Baltimore Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog

If you or your loved one has suffered harm because of a medical professional’s failure to diagnose or treat a condition properly, you may be able to recover financial compensation. At Arfaa Law Group, our diligent and hard-working Baltimore medical injury attorneys understand the intricacies of Maryland medical malpractice laws and can apply our knowledge to your case.

A California hospital recently agreed to pay a woman nearly $4 million to settle a medical malpractice claim that was filed by the family of a woman who has been in a coma since 2015, when she went into cardiac arrest in an emergency room waiting area after being discharged. According to the complaint, the woman’s family claimed that hospital staff overlooked signs that the woman was experiencing heart failure when she came to the emergency room with difficulty breathing and a known medical history of diabetes and kidney failure. In fact, the emergency staff allegedly gave the woman a narcotic and released her. She was in the hospital waiting room when she collapsed from suffering diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening complication of diabetes, which can be triggered by a heart attack.

All medical professionals have an obligation to provide patients with competent care. In Maryland, medical malpractice occurs when a patient suffers injury, harm or death as the result of a medical professional’s neglect, omission or error in judgment. In order to establish medical malpractice, the patient has the burden to show that the medical professional violated the accepted standard of care, and that this violation was a direct and proximate cause of the injury. The standard of care refers to the level of care that a prudent medical professional in the same specialty would have used under the same or similar circumstances. In the aforementioned case, the plaintiffs alleged that the medical professionals violated the standard of care when instead of providing the patient with the necessary screening tests, they gave her narcotic pain medications, which further suppressed her respiratory system and discharged her from the hospital.
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Medical malpractice can lead to lasting injuries that can affect both a patient and his or her entire family. If you have been injured by the negligence of a medical professional, you may be able to recover compensation for your harm. At Arfaa Law Group, our diligent Baltimore medical malpractice attorneys understand that medical malpractice outcomes are contingent on a number of factors. We want you to focus on your recovery while we focus on the legalities of your case.

A woman in New York recently won over $100 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit against a hospital and several doctors over their care of a 2010 asthma attack that she suffered, leading to a massive brain injury. The hospital apparently failed to transfer the patient to a different hospital after being unable to care for her properly when she suffered swelling on the brain caused by carbon dioxide. The woman’s lawyer argued that the hospital breached the duty of care owed to the patient by failing to transfer her to a nearby facility that had the technology to remove the excessive carbon dioxide in her brain in order to prevent an injury. The incident left the woman hospitalized and in a nursing home for over a year. In fact, the patient still suffers from crippling, speech and mobility issues and is now limited to a wheelchair needing full time care, which is provided by her partner.

Generally, medical malpractice includes any type of medical negligence that takes place in a medical facility, including mistakes by physicians, nurses, technicians and other staff. Medical negligence is a broad term used to describe any treatment, lack of treatment, or any other departure from the accepted standard of care. The standard of care refers to the level of care and caution that a reasonably prudent medical professional in the same specialty would have used in the same or similar circumstances. In order to win a negligence claim, the plaintiff must prove that the defendant medical professional violated the standard of care and this violation was a direct result of the patient’s injury.
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Pathologists are doctors who study the cause and development of disease. These medical professionals play a vital role in a patient’s care. In fact, treatment decisions are often made solely on the opinion of a pathologist. If you have been hurt due to a pathologist’s error, you may be qualified to recover damages for your harm through a medical malpractice lawsuit. At Arfaa Law Group, our diligent Baltimore medical malpractice lawyers are committed to investigating your case and helping you figure out your next steps.

An Iowa man recently won a medical malpractice case for undergoing debilitating prostate cancer surgery and then learned that he did not have cancer. Apparently, a pathologist mixed up slides of the plaintiff with another man who, in fact, did have prostate cancer. The error led to an incorrect diagnosis, and ultimately unnecessary prostate gland removal surgery in April 2017. The procedure was not only painful; it seriously damaged nearby nerves and left the plaintiff impotent and incontinent. His quality of life has been severely affected due to both of these conditions. While the hospital admitted that unnecessary surgery had taken place, the main issue at trial was over the question of damages. Ultimately, the plaintiff was awarded $12.25 million.

While this is an Iowa case, the sad reality is that pathology errors leading to devastating consequences happen everywhere and Maryland is no exception. Pathologists study and diagnose diseases through examining surgically removed organs, tissues (biopsy samples), bodily fluids, and in some cases the entire body (autopsy). This is done through examining tissue samples and cells in body fluids under the microscope and making a determination based on those observations. A pathologist error could have one of two consequences: it could lead to a delay in treatment or lead to unnecessary treatment. The latter is what happened in the aforementioned Iowa case. The pathologist correctly identified prostate cancer based on the slide but mixed up patient files, which led to diagnosing the wrong patient.

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