Case Results

While the defendant obstetrician-gynecologist was performing a laparoscopic tubal ligation on the plaintiff, he inadvertently perforated the small bowel. While the plaintiff did not claim that the perforation itself was negligent, she alleged that the defendant was negligent in not diagnosing it sooner and that the delay necessitated a surgical repair by a general surgeon. The defendant argued that the patient’s post tubal ligation presentation was more consistent with post-operative ileus than a perforated bowel. The defense expert testified that the Veress needle that likely caused the damage did not go all the way through the bowel wall and thus there was no early leakage of bowel contents into the abdominal cavity. Moreover, the plaintiff was afebrile, did not have an elevated white blood cell count, and did not exhibit a surgical abdomen. It was also reassuring that she had had a bowel movement, good urine output and stable vital signs until the third postoperative day, when the perforation was recognized.

Defense Attorney : For the obstetrician-gynecologist: Sarah E. Sholes.

The plaintiff alleged that she fell and sustained a fractured hip and subsequently required two total hip replacements due to the defendant hospital’s negligence in failing to clean a liquid spill from the floor. The defense denied notice of the spill and argued that when wet, the floor was not excessively slippery. Demand: $500,000.

Defense Attorney : For the hospital: Sarah E. Sholes.

(The case settled pursuant to a high-low agreement.)

This wrongful death action arose out of a motor vehicle accident wherein the decedent fractured a cervical vertebra and was placed in a halo at the defendant hospital. The plaintiff claimed that due to nursing negligence, the patient got out of bed despite a Posey restraint, fell, refractured his neck and eventually expired. The plaintiff also sued the contractors who were working on the roadway where the accident occurred. Amount asked of jury: $500,000.

Defense Attorney : For the hospital: Sarah E. Sholes.

The plaintiff’s decedent, a dentist, was brought to the defendant hospital after a motorcycle accident. The plaintiff alleged wrongful death, claiming that the hospital, emergency physicians and consulting physicians committed malpractice in permitting the seriously injured patient to remain in the emergency department, in hemorrhagic shock, five hours before transferring him to a trauma center.

Defense Attorney : For the hospital and emergency department physician: Robert Irving Miller.

In a seven-day trial, the plaintiff X-ray technician alleged that he sustained a severe electrical shock as the result of alleged defects in and improper installation of an x-ray machine in a hospital. The defendants, the manufacturer and service company of the x-ray machine, impleaded the hospital and alleged that the shock, if it occurred, was due to negligent maintenance of the x-ray machine by the hospital. Demand: $300,000.

Defense Attorney : For the third party defendant hospital: Robert Irving Miller.

The defendant orthopedic surgeon was alleged to have improperly reduced open, segmental fractures of the distal tibia and fibula, and to have failed to properly treat a refracture and angulation of the fracture fragments as a result of which the plaintiff, a 35-year-old truck driver, spent nine months in an Ilizarov external fixator. The defense was that the plaintiff’s initial reduction was acceptable, as was the treatment of the complication. Demand: $700,000. Amount asked of jury $950,000.

Defense Attorney : For the orthopedic surgeon: Sarah E. Sholes.

In a medical malpractice action, the plaintiff pleaded numerous departures by hospital personnel in connection with the post-operative treatment of a patient who allegedly sustained peritonitis and other complications following a laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Defense Attorney : For the hospital: Robert Irving Miller.

(Directed verdict in favor of the defendant hospital at the conclusion of the plaintiff's case.)

In this three-week trial the plaintiff alleged that the defendant emergency room physician and physician’s assistant had failed to diagnose and treat a ruptured arteriovenous malformation in her brain on an emergency room visit after she fell off her boat and was submerged for a short time. The defense contended that the plaintiff had no neurological signs, symptoms or complaints while under the care of the defendants, and that her problem didn’t develop until after she left their emergency room. The next day she went to a different emergency room where she gave a history of her symptoms beginning after she had left the defendants’ care. Demand: $950,000.

Defense Attorney : For the defense: Sarah E. Sholes.

The plaintiff contended that the defendant physicians failed to recognize signs of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolus prior to the death of the plaintiff’s decedent due to a pulmonary embolism.

Defense Attorney : For the defendant internist: Robert Irving Miller.