Case Summaries
In California, there is a $250,000.00 cap on general damages that limits how much a patient can recover from a health care provider. However, there are exceptions to the caps on damages, including allowing recovery for lost wages, future medical expenses ,etc. Below is a summary of some of our cases where we were able to obtain more for our clients than the straight cap on damages would otherwise allow.
The following cases are a few examples of just some of the hundreds of actual cases The Law Offices of MULLIGAN & BANHAM has helped patients with over the past 20 years. Names have been omitted in order to protect client confidentiality.
Of course, each case is unique and MULLIGAN & BANHAM cannot guarantee any particular result. Rather, these cases are illustrative of the type of cases and results this law firm has had in the past.
*Birth Injury:
A newborn infant suffered kidney failure and brain damage because of a delay in the obstetrician performing a timely caesarean section. The mother experienced multiple episodes of bleeding while in active labor at the hospital.
The health care providers assumed the blood was simply a “bloody show,” which is a normal part of the birthing process. Despite evidence of significant distress on the fetal heart monitoring strips, the doctor continued to allow the mother to labor and refused to perform a c-section until approximately two hours later.
The infant was blue and floppy at birth, and had lost more than a third of his blood supply. An analysis of the placenta revealed that the baby was suffering from a vasa previa condition which caused his fetal blood vessels to burst as his head pushed against them while he was traversing the birth canal.
The infant required a kidney transplant and was unable to tolerate oral feeding and had to be fed through a feeding tube in his stomach. While the child suffered from some developmental delays, including delayed speech, he is able to run, walk, play the drums and enjoy normal activities of daily living.
MULLIGAN & BANHAM settled the case and established a special needs trust for the child with an expected payout over the child’s life of approximately $13,000,000.00.
The mother’s own separate claim was settled with a structure that is expected to pay out $530,000.00 to the mother over the course of her life.
*Case against Kaiser: Negligent Blood Draw Resulting in RSD:
MULLIGAN & BANHAM represented a 19-year-old young woman who suffered painful and debilitating RSD (reflex sympathetic dystrophy ) as a result of a negligent blood draw by a Kaiser employee. The Kaiser phlebotomist attempted multiple unsuccessful blood draws and probed the needle below the skin in a manner which fell below the standard of care.
Kaiser vehemently contested liability, causation and damages, acknowledging only $30,000 in damages if the case were to be proved.
MULLIGAN & BANHAM represented the client through arbitration and was awarded $1,561,480.00 in present value (over $8.8 million total future value).
*Failure to Perform a Timely Caesarean Section / Birth Injuries
A newborn infant suffered irreparable brain injury from hypoxia (lack of oxygen) as a result of a delay in the health care providers performing a caesarean section in a timely fashion.
A combination of various mistakes contributed to this infant=s catastrophic injuries: A nurse failed to communicate vital information about the infant's fetal heart rate up the established chain of command in time to have the baby delivered by an emergency caesarean section, the obstetrical medical group over-taxed the single designated on-call physician,
leaving the patient without a doctor during critical hours in her labor, and the overworked physician who finally delivered the baby was largely unavailable to assess the mother's condition during critical hours of her labor and was too fatigued to use good judgment when she finally arrived at the hospital to evaluate the mother and infant's condition.
MULLIGAN & BANHAM ultimately received a total present cash settlement of $1,400,000.00 payable in part to a special trust for the infant.
*Administration of Wrong Medication Resulting in Paraplegia/ Seizures:
The client was a normal, healthy, very pregnant woman in her late 20's who was in active labor and about to give birth to her first child. She walked into Defendant's hospital as a routine obstetrical case. As labor progressed, the Defendant anesthesiologist initiated an epidural anesthesia into the woman's spine resulting in immediate dense numbness. Within two hours, she was permanently paralyzed.
The next day, she began to experience seizures. MULLIGAN aggressively litigated the case and discovered that it was likely that the anesthesiologist administered the wrong medicine into the patient's spine. While no one was ever able to identify exactly what medicine was given, experts were able to piece together the pathway the toxic medicine took as it traveled through the woman's spinal column, up to her brain and established that the timing of the woman's injuries coincided with the timing of the metabolism of the drug in her system.
Fortunately, a child was born healthy with no ascertainable side effects from the anesthesia. However, following childbirth, the client failed to regain the functional use of her legs or full control over her bowel and bladder. As a result of her paralysis, even normal daily activities including dressing, cooking and childcare could not be routinely performed without maximum effort. MULLIGAN created a video showing the client's altered daily living experiences with the intent of conveying this information to the jury.
After doggedly pursuing the defendants in this case, on the eve of trial, MULLIGAN achieved a settlement of approximately $1,000,000.00 present cash value, in an annuity format with future value of over $3,000,000.00.
*Mis-diagnosis/ Administration of Wrong Medication /Brain Injury
Attorney MULLIGAN represented a woman who suffered massive brain damage as a result of a mis-diagnosis and administration of wrong medicine. The woman went to the emergency room complaining of a long-standing history of asthma, shortness of breath and a cough. The doctor diagnosed acute bronchial asthma with asthmatic bronchitis. She was admitted to the hospital. Later that same day, she became agitated and she found it progressively more difficult to breathe. Because her blood pressure was rising, a doctor instructed a nurse to give the patient Inderal.
Inderal is a medication that is not supposed to be given to people with asthma because it is known to cause respiratory arrest. After the drug was given to her, the woman experienced respiratory distress. Five hours lapsed between the onset of the respiratory distress and the arrival of a doctor to evaluate this patient. During this void, the woman=s respiratory distress mushroomed into a respiratory crisis and an emergency ACode Blue@ was called. One of the defendant doctors proceeded to heavily sedate the patient, but then waited too long to intubate her in an effort to give her oxygen.
The heavy sedation resulted in her suffering a cardiac arrest and the woman lapsing into a coma. This woman now remains a blind quadriplegic capable of only limited speech. However, she is fully oriented and her cognitive skills have only been mildly impaired. She is totally unable to care for herself. The woman was awarded $2,000,000.00 present cash value, with a total guaranteed payout of over $3,000,000.00.
*LASKIL Procedure/Failure to Stop After Short Flap
Attorneys MULLIGAN & BANHAM represented a 40 year old woman against an eye surgeon who cut the flap too short in performing LASIK surgery on the woman’s eye. The standard of practice required the surgeon to stop the procedure and allow the eye to heal before proceeding.
He did not abort the procedure. As a result, there was too much tissue removed from the woman’s cornea. The woman suffered visual disturbances that exacerbated pre-existing headaches. The headaches made it difficult for the woman to perform her job of selling high end office furniture.
Three subsequent surgeries improved her condition, but with a contact lens, she is still only able to tolerate part-time work. Plaintiff sent a §998 offer to the defense for $784,681.97. The defense offered nothing. Following a binding arbitration in front of Hon. Raymond Zvetina, an arbitration award was rendered against the defendant in the amount of award of $1,288,941.00.
During post-arbitration hearings, the case settled for $1,400,000.00, representing the award, costs and interest.
*Improper LASIK Procedure/ Partial Loss of Vision
A 36-year-old computer network engineer who was left with grossly exacerbated astigmatism in one eye after a technician made a transcription error on the setting of a machine during routine LASIK surgery. The error was undetected by the surgeon. As a result of the error and resultant change in his astigmatism, he suffered severe vision problems in one eye and debilitating headaches. Glasses, contact lenses and tear duct plugs did not adequately correct the problems and the client finally was required to undergo a cornea transplant. Five of the country=s top ophthalmological surgeons gave deposition testimony either as treating physicians or as experts for both sides.
Ultimately, attorneys MULLIGAN & BANHAM were able to obtain a joint lump sum settlement of $1,000,000.00 from the employer of the technician and from the original surgeon.
*Tainted Herbs/ Loss of Kidney Function
A 56-year-old man suffered irreparable kidney failure as a result of consuming herbs contaminated with aristolochic acid. Suit was brought against the herbal supplement provider who imported and distributed the herbs as well as the health care provider who sold the herbs.
Defendants claimed the Plaintiff's injuries were the result of taking Ibuprofin and prescribed medications rather than the herbs. MULLIGAN & BANHAM retained some of the country's leading experts in the specific areas in dispute, including the leading physician who published extensively on the issue of this particular herb causing renal failure.
After disclosure of these experts' opinions to the Defendants, MULLIGAN & BANHAM successfully resolved during mediation for $2,000,000.00.
*Negligent Surgery on Cyst/ Failure to Diagnose Esophageal Tear
A 17-year-old girl went to the doctor complaining of a lump on her collarbone. The doctor attempted to biopsy the lump but he neglected to realize that the scalpel had torn the girl's esophagus. Over the course of the next two days and while still hospitalized, the girl developed shortness of breath, an inability to swallow , and increased pain in her throat and chest.
The surgeon's care and treatment of this patient fell below the standard of care in his failure to make a timely diagnosis and render immediate treatment of the esophageal tear. As a result of the surgeon=s negligence and delay in diagnosis of the esophageal tear, she required extensive multiple surgeries to reconstruct her esophagus. MULLIGAN was able to resolve the case without litigation for the amount of $475,000.000.
*Failure to Diagnose Cardiac Condition
A 51-year-old man twice presented to his doctors with symptoms of chest and arm pain. Without conducting any cardiac work-up whatsoever, the physician assumed the symptoms were associated with gastric reflux, and the patient was prescribed Tagamet. A few months later the man died of coronary artery artherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). An expert cardiologist testified that given the autopsy results, there is a very high degree of probability that if the appropriate cardiac work up had been performed and treatment rendered, the man's life would have been spared. MULLIGAN & BANHAM received $400,000.00 for his surviving widow and child.
*Negligent Gallbladder Surgery/ Failure to Diagnose and Treat Uncontrolled Postoperative Bleeding
A 70-year-old man was taken to surgery for the laparoscopic removal of his gallbladder. The surgeon was not able to remove the gallbladder through the scope, so he resorted to an open procedure on his abdomen. Throughout the rest of the operation the surgeon had problems controlling bleeding. Four units of blood were given during the surgery. Blood loss during the operation was reported to be two and one-half liters.
Although there were many red flags indicating postoperative bleeding might continue, the team of surgeons took over four hours to diagnosis bleeding in the ICU and to get the patient back to the operating room. While in the ICU, the patient received at least seven liters of intravenous fluids to maintain his blood pressure which often ran as low as 59/40. The heart rate was persistently rapid and the blood count continued to drop in spite of continued transfusions. After several hours of unstable vital signs, the decision was finally made to take him back to the operating room. The surgeon re-opened the abdomen only to find massive bleeding.
There was a hole in the mesenteric vein. Fifteen units of blood, two units of fresh frozen plasma, six units of platelets and approximately 15 liters of crystalloid were given. It was much too little and much too late. The patient died on the operating room table.
An autopsy was performed and the medical examiner opined that death was attributed to operative and postoperative hemorrhage from the liver and the mesentery associated with the surgery. MULLIGAN & BANHAM received $600,000.00 on behalf of the widow and adult child.
*Car Accident/ Wrongful Death of an Eight Year Old Child
An eight-year-old girl was killed when the car she was a passenger in made an abrupt left turn in front of a speeding vehicle. While both drivers denied responsibility for this fatal crash. MULLIGAN & BANHAM was able to obtain the full policy limits totaling $200,000.00 on behalf of the child's surviving mother without protracted litigation.
*Failure to Diagnose Throat Cancer
A woman presented to her HMO with complaints of pain and tenderness on the left side of her throat, in the area of her thyroid gland. She was diagnosed with stress and given Prozac. She continued to return to her primary care doctor and to complain of tenderness and pain in her throat region for over ten years. No tests were ordered and she was not referred to any specialists. Finally, she moved and changed primary care doctors. Only then was she finally referred to an otolaryngologist (ENT doctor) who ordered a fine needle biopsy. The patient was then diagnosed with Stage IV medullary thyroid carcinoma (cancer).
MULLIGAN & BANHAM retained one of the world=s foremost experts on this particular type of cancer. After the expert was deposed, the case settled for $1,050,000.00, present cash value (with a total expected payout of approximately double this amount to the woman's minor child over the course of the child's life as well as to this 53-year-old woman).
*Negligent Intubation
A 56-year-old retired man was admitted to a hospital with a diagnosis of bilateral pneumonia. He became critically ill and could no longer breathe for himself. He would have survived the pneumonia but for a series of deadly medical errors. Doctors delayed in performing a tracheostomy, which is important to produce a secure airway free of obstructing secretions. After this tube was placed too late, it was left in place too long making it prone to obstruction. A mucus plug formed which caused such an obstruction. This is an event, which should be diagnosed rapidly, and definitive treatment taken immediately. It was not. Brain damage occurred.
When the plug was finally observed and cleared, the attending doctor mistakenly placed the tube back into the esophagus (a tube going to the stomach), rather than back into the windpipe. No oxygen went to the blood or brain. The man went into brain death. Attorneys MULLIGAN & BANHAM successfully brought a federal tort claim and were able to negotiate a settlement of $800,000 for the widow and surviving sons.
