Articles Posted in Long Island

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This case is being heard in the Supreme Court of the State of New York in Queens County. The defendants of the case have moved for an order to set aside a jury award of damages that was returned on the 22nd of June, 2005 and for a new trial to be granted in the interest of justice. The defendants contend that the amount of the awards issued by the jury are excessive and are not supported by the evidence that was provided in the case. The jury awarded the plaintiff $2,500,000 for past pain and suffering, $1,000,000 for future loss of earnings over the next 32 years and $12,500,000 over 52 years for future pain and suffering. There have been several conferences held in regard to this case, but no agreement could be reached and now it is up to the court to decide.

Case Background

The trial of this instant action was bifurcated. The liability portion of the trial was held on the seventh of June, 2005 and the jury returned with a verdict on the ninth of June finding that negligence of the defendants was the only cause of the accident in which the plaintiff was injured.

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Medical malpractice lawsuits can be sought for many different reasons. Some of them involve birth injury, and some, like the present case involve the care of the elderly. Elderly care homes in New York are governed by many laws, the application of these laws can differ depending on the court system. When a party to a case feels that the rights of one of the parties has been violated, or the laws in the case have been misapplied, it becomes the job of the Supreme Court to evaluate the outcome and decide if the case needs to be reviewed.

In February of 2009, an elderly woman was living as a long term patient of a nursing home in Rochester, New York. One of the issues that placed her in the care of the home involved a bladder problem. This woman was unable to void her bladder without the assistance of a catheter. Therefore, every day, she had to wait on one of the staff of the home to come and help her to urinate. One night, the staff member failed to come to the aid of the woman. She was desperate for relief and decided that she would exit her bed by herself and attempt to go to the bathroom. When she stood up from her bed, her bladder released causing a puddle on the floor of her room near her bed. She slipped in the puddle and suffered from severe injuries including broken bones. She was not treated for her injuries until her son in law arrived several days later. Her son in law is a doctor. When she told him about the injury and that she was in horrible pain from it, he had her transported by ambulance to the hospital. It was only at that time, that the extent of her injuries were revealed. Her family was distraught that their mother had not received the minimum standard of care that was expected. They filed a medical malpractice lawsuit in her behalf. They used as a standard for their contentions that the public health laws had been violated a case that involved another patient of a long term care nursing facility.

This woman was a young woman who was in a persistent vegetative state. The case is referred to as Doe. The reason that her mother filed a lawsuit alleging violations of the public health laws was that her daughter had been injured in an automobile accident. She was in a persistent vegetative state when it became apparent that she was pregnant. Since she had been a resident of a long term home for more than a year at that point, it was obvious that she had been raped while in their care. She delivered a baby boy by caesarian section. DNA evidence was used to determine which employee of the facility had raped her. Her mother’s contention was that her daughter did not receive the minimum standard of care for a patient in her condition as evidenced by the fact that one of the staff had raped and impregnated her. She proved her point and won her lawsuit. The case is now used as a precedent for nursing home violations. The public health law was instituted to prevent the types of abuses that were evidenced in the current case and the case of Doe. In order to insure that our loved ones who by necessity are bedridden and in a long term home facility, laws that govern insufficient care are important. Nursing homes must be accountable for any abuse or neglect that may occur on their property. However, because the laws are so complicated as they relate to nursing home abuse, it is important for anyone who believes that their loved one has been treated inappropriately to contact an attorney in Brooklyn or Long Island.

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The infant plaintiff Mammud Rashid Beretey (hereinafter the plaintiff) was born at the defendant New York City Health & Hospitals Corporation (hereinafter the Hospital) on November 2, 1996. Prior to his birth, the plaintiff’s mother had been given Pitocin to induce labor, but the labor did not progress and Hospital personnel ultimately performed a caesarean section. The Hospital’s records indicate that, at birth, the plaintiff suffered from perinatal asphyxia and respiratory depression. His birth record indicates that he weighed 9 pounds, 3 ounces and his Apgar score was 1 at 1 minute after birth, 5 at 5 minutes after birth, and 7 at 10 minutes after birth. The Hospital’s records do not indicate any signs of brain damage. For several days, the Long Island plaintiff received treatment for his condition in the Hospital’s infant intensive care unit. Seven days after birth, the plaintiff was discharged from the Hospital.

A Medical Malpractice Lawyer said that, the mother alleges that she learned through a school evaluation conducted in or about 2000, that the plaintiff would have to be placed in a special school for both physical and mental issues, and that he had severe cognitive developmental delays and some motor condition difficulties. In January 2006 the plaintiff, by his mother, served a notice of claim seeking damages for medical malpractice for the birth injury suffered by the plaintiff, alleging that the perinatal asphyxia he suffered at birth resulted from the negligence of the Hospital and its personnel in delaying to perform a cesarean section on his mother. The notice of claim asserted that the perinatal asphyxia caused him to develop cognitive delays, mental retardation, severe hyperactivity, and coordination difficulties.

In February 2006 the plaintiff, by his mother, commenced an action to recover damages for medical malpractice against the Hospital. In October 2006 he moved, in effect, for leave to deem the notice of claim timely served nunc pro tunc or, in the alternative, for leave to serve a late notice of claim. The Supreme Court denied the motion. Thus, the infant plaintiff Mammud Rashid Beretey, by his mother and natural guardian Mariama Sheriff, appeals from an order of the Supreme Court.

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The Facts:

On 30 May 2000, the infant plaintiff was born approximately twelve weeks prematurely in a medical facility operated by defendants. The infant plaintiff suffered from neonatal respiratory Brooklyn distress syndrome, and he was placed in neonatal intensive care, where his blood oxygen and blood acidity was monitored by defendants’ staff. The blood oxygen was continuously measured by a pulse oximeter: a device, attached to the patient’s finger that uses light to measure the amount of oxygen in the blood. A respirator and breathing tube was used when it was noted that the infant plaintiff cannot breathe. At 11:00 AM on the following day,

Defendants’ staff performed arterial blood gas analysis, which is a laboratory analysis of a drawn blood sample that specifies both the acidity and the amount of saturated gas in the sample. The test demonstrated that the pH of the infant plaintiff’s blood was 7.254. At around 2:30 PM, a doctor, also of defendants’ staff, ordered a second arterial blood gas analysis. At 3:00 PM that afternoon, the blood oxygen saturation was over 90%, according to the pulse oximeter. At 4:15 PM, the blood oxygen saturation dropped to around 50%-60% from a previous level of over 90%. Shortly thereafter, defendants’ staff noted that the infant was suffering from a hemorrhage in the lungs. Consequently, the staff cleared the blood from the lungs and then adjusted the respirator settings and breathing tube. The staff then administered a paralytic to immobilize the infant plaintiff and prevent him from removing the breathing apparatus. At 8:00 PM, another arterial blood gas analysis was done, the result of which was a pH of 6.7, which is dangerously low. The staff then adjusted the respirator to administer more oxygen through forced breathing. The following day, medical imaging showed that the infant plaintiff had suffered a brain hemorrhage and hydrocephalus, which is increased intracranial pressure on the brain caused by the accumulation of fluid. The hemorrahge caused periventricular leukomalacia, the destruction of white matter of the brain. This, in turn, caused the infant plaintiff to develop cerebral palsy; a brain injury.

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The complainant woman gave birth to her childat the accused hospital. The hospital’s obstetric gynecologist delivered the child vaginally. The child, who had high birth weight at the time of birth, suffered birth injuries which include Erb’s palsy/brachial plexus injury during delivery. The accused female physician who is an employee of the hospital’s medical practitioner had provided most of the woman’s prenatal treatment up to her last visit. The medical practitioner was the last physician to treat the woman prenatally when he treated her prior to delivering the child the next day.

The Long Island woman and her child commenced the action alleging that the female physician deviated from accepted medical practice when, after estimating the child’s fetal weight on to be 3700 grams, she failed to recommend delivering the child by cesarean section rather than vaginally. The female physician alleged that the woman’s gestational diabetes increased the likelihood that, at birth, the child would be of a large size, thus warranting a cesarean section, and that the injuries suffered by the child could have been prevented had she been delivered by cesarean section. The female physician moved for summary judgment to dismiss the complaint as asserted against her. In an order, the Supreme Court denied the motion, concluding that the triable issues of fact existed however, the female physician appeals.

The requisite elements of proof in a medical malpractice action are a deviation or departure from accepted community standards of medical practice, and evidence that such deviation or departure was a proximate cause of injury or damage. An accused physician moving for summary judgment in a medical malpractice action has the initial burden of establishing legitimate complaint, either the absence of any departure from good and accepted medical practice or that any departure was not the proximate cause of the alleged injuries.

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Plaintiff is 25 years old, married, with two young daughters. She was employed as a secretary at a Hospital. On 29 March 2006, she was approximately three months pregnant, with twins, and was on her way to the Hospital, not to work, but to see a doctor (“the doctor”) whom she had seen three times before. On her way, plaintiff was a passenger in a vehicle owned and operated by defendant-one when it collided with a vehicle owned by defendant-two and operated by defendant-three. After the collision, she was taken to the Hospital where she works by an ambulance.

Allegedly, plaintiff experienced some contractions at the scene of the accident and was contracting at the hospital. She was released that day, after the contractions ceased. According to a report by the doctor, incorporated with several others and adopted as accurate and true, on the day of the auto accident, plaintiff was determined to be unable to work and not expected to be able to perform usual work until 18 of May. In another report, the doctor asserted that plaintiff was totally disabled or unable to work from 29 of March to 17 May 2006. On 7 of June, she was again determined to be unable to work because of preterm labor twin gestation. Under restrictions, the doctor wrote “Bedrest Complete disability”. It was estimated that she would deliver on 14 of October.

On 9 or 10 of July, however, plaintiff returned to the Hospital. She was admitted and remained there until after the delivery of her twin daughters by emergency caesarian section on 31 of July. The doctor’ reports the diagnosis as “Preterm labor, Twin gestation.” The twins remained in the hospital in Manhattan until 10 and 14 of September, respectively.

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Issues that occur when a woman is pregnant are now known to cause many problems with the fetus that she is carrying. A pregnant woman has more rights now to investigate this type of medical issue than she did in the 1960’s. In the 1960’s, medical records were not as easy for a person to obtain, even if they were their own records. Laws in recent years, have made obtaining your own medical records much easier. However, when there is a possible case of medical malpractice involved, it can still be difficult for a person to obtain the medical records that they need to prove their case.

In 1964, on July 22, a woman who was early in her pregnancy was hospitalized following a serious automobile accident. She was taken to the Lutheran Medical Center in New York for treatment. She remained in the hospital for two months while she was treated for her injuries. When she was discharged two months later and sent home, she had no reason to believe that there was anything wrong with the baby that she carried. However, on October 22, 1964, she was brought to Kings County Hospital where she was admitted in preterm labor. The infant died shortly after birth.

The mother was convinced that the cause of her infant’s death related to the traffic accident in July. However when she requested copies of the medical records from her hospital stay and treatment, the hospital would not provide her with the information that she needed. She discovered that in order to obtain the records, she would have to execute an assignment of lien against the hospital. The woman filed the lien. The Long Island hospital provided the documents, but requested that the court make the woman pay them more than $600.00 for their costs in obtaining the records. The hospital contends that they have the right to the payment because the assignment of the lien that was executed by the mother and her attorney served to form a binding contract between the woman and the hospital. The records that the hospital provided to the mother claim that the injuries that she sustained in the car accident and the treatment that she received in the hospital had no bearing on the loss of her child less than one month after being discharged from their care.

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Some cases that involve the abuse of children are unbelievable to those of us who have children. In one case, which occurred on July 31, 1997, a woman was asleep on the sofa in the living room of her apartment with her small son. Her live-in boyfriend, who was the father of the little boy went into the bedroom of the eight year old daughter of his girlfriend. The little girl shared her room with her four- year- old sister. The four-year-old was sleeping in the room in the only bed in the room.

The man went into the room of the two small girls and brutally raped the eight-year-old child while her little sister slept beside them. The eight-year-old rape victim left the bedroom and went to her mother in the living room. She was holding herself tightly and she was bleeding profusely from her vaginal region. Her mother took her into the bathroom and supervised her daughter taking a shower. The eight-year-old child was then wrapped in a towel by her mother who placed her on the bed in her room. Because the eight-year-old child was bleeding so severely, her mother put a sanitary pad on her.

Rather than taking her baby girl directly to the emergency room for treatment, the mother sat down with her boyfriend, the child’s rapist, and discussed the situation with him. He obviously did not want her to take the child to the emergency room because he did not want to be arrested for raping her. The child, who was suffering from severe pain, bled through several towels and the sanitary pad. She began to vomit. It was obvious to the couple at that point that they would have no choice but to take the eight-year-old rape victim to the hospital. Before leaving to take her to the hospital, the mother and her boyfriend devised a cover story to attempt to explain the injury to the girl. They decided to tell the emergency room staff that the child had been trying to get out of bed when she tripped over a chair and one of the legs penetrated her.

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A mother on behalf of her baby girl and the baby’s twin, who was dead at birth, filed a complaint against the hospital and three other individuals. The opponent, however, sought an order dismissing the first, second, fifth and sixth reason’s for action asserted in the complaint on the grounds that they failed to state reasons for the action which relief could be granted. The opponent contended that the four (4) reasons for the action were dismissible because no reason for action exists either on behalf of the baby’s twin for injuries and death occurring in the uterus or on behalf of the mother for mental or emotional distress or from loss of society. At the same time, the mother made a motion seeking leave to revise the complaint as to the second and sixth reasons for the action and to add a new one identified as a seventh reason for the action.

The revision proposed for the second reason for the action sought to clarify the allegation that the lack of informed consent to the mother caused serious damages and injuries to her infantand spoke in terms of a reasonably prudent person rather than the mother. The revision proposed for the sixth reason of the action eliminated the mother’s claim for the loss of society, companionship and consortium of the deceased infant and plainly stated that the mother’s claim for the mental distress includes emotional upset in attending the dead infant. The seventh reason for the action proposed that the opponents failed to inform the mother of her condition and the deceased infant’s condition as well as the dangers of the treatment performed and the alternate treatment available. Further, that the lack of informed consent was a proximate reason of the injury for which recovery is sought. The reason for the action would further assert that the mother would not have undergone the treatment if she had been fully informed. The seventh cause of action would then allege that due to the death of the infant, the mother had been rendered sick and continued to suffer great physical pain and mental distress requiring medical care. As the mother opposes the opponent’s motion, she pointed to the tremendous evolution in the concept of tortious conduct within the state law as warranting denial of the dismissal motion. Subsequently, the court in Manhattan ordered that the mother’s motion to revise the complaint is accordingly denied.

The mother moves for an order granting re-argument and renewal of the order. She claims that her request for permission to revise the complaint and include a reason for the action based on lack of informed consent and to re-plead the sixth reason and include the emotional pain and distress in attending the dead infant should be granted.

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A complainant mother underwent an abortion in a hospital. During the procedure, her uterus was punctured and she initiated an action for medical malpractice while her husband sued for loss of consortium.

After two years, the mother conceived a fetus and apparently completed a normal term pregnancy. Approximately three years after giving birth and seven years & six months after commission of her alleged tort, the medical malpractice suit was settled for $175,000. The settlement occurred during the course of the trial.

It is now contended that as a result of the perforation of the mother’s uterus, a son was born with brain damage. Accordingly, the action was instituted almost seven years after the commission of the alleged act of medical malpractice and more than two years after the birth of her son.

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