer metastasizes
A 48 year-old man was seen by his physician for prostrate problems. Over the next 3½ years, he complained of hesitancy, difficulty in urination, aching in his rectal and testicle areas and saw his doctor 15 times for problems related to his prostrate. After 3½ years, the physician first performed a biopsy on the plaintiff. All of the biopsy samples were positive for high grade infiltrative cancer. Later tests showed the cancer had metastasized to other parts of his body. The case settled two weeks before trial. Back to Top
Diabetic suffers blindness after change in insulin regimen
A 61-year old insulin dependent diabetic who was responsible for caring for his legally blind wife had his long-standing insulin regimen changed when his doctor moved away. Plaintiffs experts said the regimen was improperly changed, and as a result, the plaintiff suffered severe ketoacidosis and immediately thereafter a cardiopulmonary arrest. As a result, he became almost totally blind, and suffered from confusion and short term memory loss. The case was resolved through arbitration. Back to Top
