Medical malpractice happens in the blink of an eye. A split-second misdiagnosis gone wrong happened in this shocking case.
The woman in this medical malpractice case went through hell and back. Thanks to a $3.9 million award, she may just barely be able to keep up to date with her around the clock medical care. Her life is nothing like it used to be. She has great difficulty walking and needs help with all her daily living tasks, like getting dressed. Her family and two kids were in complete shock and anguish, as they did not think she would live at all.
It started in December 2006, when the woman went to the E.R. at her local hospital with a nagging, horrendously painful headache, and blood pressure just about out of sight. She had been getting treatment for M.S., which included high doses of steroids. Steroids do tend to cause high blood pressure. The doctor misdiagnosed a brain bleed as a migraine, and sent the woman home with pain medications.
In the morning, the woman’s headache had vanished, but she could no longer walk or talk. Her family had an ambulance take her back to the hospital, where not much could be done to help her, as the damage had already been done. She had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke.
The medical malpractice trial was long and arduous, but the results were clear; the doctor was negligent and his insurance carrier was required to pay for his medical malpractice. The hospital itself was not found to be negligent, because E.R. doctors are not hospital staff. They are contract staff.
The upshot of the case is that a patient that trusted the doctor to know what he was doing, no longer has a normal life, has to learn to write left-handed as she is completely paralyzed on her right side, and struggles through every day. She is no longer able to snowboard, ski, ride a bicycle or inline skate, and if she wants to go to her kid’s school, they have to help her walk. Apparently the doctor retired just shortly after the trial.
Not every medical malpractice is as devastating as this one, but it should be noted that medical malpractice cases that go to a jury trial are not in the least frivolous. Medical negligence lawyers do not take just any medical malpractice case to court. They take the ones with merit; the ones that cry out for justice. They take those where the victim’s life is catastrophically altered, and will never be the same again and the ones where medical care is enormously expensive, because a doctor did not know what he or she was doing.
If you suspect you have been the victim of medical malpractice, contact an experienced Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer. If you want your voice to be heard, to tell your story and what you are suffering through because of medical negligence, a Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer will be your voice; a voice that will obtain justice.
Christopher Mellino is a Cleveland Malpractice Lawyer specializing in Cleveland Medical Malpractice cases in Ohio. To learn more, visit Christophermellino.com.
