California Medical Malpractice Law Blog

According to KTLA, the family of a newborn who was accidentally given morphine is now suing a Mission Viejo hospital for medical malpractice. The medical mistake happened last year and the hospital was fined $50,000.

The anesthesia error occurred after Jessica Blischke gave birth prematurely to triplets. According to the lawsuit, morphine was prescribed to ease Jessica’s pain but was accidentally administered to one of the triplets, Taylee, instead. Almost immediately, Taylee’s heartbeat slowed and doctors were forced to intubate her.

Although the use of anesthesia is generally safe and effective, when improperly administered – or given to the wrong patient – devastating physical damage can occur. When such errors occur, the medical provider at fault should be held responsible for his or her negligence.

The error in this instance went unnoticed until additional tests were performed and hospital staff recognized the medication error. Reports suggest medical errors occur to as many as 7% of all inpatients and cost the American economy upwards of $19.5 billion.

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The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors recently approved a $198,000 settlement for a woman – Ana Jimenez-Salgado - who mistakenly received a double mastectomy at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center after pathologists misread her biopsy as cancerous. Tissue obtained during the procedure confirmed she did not have cancer. Jimenez-Salgado underwent reconstructive surgery after the mastectomy.

Jimenez-Salgado filed a medical malpractice lawsuit, alleging that the hospital was negligent in relying on the interpretation of outside pathologists and that the breast reconstruction surgery was negligently performed.

The county admitted that it failed to review the biopsy specimens before proceeding with the mastectomy.

It is unknown exactly how many erroneous procedures are performed in hospitals around the country. However, errors occur in 7% of inpatient surgeries and wrong site surgery events constitute nearly 13% of medical mistakes. One of the main culprits – involvement of multiple parties or physicians in the course of treatment.

Here, outside pathologists reviewed the biopsy but those operating failed to consult the findings prior to surgery.

A recently released study shows that when doctors admit mistakes, say, “I’m sorry” and offer compensation, fewer patients file malpractice lawsuits.

Although encouraging doctors to “do the right thing, ” by disclosing errors to patients and their families and apologizing for their mistakes, more needs to be done to ensure keep preventable medical mistakes from occurring in the first place.

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In July, the California medical board accused Dr. Wu-Hsiung Su of five counts of gross negligence and one count of incompetence in the treatment of a Rancho Cordova woman, Ruth Aleman.

The family of Aleman recently settled a wrongful death lawsuit against Dr. Su arising out of his failure to diagnose Aleman’s breast cancer.

Although symptoms of cancer can vary greatly, physicians are required to know the potential symptoms and be able to recognize them in patients. Further, physicians are required to perform routine tests and diagnostic procedures in patients who have symptoms of any type of cancer. A physician may be guilty of medical malpractice when his or her care falls below the “standard of care” established by other professionals.

Here, allegations included a failure to disclose to Su an abnormal mammogram, a failure to order appropriate follow-up studies, and a failure to properly examine a lump in her breast.

Allegations of misconduct are not new to Su. In 1991, the medical board of Rhode Island reprimanded Su for failing to recognize the severity of a patient’s back pain that ultimately led to permanent neurological damage. In 1994, Rhode Island’s medical board disciplined Su for failing to recognize that one of his patients had diabetes. And in June, a lawsuit was filed against Su for wrongful death and medical negligence arising from the care of a developmentally disabled man who was injured and eventually died after a fall at a nursing home.

Su lost his license to practice medicine in California, but it was restored conditionally in 1995 and fully restored in 2001.

Sadly, although most doctors provide quality care it may be difficult to weed out those committing misconduct. In a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), a whopping 17% of physicians reported having direct contact with an impaired or incompetent colleague practicing medicine, but 1 in 3 chose not to report the error.

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As recently reported in the New York Times, the number of radiation overdoses experienced by patients receiving stroke scans is more widespread than previously thought. At least 400 patients received “higher-than-expected” radiation doses at 8 hospitals – including 6 in California, such as the University of South California Medical Center, Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, and an unidentified hospital in San Francisco.

As a result of excessive radiation, several patients noticed hair loss, often in the form of a band of hair missing around the entire circumference of their head.

Although not every bad outcome constitutes medical malpractice, if you’ve received medical treatment and suffered an unexpected or unfavorable outcome, you may want to ask yourself the following questions:

• Is your condition worse following treatment?
• Are your post-treatment symptoms commonly associated with the medical treatment you received?
• Is your physician able to give a satisfactory explanation for your symptoms?

The New York Times reports that not only were a greater number of people affected by the “stroke scan” overdose than initially believed, but also the effects were more serious. In addition to hair loss, those receiving radiation overdoses risk possible memory loss, brain damage, and cancer.

Other findings by the New York Times include a lack of oversight and training of both the hospital technicians and the manufacturers of the scan equipment. According to interviews, some of the personnel didn’t know how to operate the equipment while others used high levels of radiation to improve the quality of the images.

Further, despite the excessive doses of radiology, regulatory agencies such as the FDA did not step in - primarily because hospitals stated no mistakes were made.

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