Medical Malpractice • Kaiser Malpractice

Physicians and other health care professionals must practice medicine within a recognized standard of care.  When they do not and if injuries or death result, they may be held responsible for their medical malpractice.  We have represented patients and their family members in medical malpractice cases for over forty years.  We have achieved successful results in medical cases involving:

• birth injuries including cerebral and Erbs palsy
• emergency room errors
• failure to timely diagnose conditions including cardiac complications
• surgical errors
• inappropriate anesthesia
• cancer misdiagnosis
• hospital mistakes
• prescription errors
• nursing home and elder abuse.

We retain highly qualified medical experts to testify on the correct standard of care and how it was violated.  We specialize in cases against HMOs, including Kaiser Hospital and the Kaiser Permanente physicians.  If you are a Kaiser Permanente member, your remedy is limited to an arbitration rather than a jury trial.  You will need an experienced attorney to successfully represent you in a kaiser arbitration proceeding.  We have successfully represented Kaiser members since 1972. 

Some of our successful medical malpractice results include the following:

Difficult intubation results in death after extubation – Confidential Settlement

A chief executive of a hospital suffered a catastrophic anoxic event during what was mistakenly expected to be a routine extubation following a successful coronary artery bypass surgery. The anesthesiologist required multiple attempts to intubate the patient prior to the surgery. There were six attempts over 15 minutes which is considered to be a difficult intubation. This caused significant trauma to the soft tissues of the airway resulting in inflammation and swelling. When the ET tube was removed, the swollen tissue expanded and blocked off the airway. Many attempts were made to re-intubate the patient who had stopped breathing. Finally, after 25 minutes a surgical airway was established, but it was too late. The patient suffered severe brain damage from oxygen deprivation and was taken off life support resulting in his death.

The anesthesiologist testified that he gave the surgeon a report about the difficult intubation and assumed the surgeon was in the operating room and knew of the difficult intubation. He further testified that he assumed appropriate precautions would be taken during the extubation of the patient. The surgeon testified he did not receive a report of the difficult intubation; although he knew that it took several attempts to intubate the patient. However, the surgeon issued routine orders for extubation soon after the surgery. The ICU nurse and ICU respiratory therapist testified that no one told them it was a difficult intubation. The extubation occurred too soon without a physician present and without appropriate hospital equipment immediately available. We contended the extubation should have been delayed until the next morning and should have been undertaken by a physician with appropriate emergency medical equipment immediately available. We represented the wife who had had a wonderful 35 year marriage with her husband and their two adult children who were very close to their father.

Nasogastric tube enters cranium -- $3,144,642

A 42 year old single man underwent a septorhinoplasty in Santa Clara, California without complications. In an attempt to pass a nasogastric tube through his nose to empty his stomach of blood, the nasogastric tube entered the cranium, but was undetected. The patient responded to questions in the recovery room, but the next day he had altered consciousness with right hemiplegia. A CT scan showed air within the left frontal lobe and within the ventricular septum. He suffered severe brain damage. We represented hm against Kaiser and achieved a negotiated settlement. He is able to dress himself and is independent with his feeding, but is disoriented. The structured settlement will provide for his lifetime convalescent care.

Misdiagnosis of heart complaints results in death – $1,025,000

A 42-year-old drywall worker went to a Kaiser Hospital urgent care center, complaining of severe pain in his upper abdomen and chest with pain radiating in his left arm and back. He was diagnosed with heartburn and acid reflux. The next day he felt worse and went to a different Kaiser Hospital emergency room where he was diagnosed with gastrointestinal problems. An EKG and blood tests were not ordered. He was sent home and died the next day of an acute myocardial infarction (heart attack). We contended that the two different hospitals failed to investigate his complaints adequately, did not take a medical history and did not do basic blood tests and an EKG. Kaiser Hospital argued that the symptoms of a heart attack were not yet present when he went to the hospitals. He was survived by a wife and two minor children.

Failure to hospitalize patient with pneumonia – $1,165,000

A 59-year-old man was seen in the Urgent Care Unit of Kaiser Hospital complaining of two days of coughing and weakness. He could not walk from the lobby to the elevator. He was diagnosed with pneumonia, but instead of admitting him to the hospital, he was sent home and a follow-up appointment was made. The next day he was weak and coughing and was leaving home to go to the hospital when he collapsed and died soon after paramedics arrived. The Kaiser physician said he sent him home because he had instructions to not hospitalize “young” patients with pneumonia. Although not all patients with pneumonia are admitted to hospitals, we argued that he had severe bilateral pneumonia and should have been admitted where he could be closely monitored. He left a wife and two minor children who were very close to him.

Misplaced pacemaker wire led to complications -- $889,061

A 27 year old man had a dual chamber pacemaker implanted in his right atrium and right ventricle at Kaiser Hospital, Oakland, California on June 15, 1987. Five months later on November 13, 1987, it was discovered by a chest x-ray that the wire in the right ventricle had formed a loop that had prolapsed near the outflow tract, leading to the pulmonary artery. Although the radiologist accurately reported the finding in a typed summary, the finding was never made known to the patient’s treating physicians and was never told to the patient until April 2006. There were many subsequent x-rays, showing the position of the pacemaker wire, but none of the treating physicians looked at these chest x-rays and no-one informed the patient of the malposition and its possible consequences. Each time a chest x-ray was taken over 17 years, the radiologists reported no change in position from the previous x-ray. In March 2004 he had chest pain with exertion and signs of a systolic ejection murmur in the left sternal border that indicated a possible right ventricular outflow tract obstruction. This was the first time that the patient suffered appreciable harm from the earlier negligence of Kaiser physicians and we argued this event started the three year statute of limitations to run. It was not until 2006 that Kaiser physicians discovered that the right ventricular pacing lead had looped and prolapsed into the right ventricular outflow tract, causing tissue reaction that caused the obstruction. The obstruction had to be surgically removed in a high risk open heart surgery in August 2006 that was successful. Kaiser refused to compensate the patient for their failure to recognize and treat this problem. We proved at arbitration that the pacemaker wire could have been correctly positioned without surgery if it was done in 1987 and the patient would not have suffered the severe disabling effects that caused him to lose his position as the head pastor of a large Oakland church and required a life threatening surgery. Kaiser made no offer to settle the case and we won an award of $889,061 after several days of arbitration

Negligent change in blood thinning medication – Confidential Settlement

A 27 year old woman who had previously suffered a stroke was undergoing a change in her blood thinning medication. The conversion to heparin had not been appropriately administered by her Kaiser Permanente physician. Blood test results had not been documented, monitoring was erratic and there had not been consultations with her cardiologist. She suffered a heart attack when the Kaiser physicians sent her home after she had been to the hospital complaining of pain in her back and shortness of breath. Our medical experts were able to demonstrate the medical malpractice and we recovered a substantial confidential settlement.

Negligent discharge from surgery center – $630,000

A 55-year-old woman underwent outpatient plastic surgery including abdominoplasty. Shortly before she was discharged, she was shivering and needed oxygen. Demoral (50 mg) was injected just before she was discharged. Although she was pale and her head was falling to her side, the plastic surgeon told her husband to take her home and she would gradually come out of the anesthesia. She fell asleep in the car on the way home and her husband called the anesthesiologist who told him to leave her in the car and watch her. When her breathing decreased, her husband again called the anesthesiologist who told him to rush her to the hospital. A Code Blue was called and although she was eventually resuscitated at the hospital, she was clinically brain dead. The cause of death was hypoxic encephalopathy due to respiratory arrest during recovery from general anesthesia. We argued that inappropriate anesthesia had been administered and recovery room and discharge errors were made resulting in a negligent prenature discharge. The surgery center did not have written policies and procedures for discharging patients and the patient was rushed out of the recovery room because another surgery was scheduled and the operating room was also the recovery room. The decedent left a husband and two adult children.

Incorrectly placed catheter -- $500,000

A 46 year old woman was admitted into the hospital to remove a small bowel obstruction. Several attempts to insert a central vein catheter for total parenteral nutrition (TPN) were made and an x-ray indicated the right subclavian catheter extended down into the vena cava with the tip in the right atrium. After surgery, the patient experienced severe distress, became hypotensive, went into cardiac arrest and died. Although subsequently the catheter appeared to be in the correct location and there was no well-defined area of perforation of the heart, we contended that an endocardial hemorrhage in the right atrium and the accumulation of milky white fluid in the pericardial sac indicated perforation of the heart by the subclavian catheter. The defendant manufacturer of the catheter contended the physician had placed the tip of the catheter below the junction of the superior vena cava into the right atrium contrary to the warnings on the catheter kit. The physicians, hospital and product manufacturer contributed to the settlement.