Montefiore Medical Center and Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
With more than 1,490 beds and multiple facilities in Bronx residential neighborhoods, Montefiore Medical Center boasts a large presence in NYC. It completes approximately 15,532 inpatient and 13,431 outpatient surgeries each year and is among 38 academic medical centers nationwide to be awarded a prestigious Clinical and Translational Science Award by the National Institutes of Health. However, like all medical institutions, the center is not immune to incidences of medical malpractice, and several medical malpractice lawsuits have been filed against the center in recent years.
Surgical Error Causes Boy to Have Surgery on Both Eyes
In 2011, a four-year-old boy named Jesse Matlock received corrective eye surgery on the incorrect eye. Afterward, his parents were forced to take him to another specialist when it was discovered that Jesse’s surgeon, upon realizing her mistake, quickly operated on the correct eye as well.
Tasha Gaul, Jesse’s mother, revealed that it was uncertain whether there would be permanent damage to Jesse’s previously healthy eye.
The reason for the surgery was due to Jesse’s wandering right eye. The procedure of the surgery was to weaken the muscle at the bottom of Jesse’s right eye since the uneven strength of that muscle was causing his eye to wander. However, it was only after the procedure was completed on the left eye that the surgeon realized she had operated on the wrong eye. She sent a nurse out to inform Jesse’s parents that she was going to operate on both eyes, and the nurse quickly returned to the operating room before they could make any inquiries.
Hospital Negligence and Hospital Infections
Though cases of hospital negligence and malpractice are not as common as other types of medical malpractice, hospitals have a responsibility to both their staff and their patients to provide the best quality and standards of care, as well as a safe and hygienic environment.
Hospitals are required to have several policies and protocols in place, one of which being the hospital’s stance and procedure related to infection control. It is the duty of the hospital to not only establish these protocols but to monitor them consistently to ensure that they are being adhered to. Not doing so can lead to patient injury or even death.
It was reported that an estimated 1.7 million cases of hospital-acquired infections occurred in the United States in 20
Hospital Negligence at New York Fertility Clinic
In 2007, Nancy Andrews and her husband sued a Long Island fertility clinic after it was revealed that they had inseminated her with the wrong man’s sperm.
Nancy and her husband approached the New York Services for Reproductive Medicine for in-vitro fertilization treatments after struggling to conceive their second child. Nancy became pregnant soon after and gave birth to a healthy baby girl nine months later. The couple’s joy quickly turned to bewilderment, however, when it became apparent that the girl had markedly darker skin than either of her parents.
What are the Most Common Surgical Errors?
There are 6 major surgical errors that have been found to be the most common both nationally and internationally. These errors are most often featured in medical malpractice cases and include the following:
1. Wrong-Procedure Surgical Error
A wrong-procedure surgical error is an error that occurs when your surgeon performs the incorrect surgical procedure on you. An example could be if you were scheduled for a foot amputation, but your surgeon amputates your entire calf instead.
2. Wrong-Site Surgical Error
A wrong-site surgical error is an error that occurs when your surgeon performs your scheduled surgical procedure, but on the wrong part of your body.
What is a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit?
Medical malpractice is sometimes also known as medical negligence. It occurs when a healthcare professional, or provider, does not provide you with the correct treatment or provides you with substandard treatment. If these professionals and providers fail to take appropriate action to treat your condition, then medical malpractice is said to occur.
Based on this, a medical malpractice lawsuit makes it possible for you or your family member to receive compensation from the harm that resulted from this sub-standard treatment.
Hospital Negligence Caused Iowa Veteran’s Death
In 2017, army veteran Richard Hopkins, aged 65, of Davenport died after developing a post-surgery infection at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Iowa City. His family filed a medical malpractice lawsuit in June 2019 against the hospital. His family says that the infection that killed him was caused by medical negligence and that at least 3 other patients in the same hospital suffered similar complications.
The hospital negligence lawsuit centers around the fact that Veterans Affairs hospital in Iowa City illegally hired a neurosurgeon, John Henry Schneider, who has a history of medical malpractice allegations and whose medical license had been revoked in Wyoming in 2014 due to allegations of poor patient care. The hospital hired Schneider in 2017 at an annual salary of $385,000 despite knowing his past and that there is a federal law stipulating that doctors whose state licenses have been revoked cannot work for the Veterans Affairs hospitals no matter the state that it is in.
Surgical Error Leads to Healthy Baby Mistakenly Receiving a Frenectomy
In December 2015, Jennifer Melton gave birth to a healthy baby boy at the University Medical Center in Lebanon, Tennessee. Nate was only a day old when he was taken for a surgical procedure that he was never meant to have.
Nate was in the hospital’s nursery when he was taken by a nurse for a frenectomy whereby the tissue that connects the tongue to the floor of the mouth was cut. This is a surgery that another child was meant to undergo to remediate his “tongue-tie.”
A frenectomy is a simple surgical procedure of the mouth that removes one or both of the frena (connective tissue membrane that attaches one surface of the mouth to another). A lingual frenum is a connective tissue that connects the tongue to the bottom of the mouth. This is the frenum that is removed when a child has a “tongue tie” that affects their ability to speak and/or feed properly.
Medical Malpractice Lawsuits on The Rise
Medical malpractice is something which occurs when a healthcare professional fails to provide you with appropriate treatment, omits to take appropriate action, or gives substandard treatment that causes harm, injury, or even death to you or a family member.
Medical malpractice lawsuits make it possible for you or your family member to recover compensation from any harm that has resulted from sub-standard treatment.
As of 2017, it was reported by “Medscape” that there were between 15,000 and 19,000 medical malpractice lawsuits in the United States alone. These statistics can be further broken down to reveal the following:
Hospital Negligence Led to Esmin Green’s Death
In 2008, a woman named Esmin Green died in the waiting room of Brooklyn’s King’s County Hospital Center in full view whilst hospital personnel did nothing to assist her. Ms. Green was a 49-year-old Jamaican immigrant who was admitted to the hospital as a psychiatric patient. She had been waiting for nearly 24 hours in the hospital’s waiting room before collapsing onto the waiting room floor due to a blood clot.
Hospital staff failed to provide basic medical care to Ms. Green and then tried to cover up their neglect. However, the incident was caught on one of the hospital’s cameras. The New York Civil Liberties Union and other lawyers were able to use this footage in a medical malpractice lawsuit against the hospital for hospital negligence.