Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Orangevale Motorcyclist Killed after Colliding with Automobile

April 16, 2009 | by Moseley Collins

A 35-year-old Orangevale man died Wednesday afternoon, April 1, on Hazel Avenue after his motorcycle hit a car, California Highway Patrol officials said. The man, whose identity was withheld pending notification of next of kin, was driving a Kawasaki ZX6R southbound at an “extreme high rate of speed” near Lake Nimbus Drive at about 4:15 p.m., according to a CHP news release.

At the same time, a 68-year-old woman from Fair Oaks was turning left onto Lake Nimbus Drive, the CHP said. The motorcyclist hit the right side of her car and was thrown from his bike, the CHP said. He was taken by helicopter to Sutter Roseville Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about 45 minutes later.

The woman was knocked unconscious by the impact and her car rolled down Lake Nimbus Drive for several hundred feet until a citizen helped stop it, the CHP said.

Drugs or alcohol do not appear to be a factor in the crash, the CHP said. The motorcylist was negligent by the mere fact of his high rate of speed.

Roseville Physicians’ Malpractice Subject of Lawsuit, Part 16 of 23.

April 16, 2009 | by Moseley Collins

(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the proceedings.)

Page 20, line 15 through page 21, line 8:

“MR. COLLINS: Q. Okay. So you noted that he couldn’t move his legs, and then you went about your duties on 4 West that day?
A. Yes sir.
Q. Did you tell the – – who was your supervisor?
A. The day shift supervisor position was shared. It was Sara Davies and Bobbi Edwards, who is now Bobbi English, and then the overall supervisor is Heather Jones.
Q. I’m sorry. Who is the day shift supervisor?
A. Sara Davies and Bobbi – – her name was Bobbi English (sic) at the time. She’s been remarried. It’s Bobbi English.
Q. Did you contact any of those people to tell them what was going on with Mr. Smith?
A. No, I did not.
Q. And you’ve been trained to do neuro assessments, true?
A. Yes, I have.”
Page 24, lines 6 through 18:
“Q. Okay. This form records the interventions that you do to assist the patient, right?
A. Yes.
Q. What does that mean, ‘interventions’?
A. It means to act within a process to – – for instance, to stop pain, to help with breathing if they’re having difficulty breathing.

Sacramento Man Left Paralyzed By Doctors, Part 17 of 23.

April 15, 2009 | by Moseley Collins

(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the proceedings.)

C. NOTHING WAS DONE:

Nothing was done to help William Smith from 1:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Nurse Brown tries to argue she called Dr. Y. and notified him of the patient’s status. Dr. Y. denies this. Nurse Brown failed to document she even told a doctor of his change of condition, a violation of the hospital’s policy and standard of care.

Even if Nurse Brown (an LVN) called Dr. Y. and he only said “start a Foley” she should have told her RN or charge nurse.

Allowing plaintiff’s paralysis to go untreated for fifteen and a half hours is a violation of the hospital’s standard of care. As Nurse Black testified on page 25, lines 15 through 16:

“The sooner you intervene in a process like that the better chance the patient has to recover.”
XI. LIABILITY OF DR. Y., M.D.

Dr. Y’s liability stems chiefly from the fact that Nurse Brown testified she told him of Mr. Smith’s paralysis and he did nothing except order a Foley catheter.

Nurse Brown’s deposition, page 37, lines 7 through 15:

“BY MR. COLLINS: Q. Did you specifically call Dr. Y. to tell him of the change in condition from generalized weakness but could ambulate with assistance to can’t move his legs, can’t ambulate?
A. Yes.
Q. Okay. What – – and you told him that?
A. Yes.
Q. And what did he say to you?
A. Just put Foley catheter.”

Man Paralyzed At Roseville Hospital, Part 18 of 23.

April 14, 2009 | by Moseley Collins

(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the proceedings.)

In his deposition (not yet transcribed) Dr. Y. admitted urgent intervention was needed as soon as it was noted William Smith could not move his legs. He stated that had he known the patient could not move his legs at 1:00 a.m. on March 25, 2002, he would have immediately gotten out of bed, come to the hospital, and called for a neurosurgical consult. He said he would do all this in order to try and stop or reverse the paralysis.

If the jury believes Nurse Brown, they will find Dr. Y’s lack of intervention to be below the standard of care, by his own admission of what he should have done. The deposition transcripts of Nurses Black, Brown, and White are referenced herein.

XII. LIABILITY OF DR. Z.,, M.D.

Dr. Z. is an infectious disease expert. He was called to see William Smith on March 23, 2002. His consult is referenced herein.

Dr. Z’s liability is based on his failure to act appropriately to investigate, identify, and stop an infection that later rendered Mr. Smith quadriplegic.

In his deposition taken February 17, 2004, Dr. Z. admitted on page 28, line 22 through page 29, line 10:

“Q. But you also thought there might be a secondary infection, true?
A. Yeah. I thought there might be an infection there as well.
Q. What was the basis for your belief that there might be an infection?
A. Well, whole area of his low back where the skin was, it looked kind of inflamed.

Roseville Hospital Patient Paralyzed, Part 19 of 23.

April 13, 2009 | by Moseley Collins

(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the proceedings.)

Page 30, lines 12 through 14:

“MR. COLLINS: Q. You said Dr. Y. was concerned about osteomyelitis under that area, right?
A. Under that infected wound.”

Page 43, lines 8 through 12:

“MR. COLLINS: Q. I’ll do it this way. Sir, you’ve been trained – you’ve had training on how to – what to do on a physical exam to rule in or out osteomyelitis, right?
A. Yes.”

Page 50, lines 2 through 15:

“Q. Did you perform a percussive exam of Mr. Smith’s back?

A. No.

Q. Or spine?

A. No.

Q. Have you been trained that that is one of the tools to diagnose
osteomyelitis?

A. If you’re thinking about it.

Q. So you have been trained that’s one of the tools, true?

A. If you think this might be some infection, yes, you can percuss there, yes.

Q. But you didn’t do it?
A. I didn’t think there was any need for it.”

Quadriplegic Patient Sues Sacramento-area Hospital, Part 20 of 23.

April 12, 2009 | by Moseley Collins

(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the proceedings.)

Q. Was there any contraindication to giving William Smith, on March 23,
2002, vancomycin?
A. If after seeing this patient and his history and physical and his background and his medical condition, if I thought that he should also be on vancomycin, there is no contraindication.”

Page 97 lines 5 through 8:

“Q. On March 24th, 2002, you did not do a percussive exam on Mr. Smith, true?
A. I did not do it because I did not think there was any need for it.”

Page 117 lines 13 through 16:

“Q. You had him on Ancef, and Ancef had no therapeutic value whatsoever for this patient it turns out?
A. On the 26th when you find out he’s MRSA, yes.”

In summary, Dr. Z’s care of Mr. Smith was below the standard of care in the following areas:

1. Dr. Z. knew that he was being asked by Dr. Y. to evaluate whether Mr. Smith had osteomyelitis (infection in the spine). In fact Dr. Z. had previously treated Mr. Smith for osteomyelitis in 1991.

Roseville Hospital Sued For Millions, Part 21 of 23.

April 11, 2009 | by Moseley Collins

(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the proceedings.)

XIII. PRIOR DEMANDS FOR SETTLEMENT
A. DR. X., M.D.:

Dr. X. has a policy limit of $1,000,000. On July 28, 2003, plaintiff served on Dr. X. an offer under CCP section 998, in the sum of $1,000,000.00. There has been no response.

B. ABC HOSPITAL:

ABC Hospital is insured by XYZ Insurance, Ltd., with a policy limit of $107,000,000, for each annual occurrence. On May 28, 2004, plaintiff served ABC Hospital with an offer under CCP section 998 in the sum of $1,250,000. There has been no response.

C. DR. Z., M.D.:

Dr. Z. is insured by Socal Mutual Insurance Company with a policy limit of $2,000,000 per incident. On March 1, 2004, plaintiff served Dr. Z. with an offer under CCP section 998 in the sum of $195,000. It was rejected.

D. DR. Y., M.D.:

On July , 2004, plaintiff served Dr. Y. with an offer under CCP section 998. There has been no response.

IVX. OTHER JURY VERDICTS

The following jury verdict may be of some assistance:

Fox v. Ramano Roe, M.D and Simi Valley (1998)

Sacramento Man’s Life Changed Due To Medical Malpractice, Part 22 of 23.

April 10, 2009 | by Moseley Collins

(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the proceedings.)

XV. LIFE CHANGE

Since being diagnosed as a quadriplegic, Mr. Smith’s entire life has changed. In his deposition on page 184, lines 10 through page 189, line 4, Mr. Smith testified how dramatically his life has changed:

“A. My life has changed. I lost control of my bowel movement. I have accidents two or three times a month.
I lost use of my legs and my left hand.
I can’t work because as a plant supervisor there are no other job at this time. I worked a lot. I spent a lot of money on my backyard building a fish pond and building water falls, put a lot of trees in, a lot of bushes in so I could take care of them when I retired and I can’t do that now and that’s what I planned on doing when I retired, but now most of it is lost.
I can’t drive so I need to have somebody to help me every time I go somewhere.
When I get up, I have a hard time dressing myself. I need to do that while I’m still in bed to get my pants on. I have trouble getting in my wheelchair on my own. I can do so, but I wouldn’t want to do it without somebody being there.
My bathroom, I need extra room and I had to lower everything down in my bathroom so I could shave and clean myself and shower.
The toilet, I need bars on there and I have had a hard time getting off and on.
I need to stimulate my bowel movement every morning in order to have a movement, which we already talked about.
If I take stool softeners, which I’m supposed to do, I have more accidents and that’s probably one of the worst things that happened to me in this whole thing, I think, is my own personal – – is having a bowel accident. I have to, you know, and it’s just – – I go to pieces when that happens.
I have a three-inch hole in my back that needs to be changed three times a day. I put down two, two or three times a day. Someone has to – – my son has to do it now.
I take a lot of pain pills, the Vicodin, because of my pain in my back and my legs hurt a lot. I wake up during the night hurting a lot and have a lot of leg spasms.
I feel a lot better now since I came back from Palo Alto, though, this time. I have a better attitude. I’m trying to work towards trying to have a better attitude making myself – – before I went to Palo Alto, I was – – laid in be all the time and I didn’t do nothing besides lay in bed and feel sorry for myself. I’m trying to change that.
Just dressing, I need to rest afterwards. It’s a shame here, I try to dress myself, then I have to rest, you know, because I get tired. Taking a shower I get tired which don’t sound like it makes sense, but I get so tired.
Just sitting in a chair sometimes I get so tired and so sick, I have to lay down. If I lay down a couple hours I feel I can get back up like today I went pretty good.

Roseville Hospital’s Malpractice Leaves Patient in Wheelchair, Part 23 of 23.

April 9, 2009 | by Moseley Collins

(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the proceedings.)

I planned on traveling a lot when I retire. And along with my backyard, I planned on traveling and now I have to make special plans. I don’t know what I’m going to do about traveling. I know I have checked into airlines. I can’t travel with the wheelchair. I just don’t have the desire like I did before. I hope I can get that desire back. I want to travel and do things.

I spend a lot of my time in my room doing nothing where I used to keep busy. I was never, you know, kids think I was a workaholic. I couldn’t sit down more than 10, 15 minutes. I’d never watch TV, because I would always get up and do things out in my backyard. Now I just seem to sit all the time.

NY Investigation Of Independent Medical Exams Affects California Injury Claims

April 7, 2009 | by Moseley Collins

There was an interesting piece in the New York Times last week about the business of independent medical exams (IMEs) of injured workers who had filed claims against their employers. The story detailed the pressure often placed on the physicians conducting the exams to produce a report that is favorable to the insurance company, who also happens to be paying the physician’s fee. Not everybody believes the system is broken, but the apparent conflict of interest does raise several red flags.

The obvious victim in this situation is the injured worker. The Times piece focused on New York state’s workers’ compensation system And that system’s deficiencies is no different here in the Sacramento area, and throughout California.

The independent exams are designed to flush out workers who exaggerate injuries or get unnecessary care, and there is no question that some of that goes on. As a check on what a worker’s doctor determines, insurers are allowed to order an ostensibly neutral exam by a doctor they select and pay for. They do so regularly, with more than 100,000 exams conducted in New York state each year. The numbers are just as high in California.