In 1994, a young woman named Laura Gonzalez gave birth to a baby boy at Flushing Hospital Medical Center. Unfortunately, what should have been an event filled with joy quickly turned into tragedy when Laura’s son suffered severe brain damage as well as extensive mental and physical impairments due to hypoxia.

As a result of this birth injury, Laura filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Flushing Hospital Medical Center in 1995 and the on-call physician in 1996. She alleged negligence for not identifying the signs of fetal distress or responding to the signs of fetal distress in both instances. These two actions were consolidated for a joint trial in 1997. Had the surgeon acted timeously, Laura would have undergone an emergency cesarean section, which would have prevented her baby’s injuries.

In September 2001, famous sportswriter and broadcaster, Dick Schaap, admitted himself into a New York City hospital for a routine hip replacement surgery. Unfortunately, no one could possibly have predicted that he would never come home.

According to Trish, Dick’s wife, he had previously had a hip-replacement surgery, which he recovered from quickly and only needed to spend five days in the hospital. Naturally, Dick and Trish had no concerns going forward with the second hip-replacement surgery, especially since the surgery would be performed by the same surgeon at the same hospital.