How a Bronx Woman Won $172 Million Medical Malpractice Lawsuit
On May 28, 2014, a Bronx woman won $172 million in damages for the brain injury she experienced as a result of medical malpractice. The jury announced the verdict after a three-week-long trial over a lawsuit that alleged that the victim had not been given timely and adequate medical treatment for a seizure that resulted in severe brain injuries. The plaintiff, Tiffany Applewhite, had been a straight-A student before the incident and had been preparing to apply to Manhattan’s prestigious Stuyvesant High School.
NYC Pays Millions in Settlement for Medical Negligence Claims Yearly
While medical malpractice seems like a scary thing to fathom, it happens more often than we would like to believe. Moreover, medical malpractice lawsuits get some of the biggest payouts in the United States, especially in NYC. On average, a serious case of clinical negligence pays out more than $650,000 in a settlement. The city made the single largest payout of 2015 against a medical malpractice lawsuit filed by an autistic woman against the Health and Hospitals Corporation, NYC.
Schizophrenic Bronx Man Sues Jacobi Medical Center for Malpractice
Bronx man Randy Nero, 40, who had an obsessive and uncontrollable habit of swallowing toothbrushes, choked on a toothbrush contained in a personal hygiene kit that a hospital nurse gave him. Nero decided to sue Jacobi Medical Center in 2018 for what he claimed is ‘medical malpractice,’ saying the nurse should have known about his decades-long history of being a compulsive toothbrush eater. He has filed a lawsuit against the hospital in the Bronx Supreme Court.
Psychiatrists Held Responsible and Sued by Family of Suicide Victim
After the suicide of Mona Haddad, 26, her mother, Esther Haddad, blamed her psychiatrists, husband and wife Owen Muir and Carlene Macmillan, for her death. She alleged that her daughter’s psychiatrists had driven her to suicide by not treating her appropriately and not paying attention to the red flags. The 2016 lawsuit claimed that the Brooklyn Minds couple practitioners were sharing inappropriate details of their personal lives with Mona Haddad while ignoring her suicide threats, according to the NY Post.
Birth Injuries: HIE Puts Infants at Risk During Childbirth
Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) occurs when a newborn baby’s oxygen and blood flow to the brain are reduced resulting in brain injuries.
It develops from the prenatal to the postnatal period. But it often occurs during labor, when infants are under extreme stress due to uterine contractions.
Generally, a child who suffers from HIE will most likely go on to have cerebral palsy and other life-long disabilities. In the United States, it occurs in 1 to 3 for every 1000 births. And the percentage of infants diagnosed with cerebral palsy ranges from 15% to 28%.
Brooklyn Woman Wins $15 Million Lawsuit After Going Blind
Brooklyn resident Amanda Velasquez, now 27 and a married mother of two, went blind after doctors at Woodhull Medical Center misdiagnosed her glaucoma. She filed a medical malpractice lawsuit at Brooklyn Supreme Court. The jury awarded her $15 million for all that she had suffered.
How Medical Malpractice Put Singer’s Career in Jeopardy
Medical malpractice is not a rare occurrence, especially in the state of New York, which has the highest medical malpractice lawsuit per capita in the country. Singer Marty Balin from Jefferson Airplane fell prey to one such malpractice in NYC in 2016. Balin, famous for being the co-founder lead singer of the band Jefferson Airplane, had a horrific experience at a Manhattan Hospital when the doctors’ negligence resulted in the loss of half his tongue, an amputated thumb, and a paralyzed vocal cord.
Woman Awarded $56 Million After Spinal Surgery Left Her Quadriplegic
The New York City Supreme Court awarded Pomona resident Patricia Jones and her husband $55.9 million in damages after spinal surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern allegedly left Jones a quadriplegic. The medical malpractice lawsuit alleged that surgeons George Alexander Jones and Daniel Spitzer committed medical malpractice that resulted in Jones’ botched spinal surgery. The plaintiffs held the surgeons responsible for a series of medical failures that caused Jones a lifetime of despair and handicap.
Broken Jaw and $14k Bill After a Routine Biopsy
Lorraine Evans, now 85, woke up in the hospital after a routine biopsy procedure to find that her jaw had been broken during the procedure, and she had been handed a $14,000 medical bill. Unaware of the extent of the damage initially, she went to see another doctor for the pain and discovered how badly she had been dealt with at her previous hospital. She filed a medical malpractice lawsuit at Bronx Supreme Court in 2015 against the hospital responsible for the incident.
Mom Alleges Doctor’s Use of Forceps Caused Death of Newborn
An obstetrician at a NY hospital used the forceps so forcefully during delivering a baby that the baby’s head was internally detached from the spine, leading to the newborn’s immediate death. According to the NY Post, Mother Megan Stirnweiss, 23, was devastated and proceeded to file a suit against her Long Island doctor.
