Medical malpractice lawsuits provide a way for injured and wronged patients to get a little compensation back from the hospitals that put them in that position. But hearing about most of these cases can also be a shock to the system for all hypochondriacs out there.
It’s important to understand that most hospital visits will be uneventful, with the patient going in unhealthy and coming out relatively healthy. But every now and then something goes horribly wrong. What follows is a list of medical malpractice lawsuits that have occurred across the state of California.
$4.5 Million – USC Medical Center
In 2010 Justin Malone was involved in a motorcycle crash and taken to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where he underwent surgery for a large stent-graft. A year later, he collapsed while playing a game of basketball and was rushed to USC Medical Center, where he suffered from serious pain for 2 days, his condition worsening all the time.
There was a clot in his stent that had cut off circulation and while the hospital eventually spotted this, the delay was enough to cause paralysis. Malone sued both hospitals, but Cedars-Sinai were found not to be responsible. He eventually received a settlement of $4.5 million for his injuries from the LA County Board of Supervisors.
They also agreed to wipe away the three-quarters of a million medical bill that he had been landed with. Which was nice of them, considering they had basically asked him to pay for losing the ability to walk!
$62 million – Winthrop University Hospital
In what is one of the biggest medical malpractice lawsuits ever, Stacey Galette, 34, received a staggering $62 million from the Winthrop University Hospital. It resulted from a surgery she had for an ectopic pregnancy, after which she underwent a series of issues and further surgery, as well as many months spent in intensive care.
Ms. Galette had skin grafts and a below-the-knee amputation, as well as a colostomy. Big settlement or not, she’ll probably give it all up to have her health back and it’s always heartbreaking to hear stories like this.
$3 Million – Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Medical Center
Edith Rodriquez, 43, was already in hospital, so she might have thought that she would get the care she needed to deal with her distress. But that wasn’t the case. She was apparently ignored in the waiting room as she was “writhing around in pain.” Others in the waiting room phoned for an ambulance, only for the responders to tell the callers that they couldn’t help as she was already in hospital.
A triage nurse is said to have ignored her complaints, while staff walked by her and a janitor even cleaned around her. It was her fourth time in hospital over the last three days and she had only been released hours earlier, so maybe they had assumed that she was playacting, but if that was the case then they were very wrong. It is said that she would have survived if she had received the care she deserved, but she didn’t. She died in the hospital and her children were the ones who filed a wrongful death claim, asking for $45 million ($1 million for each minute she waited in agony), eventually receiving $3 million.
