Significant medical malpractice verdicts are rare and difficult to obtain. When they do happen, the cases usually share certain commonalities. Here is a recent large verdict from a relatively conservative Pennsylvania county that proves the point.
The patient was a 58 year old man, who had worked for many years as a mechanic on Harley Davidson motorcycles. As is the case with many men who do work that requires a lot of bending and lifting, he had back problems related to his spine. Some of the openings in his spine through which the nerves pass had narrowed over time, which caused compression of the nerves and pain. The plan for surgery was to widen these openings, relieve the pressure, and eliminate the pain.
Today’s surgeons have many tools available to them that were not available even a dozen years ago. One of those tools constantly measures the flow of impulses through the nerves. It allows the surgeon to know if a nerve is being damaged during the surgery and to correct the situation immediately.
During the surgery, the neurosurgeon used screws to hold in place the hardware he was using. It was at this point in the procedure that he mistakenly inserted a screw directly into the patient’s spinal cord. The monitor immediately showed changes in the spinal cord but the surgeon ignored this warning and completed the surgery without looking to see why the spinal cord signal was compromised.
When he awoke from the surgery, the patient was in excruciating pain and was unable to move. Even though it was immediately obvious that something was very wrong, it took 10 hours to get the patient to an MRI, which showed the screw in the spinal cord, and another 12 hours after that to get him back to the operating room.
By the time the screw was removed from the spinal cord, it was too late to restore full function. The patient was left with paralysis in all four limbs and in need of 24/7 care. He was never going to work again and was facing huge medical bills going forward. Over the course of a couple of years and with intensive physical therapy, he was able to regain some use of his arms and legs but not very much. In his suit, he sought damages for pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, past and future medical expenses, and past and future loss of income.
After an 8 day trial, the jury awarded him $23.87 million.
Let’s look at the usual factors that lead to a large malpractice verdict and see which ones were present here.
A tragic injury: Check.
Large medical bills: Check
Large wage loss: Check
Good Trial Lawyer: Check. Plaintiffs’ counsel here has participated in a number of trials that resulted in multi-million dollar verdicts.
The X factor: Check. Here the surgeon was warned during the surgery, when there was still an opportunity to correct it, that there was a significant problem. He ignored the warning and never looked to see why the spinal cord was sending abnormal signals. The entire purpose of this monitoring system is to avoid tragedies like this. This is the kind of “don’t care” attitude that gets juries mad and contributes to large verdicts.
As with all large verdicts, there will be many post-trial motions seeking a new trial or a reduction in the verdict. There will almost certainly be an appeal, depending upon which way the court rules on the post-trial motions. The victim is in for more years of litigation and may never see much of the money the jury awarded him. The defendants in medical malpractice cases are always well-funded and willing to spend large amounts fighting these cases to the bitter end.
