It is not uncommon for lawsuits filed against an individual healthcare professional to also include the hospital where they practiced or were employed.
Simply put, hospitals are responsible for the facilities, physicians, nurses, specialists and medical assistants they choose to hire to provide patient care. They can be held accountable for mistakes or accidents that are caused by negligent management, whether this involves the misconduct of a physician, the oversight of a nurse, or even unclean and tainted medical tools.
At Kolsby Gordon, our commitment to resolving and litigating cases of hospital negligence and medical malpractice runs deep. Two members of our team are fully-qualified, board-certified medical doctors in addition to being lawyers. We also have strong relationships with top medical experts nationwide.
Since we opened our doors fifty years ago, virtually every Kolsby Gordon attorney has successfully handled numerous medical malpractice cases. Many have set important precedents.
Hospital Negligence Cases
Seven-figure settlement for family of patient fatally injured by bowel complications.
A patient, who was a medical doctor by profession, was hospitalized and being treated for a medical condition unrelated to the bowel when he developed a bowel complication that necessitated a code call. Neither the bowel complication nor the code call was managed in accordance with appropriate standards of care, and as a result the patient died. On behalf of his surviving relatives, Kolsby Gordon attorneys negotiated a seven-figure settlement.
Patient experiences fatal cardiac arrest as the result of an improper treatment.
A 51-year-old man with known heart trouble—including occlusion of vital arteries—was under the care of several doctors when he complained repeatedly of chest pain including, at times, extreme pain. In such a patient, appropriate care would have included diagnostic studies to determine the function of his heart.
Despite his recurring pain over an extended period, the appropriate tests were not done, and eventually the patient died of cardiac arrest. Kolsby Gordon attorneys achieved a seven-figure settlement for his family.
Failure to diagnose and treat cardiac disease leads to seven-figure settlement.
When health care professionals failed to react within the accepted standards of medical care to signs of a patient’s cardiac disease, the result was the patient’s needlessly premature death.
Seven-figure settlement for failure to monitor patient’s vital signs.
During what is normally a straightforward operation—a cystoscopy—the medical team failed to properly monitor the patient’s vital signs. Convulsions, cardiac arrest, and death were the tragic result.
Family of man who died of undiagnosed arrhythmia receives seven-figure verdict.
A man visited his doctor complaining of heart palpitations, chest pressure, and indigestion. The doctor told him he had drunk too much caffeine and investigated the man’s complaints no further. A few months later, the man died of undiagnosed arrhythmia, leaving behind his wife and children.
Seven-figure verdict for patient whose arm was permanently disabled in hospital.
While in the care of a rehabilitation hospital, a quadriplegic attorney was turned in a such way that the maneuver broke his right arm, causing irreparable disability to the arm he relied on to operate a keyboard, feed himself, and work.
Failed diagnosis of impending stroke in teen leads to seven-figure verdict.
A 16-year-old girl displayed signs that pointed to a likely stroke, yet her doctor failed, despite years of complaints and a medical history consistent with an extremely high stroke risk, to refer her to a neurologist. As a result, she suffered a stroke, as well as permanent mental deterioration and emotional problems.
Surgical error causes massive internal bleeding and permanent nerve damage to patient.
A 40-year-old man underwent cardiac catheterization through the femoral artery. Unknowingly, the doctor pierced the artery and, throughout the night, the nursing staff was calling the doctor at home reporting various signs and symptoms of internal bleeding. The doctor took no action.
In the morning, a nurse reported the problem to the department head, who ordered a CT Scan which showed massive internal bleeding. Because the hematoma was permitted to grow to such a large size, it placed pressure on a nerve, which caused permanent nerve damage to the patient’s leg.
The physician had an insurance policy of $1 million dollars and the attorneys at Kolsby Gordon successfully obtained the entire amount for their client.
Fatal spinal cord surgery results in $2.7 million settlement for patient’s family.
A 19-year-old woman was undergoing non-urgent spinal surgery. Her surgeon scheduled the procedure during the same period of time he was performing another spine surgery, as he believed he could go back and forth between operating rooms. When a complication arose during the other operation, he stayed with that operation even though our client’s surgery had already begun. Sadly, our client began to bleed out and the residents that remained in the room could neither stop it nor transfuse a sufficient amount of blood to restore the amount she lost. Our client bled to death on the operating room table.
Under PA law, the only damages recoverable from this horrible accident were her future lost earnings, which were approximately $1.5 million. Attorneys Allan Gordon, Mitchell Shore and Robert Hunn made it clear that this would be an insufficient settlement in light of the horrific conduct of the surgeon. At trial, the defendants ultimately settled the case at the end of the first day in court.
