$1.8 M Settlement for Failure to Diagnose a Stroke

In a true tragedy, a family was left without a father and husband, due to a medical mistake at a local hospital. We were able to secure a substantial settlement for our client’s family from the hospital and its physicians. A 34 year old man went to a Montgomery County hospital’s emergency room with a severe headache, dizziness and extremely high blood pressure- all symptoms consistent with an oncoming stroke. Plaintiff actually had a stroke in the waiting room in the emergency room. Our client was admitted into the Hospital. The hospital staff failed to recognize that the stroke caused bleeding inside of Plaintiff’s brain and unfortunately died while in the hospital. We were able to secure the right experts that established that if the Hospital had acted promptly, he would have survived this stroke.

Obstructive Bowel Yields Confidential Settlement

Our firm represented John C. who was sixty seven (67) years old, married with three (3) children. John was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2002, which was treated by surgical resection. After a period of time, his cancer went into remission and John had surgery at a Philadelphia hospital to reverse the colonostomy performed during his cancer treatment. The plan for the surgery was for John to return to his regular life which had been put on hold for so long due to cancer treatments.

John went for surgery in December of 2008 and the surgery was performed without incident. The surgery was performed at a well established Philadelphia hospital. However, nearly five (5) days after the surgery, John developed pain and nausea. John continued to have excruciating pain that had to be treated by morphine. Doctors believed that the bowel might have been obstructed. However, the doctors did not order any testing to make a definitive diagnosis. Unfortunately for John, the obstructive bowel caused him to go into cardiac arrest and eventually die.

Our firm was able to secure a very significant but confidential settlement against the Philadelphia hospital for the negligent care. We were able to establish that the doctors should have done testing to diagnose the obstructive bowel which could have easily been corrected.

$1.5 Million Verdict for Plaintiff

Our firms were proud to secure a verdict for our client whose cancer was not diagnosed simply because his doctors failed to read his test results. Our client was only 45 years of age when he went to his family doctors for routine prostate screening. Unfortunately, his doctors failed to properly read the testing and his cancer was allowed to spread. Due to the doctor’s negligence, the Plaintiff had terrible complications related to the cancer.

Fall out of Hospital Bed Equals Sizeable Settlement

Plaintiff Helen R. was a patient at a hospital located in Camden County, New Jersey. She presented to the hospital for a left knee replacement. The knee replacement was performed on September 15, 2009 without any complications. Two days after the surgery, Plaintiff was in the hospital bed when she experienced a traumatic fall from her bed. Defendants never performed the proper fall assessment and did not have the Plaintiff’s bed rails raised. Therefore, once she was heavily sedated with pain medication, she became disoriented and fell out of bed.

As a result of this fall, she sustained a compound fracture of the right leg and ankle which required extensive surgery. Therefore, instead of having a right knee replaced where she could return back to her active lifestyle, she had significant limitations. Discovery revealed that the Defendants failed to have a proper fall assessment and failed to have a standard of care applicable to a patient such as Helen. Therefore, Plaintiff was able to secure a substantial yet confidential settlement.

Quadriplegic Sues Over Nursing Care

We represented a student at Temple University, who came to Philadelphia to study Pre-Medicine. Prior to entering the college, he was involved in a very unfortunate wrestling accident, which caused him to be a quadriplegic. Our client wouldn’t quit and still proceeded with his education and decided to become a full-time student at Temple University. Because he was a quadriplegic, our client needed night time nursing care to care for his bowels and bladder because he was unable to care for that himself. We were able to prove that the nursing agency that visited the Plaintiff did not do their job properly and our client went into shock requiring hospitalization. Unfortunately, our client had to drop out of Temple University and take his studies elsewhere. We were able to secure a significant settlement on our clients’ behalf for this negligent nursing care.

Genetic Testing Error Leads to 750k Settlement

Shaffer & Gaier secured a settlement for the parents of a child who unfortunately contracted a severe and rare genetic disorder that was missed through genetic testing. The clients were residents of Sacramento, California. Before having children they sought genetic counseling. The father had a rare genetic condition called Ehlers-Danlos (EDS) Syndrome that ran in his family. EDS is a genetic disorder that causes severe vascular and connective tissue complications; EDS is often fatal.

Our clients sought genetic counseling to determine if the father was a carrier of EDS. The family wanted the genetic counseling to plan a pregnancy because if the father was a carrier they could have had a child through in vitro fertilization (IVF) which would have ensured that the gene did not pass to the child.

In 2005 the father had blood work which was sent to the Defendant’s lab in Allentown PA. The defendant’s lab informed the father that the test was negative for EDS. The parents were understandably relieved and had their children naturally. In 2012, the father developed severe complications that were similar to EDS. He had new genetic testing done and it was unfortunately confirmed that he was, in fact, a carrier for EDS. A tragic error was created because the lab misread the first test. Thereafter, the parents had their son tested and it was confirmed that their son had EDS. This tragedy could have been prevented had the initial testing been done properly.

Shaffer & Gaier secured the leading genetic experts in the country which established that the Defendants made a crucial mistake. Had the test been run properly their son would have avoided the condition because the parents could have conceived through IVF. The case was filed in Federal Court in Pennsylvania As the case was preparing for trial Shaffer & Gaier were able to negotiate the settlement that will ensure that the child has future care for his medical expenses.

Scranton Hospital Pays for Allowing Patient to Develop Bedsores

We represented a client who went into a Scranton Hospital for heart surgery but was discharged with a baseball sized bed sore to his buttocks. Our client was 55 years of age and had heart bypass surgery at a Scranton Hospital. Due to the surgery, Plaintiff needed the nursing staff to turn his body so that he did not develop pressure sores i.e. bed sores. Plaintiff was not repositioned correctly and was allowed to develop huge bedsores. Our client developed significant complications and needed a series of several surgeries to correct the wound caused by the Hospital’s negligence.