Articles Posted in Queens

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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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This case is being heard in the Family Court of Queens County. This particular case involves alleged child abuse.

Case Background

On the ninth of June, 2004, the Administration for Children’s Services filed a petition alleging that the subject child had sustained a second degree burn on her elbow, a bruise over her eye, a laceration on her lip, a bite mark on her foot an numerous scars and scratch marks all over her body. The respondents, who are her biological parents, could offer no explanation as to how she sustained all of these injuries.

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The Facts:

A medical malpractice action to recover damages for the birth injury sustained by an infant was commenced by plaintiff, the mother of the injured infant, against, among others, the defendant Hospital Center. Plaintiff alleges that, inter alia, as a result of the negligence, carelessness, and recklessness of defendants, plaintiff’s infant was born prematurely and thereby suffered severe and permanent brain injury, including cerebral palsy, spastic quadriplegia, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and cognitive and speech impairments.

In December 2004, before commencing the action, plaintiff’s attorney requested the Hospital to provide him with the complete medical file for both plaintiff and her infant from July 1997 to December 2004. In July 2006, after the commencement of the action, plaintiff’s attorney specifically requested that the Queens Hospital provide him with, among other things, the fetal monitoring strips for 19 July 1997. On 9 November 2006, after plaintiff’s counsel made several attempts to secure the Hospital’s compliance with his request, the Hospital informed plaintiff’s attorney that the fetal monitoring strips he had requested no longer existed. Plaintiff now moved to strike the Hospital’s answer due to spoliation of evidence.

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The prohibition of marijuana is a hot topic of discussion these days. Since, many tests have demonstrated that marijuana is less toxic to a body than either alcohol or tobacco, many people are interested in eliminating the prohibition that makes it illegal. In recent years, many states have taken action to decriminalize the personal use of marijuana. The use of this substance has been proven to have many beneficial medicinal effects. Preventing citizens from having access to a natural medicine that has very few side effects seems ridiculous. However, much like alcohol was at one time prohibited, marijuana is not prohibited. Anyone who uses marijuana, even if they only use it once, is found guilty of a criminal offense. In some states, there is so much marijuana seized by local law enforcement agencies that it is no longer sent to the state crime lab to be tested and verified. The local agencies test it themselves with a simple test before they dispose of it. So with so much political upheaval associated with the personal use of marijuana, how does the use of this substance affect the parents who engage in ingesting it? For some people, they claim that they use it to self medicate for numerous psychological and physical maladies that artificial drug company produced legal drugs cannot compete with for effectiveness. There are several ways that a person may use marijuana to relieve physical pain or anxiety. One way that has been popular in home remedies since the early 1700’s before marijuana became an illegal substance, was to steep the leaves in vinegar to be applied topically for arthritis or muscle pain. Other people eat the leaves as a way to gently reduce anxiety or increase appetite. However, even these non-recreational uses of the herb is prohibited by law in most states.

What happens to an otherwise normal law abiding citizen who is found guilty of personal use of marijuana? In most states, the answer to that would be that they would be issued a ticket like a traffic ticket and would have to appear in court. They would then be given community service or a fine if they are found guilty. However, what if that same person delivered a baby in a hospital in New York within thirty days of ingesting marijuana? The child is taken away from them and put into foster care.

That is what happened to one mother in November of 2010, the mother gave birth to a healthy baby boy in Brookdale Hospital in Manhattan. He had excellent Apgar scores and exhibited no problems or illnesses. Shortly after the birth, the mother was notified that both she and the baby had tested positive for marijuana and that a child neglect report was being filed with the state. Although, the hospital could not show that the marijuana had caused any risk to the mother or the child, the baby was removed from her care and her other six children were taken as well. The mother was charged with derivative neglect of her other children because the Administration for Child Services in New York determined that the mother had eaten some marijuana to calm her nerves several days before she delivered her baby.

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On September 21, 1982, the complainant 32-year-old woman visited her accused gynecologist for her annual check-up. At that time, the gynecologist made note of a one-centimeter mass on the outside lower quadrant of the woman’s left breast which he tentatively classified as a galactocele or a milk-filled cyst, but no further tests were performed. Ten months later, the woman returned to her Manhattan gynecologist complaining of a painful lump in her left breast and a swelling under her left arm. Following a mammography and other examinations, the mass in the woman’s breast was diagnosed as cancer which had metastasized or spread, to three ribs and two vertebrae. The woman died nearly two years later, as a result of the extensive metastasis of the cancer leaving as the sole beneficiary of her estate her then four-year-old daughter.

At the time her condition was first diagnosed, she was in the process of obtaining a divorce from her husband who contributed nothing toward her own or her child’s support. Although after the birth of her daughter, she had discontinued working outside the home, she was certified as a teacher for kindergarten through twelfth grade and had been a permanent substitute teacher in the Lawrence school district for one and one-half years prior to her daughter’s birth. She held undergraduate degrees in art education and psychology and was working toward obtaining an advanced degree in psychology in preparation for a child psychology program. She had always been a very self-sufficient and independent person. She had fully participated in the daily activities of her child. Because of her rapidly deteriorating physical condition and the negative effects of the medical treatment, the woman’s life changed to a tragically radical degree. She initially underwent two months of hormone therapy which was discontinued when she stopped responding. She began experiencing excruciating pain in her right leg which was determined to be caused by an additional lesion. She was then placed on a program of pain killers including morphine and methadone which her treating physician testified only dulled the recognition of pain in the brain but did not eliminate the pain. She also received a combination of five chemotherapy drugs which caused debilitating side effects. She became constipated, weak and tired, suffered from insomnia and began losing weight at the rate of two or three pounds per week. Her bones became very brittle and she was warned by her physicians to be very careful to avoid breaking them. In fact, she had to be hospitalized on three separate occasions for hypocalcaemia which is an elevation of calcium in the blood causing sleeplessness, lethargy, confusion, difficulty in walking, severe dehydration and ultimately death. The continuous vomiting caused by the chemotherapy resulted in dental infections and the loss of six teeth which she had to have extracted with only a minimal amount of novacaine due to the chemotherapy.

The Queens woman became a virtual invalid. She relied on a homemaker, her friends and family to care for her child, to shop for her, to clean her house, to prepare meals and to drive her to the hospital. She had no physical strength. She was too weak to pick up her daughter or to perform any type of housework. Moreover, because of her weakened bones, she was afraid to go to any crowded places such as a train station or shopping mall for fear of being hit in her ribs or vertebrae. In any event, she was physically unable to shop for herself. Her social life became nonexistent.

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The common issue arising in all of the following cases concerns the constitutionality of the new article as it affects the presumptively mandated removal of custody of children from a parent who considered being addicted to narcotics.

In one case in Queens involving an addiction issue, a mother indicated in the records of the hospital that she had injected 10 bags of heroin daily into her blood stream for six years and that she had administered a dose to herself four hours before she delivered her baby. The attending doctor testified that her baby was born normally, without apparent symptoms or birth injury.

Evidently 24 hours after birth, the baby began to show the unmistakable narcotic withdrawal symptoms consisting of pre-convulsive tremors, hyperactivity, incessant crying, and ravenousness with alternating vomiting. Illnesses with partially similar symptoms were ruled out. Sedatives, dark and quiet environment were required for seven days before the child became physically well. Without careful therapy, the child might have suffered convulsions or even death. To give rise to such symptoms, the mother must have been regularly using large quantities of heroin for considerable time before her confinement. In addition, the placenta permits ready transfer of heroin from mother to fetus. If the mother injected heroin not habitually but only shortly before child’s birth, massive doses may have killed her and the new-born child or the baby would have been sedated instead of hyperactive and suffering withdrawal. Only high tolerance for both the mother and baby would cause the medically observed course of events found.

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Infant plaintiff’s mother (herein “plaintiff-mother”) is a physician Board Certified in Internal Medicine. On 8 March 1999, plaintiff mother presented to New York University Village Women’s Health (“Women’s Health”) for prenatal care and was examined by a doctor (herein “doctor-one”). According to her deposition, plaintiff-mother was unaware that she had ever been exposed to herpes and reported to her obstetricians that she did not have herpes or diabetes. In fact, the NYU defendants claim that plaintiff-mother still denied that she had herpes to doctor-one on 27 April 2000, some seven months after the delivery. The NYU defendants claim that the prenatal care records and labor and delivery records reveal that herpetic vesicles or lesions were never observed during any of plaintiff-mother’s vaginal examinations throughout the pregnancy.

Plaintiff-mother remained under the care of doctor-one during the prenatal period. On 8 March 1999, in response to a blood sample report which revealed raised red blood cell antibodies which had the potential to destroy the fetus or newborn’s red blood cells, doctor-one referred plaintiff-mother to non-party doctor-two, a specialist in maternal-fetal medicine, for evaluation and monitoring. Doctor-two monitored plaintiff-mother’s blood antibodies through the pregnancy.

On 8 September 1999, plaintiff-mother was examined by doctor-one at Women’s Health. She was 50% effaced, her cervix was closed, and the gestational age was more than thirty-seven weeks. Plaintiff-mother consented to vaginal delivery by induction. She presented to New York University Medical Center (“NYUMC”) on 9 September 1999 at 5:08 p.m. for delivery with the assistance of Pitocin. A fetal heart rate monitor was placed and doctor-one ordered Pitocin to be infused at 7:25 p.m. After some 25 hours, plaintiff-mother’s membranes were artificially ruptured at 9:00 p.m. on 10 September 1999. Doctor-one examined the patient for the last time at approximately 5:56 p.m. on 11 September 1999, some 48 hours after plaintiff-mother presented to NYUMC. From this point on, doctor-three, who was covering doctor-one’s patients, took over the care of plaintiff-mother. Approximately 12 hours later, at 5:30 a.m. on 11 September 1999, the infant-plaintiff was delivered by doctor-three. A vacuum extraction was performed, and forceps were applied to complete the delivery. A pediatrician was present at the time of delivery and noted Apgar scores of eight at one minute and eight at five minutes. The infant was transferred to the well-baby nursery, where he was noted to have two “skin tears”; one on the left side of the face and one on the right neck. On 13 September 1999, infant-plaintiff was discharged home and skin lesions appeared intermittently in September of 1999.

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On June 16, 2003, the Administration for Children’s Services (“ACS”) filed an abuse petition against the respondent mother, and the respondent father, with regard to their infant childEdwin.

The petition was amended against both respondents, alleging that the infant child was also a severely abused child. The petition alleged that the infant suffered rib fractures and intracranial bleeding as result of the respondent mother repeatedly grabbing him by the torso, squeezing the infant’s ribcage and shaking him violently, and dropping him, beginning in March 2003 and extending over the course of approximately three months.

On June 25, 2003, the respondent mother pleaded guilty in assaulting her infant child. A Kings Injury Lawyer said that ACS filed a motion for summary judgment, affirmations and arguments in relation thereto, the Court found, by clear and convincing evidence, that the respondent mother abused and severely abused her infant, Edwin, pursuant to the Family Court Act and Social Services Law respectively.

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During the first months of 1998, petitioner and respondent began living together. On 28 August 1998, the parties were married in the State of New York. Both parties were aware of the fact that petitioner was born a woman but lived as a man since he was a teenager. On 8 June 1998, petitioner legally changed his name. Since the age of 15, petitioner adopted the hair style, clothing, demeanor and name of a man. Thereafter, petitioner received hormone treatments to effectuate a fully masculine appearance. Petitioner plans to undergo gender reassignment surgery in the future.

Meanwhile, respondent stated that despite knowing that petitioner was born a female, she agreed to marry petitioner. The couple filled out the marriage certificate together. Respondent claims that the first year of marriage was happy and that in the beginning of the second year, in 1999, petitioner became physically abusive.

After four years of marriage, respondent agreed to conceive a child through artificial insemination with petitioner, despite the alleged continued abuse. In 2001, the parties agreed that the mother would undergo artificial insemination and the parties selected a sperm donor whose characteristics and interests matched those of petitioner. The parties collaborated on, contributed to and supported the artificial insemination process. Petitioner signed the consent form for respondent to be inseminated. The procedure had to be repeated three times before it resulted in a pregnancy which concluded with the birth of the subject child on 13 June 2002. The parties submitted a birth certificate which reflected that petitioner was the father of the child and that respondent was the mother of the subject child. According to the parties, the child was born premature and had to remain in the hospital for over one month after his birth. In a letter dated 20 September 2007 written by a doctor, he described the subject child as a five-year old child born premature and asthmatic. The child has been diagnosed as having asthma but the parties disagree whether the condition is aggravated by the consumption of dairy products.

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On November 29, 1983, a pregnant woman and her husband arrived at Herkimer Memorial Hospital to deliver their new baby into the world. After being admitted to the hospital, the husband and wife were placed in a delivery room. The obstetrician arrived and ordered pain medication and labor induction medication to speed labor. All of the staff from the hospital, left the room at that time. Only the husband and wife were in the room when the baby began to come. The inexperienced husband tried to help his wife safely deliver their baby, but he did not know what needed to be done. Traumatized, he watched as his infant son was delivered into the world with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. The baby’s airway was cut off. He struggled to breathe without success. The father watched helplessly as his son suffered from lack of oxygen. When at last, the staff responded to his cries for help, the child was severely injured.

The little baby boy died of his birth injury the next day. The parents filed a medical malpractice suit to recover damages for wrongful death of their baby, by means of negligence and malpractice. The father also made a motion to the court for the court to grant him damages because of his severe mental and emotional distress from watching his baby son suffer.

The court contends that in order for a person to recover damages based on the death of another person, they must be able to show that there was an unreasonable risk of bodily injury or death to themselves. They must be able to show that they were within an area called the zone of danger. Since in this case, the father was not under the care of the doctors who were delivering the baby, and he was not injured in any fashion, he cannot show that there is any justification to the recovery of the damages. He admits that he was never in any danger and that he did not suffer any physical injuries during the entire process. The original trial court found that the father was not eligible to apply for damages under this statute. The Supreme Court agreed that the father had no right to receive monetary compensation for mental pain and anguish over watching his child suffer fatal injury in the delivery room. The third cause of action in regards to the defendant’s motion for summary judgment releasing them from liability in this action is granted and the father’s motion for monetary compensation must be dismissed.

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