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Newswire - Most recent postsSome Of Our Actual Legal CasesNursing Home HorrorWe have represented many elderly clients over the years for mishaps in nursing homes. These have included falls from beds and wheelchairs, medication errors, physical or mental abuse and neglect. One of the saddest cases involved an 85 year old client whose bedsores were so severe that the emergency room doctor wanted to bring criminal charges against the family because he thought the woman had been living at home rather than at a nursing home facility. Our client, Mrs. Jones (a fictitious name), was doing well at a Chester County nursing home until she fell one day and broke her leg. As a result, she became wheelchair bound. After a few months, she began to develop Stage I decubitus ulcers on her buttocks and heel. Instead of giving the medical treatment including ointments, cushions and the proper type of mattress, the nursing home ignored Mrs. Jones’ condition. When the sores worsened, they called in an outside wound treatment company, but they only permitted them to come once a week to care for Mrs. Jones. By the time she was taken to the emergency room, the sores had become grossly infected and foul smelling. We immediately took photographs and a video, which showed that the Stage IV ulcer was down to the spine with floating pieces of bone. Mrs. Jones died three weeks after she was admitted to the hospital. After we obtained the nursing home records which revealed the lack of care, and an expert report from a leading nursing home care physician, we attempted to settle the case. Not only did we present the video and photographs, but we also produced 3’ x 6’ exhibits showing artist renditions of the wounds. We were able to obtain a large settlement without the need of filing a lawsuit. More importantly, we learned after this case the nursing home had been sold to a new owner who immediately put money into the facility and updated the medical and nursing care to their residents. If you have a family member or friend who resides in a nursing home or long-term care facility, it is important that you check the condition of their skin on a regular basis. This may be difficult if the wound is in an area of the body that is hidden by clothing but must be done. You should review their condition periodically with the nurses to make sure that any bedsores are treated immediately and in the proper manner. Stephen M. Karp, Esquire Not Such A Sweet 16th BirthdayWhy is it so important to have adequate underinsured motorist coverage on your car insurance policy? Let me tell you a story about a beautiful young girl whose parent’s insurance coverage made the difference. Gillian was celebrating her 16th birthday. The day turned out to be anything but sweet. She was in a friend’s car which skidded around a turn, left the road and struck a tree. Gillian’s face battered the windshield – she was rushed to the hospital where she received 75 stitches to her forehead, chin and ear. Shortly after I took the case, I learned that Gillian’s friend had only a $25,000 car insurance policy. Would that be all that Gillian could collect? The good news was that her parents had stacked their underinsured motorist coverage and a total of an additional $200,000 was available. The bad news was that her parent’s insurance company refused to pay the amount of the coverage. They claimed that her scar was not that serious – were they right? A few weeks before the trial, I saw a newspaper photo of a man who received a $125,000 award. He was a cocaine dealer who had been beaten by the police and received 60 stitches in his face. I sent the photo to the insurance company and told them if that case was worth $125,000, then Gillian’s case was certainly worth more than the parent’s policy. The insurance company looked at the convict’s photo and to their credit, sent out a check for the policy limits. Stephen M. Karp, Esquire The Amazing Disappearing ManI once settled a medical malpractice case about 10 years ago on the eve of trial. I was really looking forward to giving my closing argument and it was going to go something like this. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, when Don and his wife used to dance together, she would rest her arm on his shoulder. Now when they dance, she places her arm on the top of his head – what type of medical malpractice could cause this to happen? Don was born with osteogenesis imperfecta. It’s a disease in which a person’s bones are brittle. Don suffered many fractures during his early childhood but he grew out of it and didn’t have a broken bone for over 20 years. One day, Don went to visit his doctor because he was having problems with his lungs. He told the doctor about his previous history of osteogenesis imperfecta. It is not known to many people but it is known to doctors that when you have this condition, it is contraindicated to prescribe steroids. The steroids can aggravate the symptoms and cause excessive bone damage. Don’s doctor ignored his history. He later testified that he had forgotten about it – and prescribed steroid medication. The result was catastrophic. Why would my closing argument tell the story about Don and his wife dancing? As a result of being given the steroids, Don sustained over a dozen fractures including several to his vertebrae. The compressed vertebrae caused him to lose over 5 inches in height. Don, who had been 6’1” was now 5’8”. What better way to show a jury the affect this injury had on Don’s life than to paint a picture of he and his wife on the dance floor. Before the injury, her arm rested on his shoulder – now it was placed on the top of his head. Stephen M. Karp, Esquire Business Income LossI represented a gentlemen who, as a result of a rear-end automobile accident, spent over two months in intensive care and a year and a half in therapy. Three years before the accident, he had retired from his old job and started his own business as an accountant. Due to the accident, he had clearly been unable to work for over two years. When we asked the insurance company to pay him his wage loss for those two years, they said no, since he had not drawn any salary from his new business for that period. You see, in the first three years of his new business, he had ploughed all his earnings back into the business to make it grow. As a result, he took no income for himself – he lived off of savings. We argued fruitlessly that his newly created accounting business, which had been continuously expanding up until the time of the accident, was basically bankrupted as a result of the accident and that he did lose sales, future profits and lost the ability to expand his business. After an expensive fight involving battling accounting experts, we were able to prove that our client clearly lost growth and income for his business for at least two years. We showed that other similar accounting practices in the region made substantial profits after initial start up losses and that before the accident, he had been on target to accomplish these same financial results. The insurance company finally paid him for all his business losses. Unfortunately, It took a court fight to do it. Peter J. Hart, Esquire |
