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Tag: orthopedic surgery malpractice

Florida Court: MedMal Testimony Must Be From Expert In Same Specialty

Posted on by Burton Bentley II, M.D FAAEM

The Florida Appeals Court in Osceola County rejected a medical malpractice lawsuit by a plaintiff against her orthopedic surgeon. The plaintiff alleges that she suffered a broken femur during a hip replacement surgery. Although the plaintiff submitted opinions from an emergency room physician, a radiologist and a nurse, defendants argued that the expert opinions did not meet the requirements of the law because the testimony did not come from healthcare professionals in the same medical specialty as her surgeon.

Medical malpractice litigation requires a medical expert witness who has experience in the same specialty as the defendants. These experts compare what the defendant did or neglected to do against the standard of care in that medical field. The expert witness should practice a medical specialty pertaining to the case.

Litigation in orthopedic surgery may arise from a poor surgical outcome which resulted in a loss of function.  Allegations include improper surgical technique, infection, or other complications. The orthopedic surgery expert witness examines the material facts of the case which include medical records as well as lay witness testimony. These medical experts play a vital role in assessing case strength. It is therefore imperative to identify and select outstanding experts at the earliest possible opportunity. Elite Medical Experts provides leading university healthcare experts hand-selected to provide medical testimony regarding medical negligence. Contact Elite to be connected with a full-time practicing professor whose expertise is tailored to the fact pattern in your case.

Biojoint Litigation 2

Posted on by Burton Bentley II, M.D FAAEM

Following Biojoint surgery on his knees, plaintiff Ken Browne filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against James Stannard, medical director of the Missouri Orthopaedic Institute, James Cook, a veterinarian who is director of operations at the institute, and the University of Missouri Healthcare center. While Stannard described both Mizzou Biojoint surgeries a success, Browne experienced long-term pain and swelling in both knees. He then underwent standard knee replacement surgery.

Ken Browne first saw James Stannard in October 2015, when Stannard recommended a Biojoint procedure instead of standard knee replacement surgery on his left knee. A year after the Biojoint surgery, Browne complained of pain and swelling in that knee. Browne subsequently had Biojoint surgery on his right knee in August 2017.  In February 2018, Browne repeatedly complained about pain but Stannard’s medical notes, as revealed in court, stated that both surgeries had gone extremely well. In April, Stannard agreed that both surgeries had failed and recommended standard knee replacement. Browne filed a medical negligence lawsuit in Boone County Circuit Court.

Two previous medical malpractice lawsuits against Stannard, Cook, and the University of Missouri Healthcare center were filed on behalf of Daniel Draper and Amanda Reinsch.

Orthopedic Surgery Expert Witnesses & Biojoint Litigation (March 22, 2018)  reported:

Two patients at the Mizzou Biojoint Center in Columbia, MO, have filed lawsuits alleging medical negligence following knee surgery. The 13th Judicial Circuit of Missouri lawsuit charges James Stannard, MD, medical director for the Mizzou Biojoint Center, and James Cook, DVM, PHD, OTSC, director of operations and scientific director of the center, with not disclosing that the surgeries were experimental.  Plaintiffs Amanda Reinsch and Daniel Draper were also not advised that Cook is not a medical doctor, nor was he a licensed physician at the time.

Plaintiffs Reinsch and Draper allege that Stannard failed to tell them they were not proper candidates for the surgery. Their body mass indexes were both above 35 and Reinsch was not nicotine free.

Draper was an active duty member of the U.S. Army. He underwent a second Mizzou Biojoint surgery when the first was unsuccessful. Draper eventually underwent a total knee replacement following the two unsuccessful Biojoint surgeries. Draper states that he lost the ability to continue his career in the military and can no longer live independently.

Stannard recommended the Mizzou Biojoint surgery to Reinsch in 2016. She had pain following the procedure and had two additional follow up surgeries. A second opinion led to a total knee replacement by a different surgeon who found that Reinsch’s knee was infected with staph bacteria. She reports irreversible and permanent damage to her knee.

Allegations of medical malpractice against orthopedic surgeons usually stem from medical complications, poor surgical outcomes, and/or a possible loss of function. Biojoint surgery is an involved type of allograft. In the procedure, tissue is harvested from a cadaver for transplantation into another person. The complications may include infection, reoperation, Biojoint rejection, and Biojoint failure.  Orthopedic surgery expert witnesses provide an educated and unbiased opinion regarding the medical standard of care in these lawsuits. Contact ELITE Medical Experts to secure a leading orthopedic surgery expert from a major US academic medical center.

 

 

Concurrent Surgeries & The Orthopedic Surgery Expert Witness

Posted on by Burton Bentley II, M.D FAAEM

A Boston jury has determined that a spine surgeon, did not cause his patient’s quadriplegia following surgery in 2012. The surgeon, Chief of orthopedic spine service, performed two complicated surgeries during the same time frame. The patient sued the surgeon for malpractice following an eleven hour surgery that left him paralyzed. The jury concluded that the doctor’s divided attention did not cause the patient’s quadriplegia.

Concerns over concurrent and overlapping surgeries have come to the attention of hospitals and the public. The Senate Finance Committee released a report in December 2016 that calls for a ban on concurrent surgeries and more regulations on overlapping surgeries. The Senate Finance Committee has jurisdiction over the Medicare and Medicaid programs and part of its oversight responsibility is to improve patient safety and transparency. In December 2015, Committee staff became aware of overlapping, concurrent, and simultaneous surgeries reported in a Boston Globe article. The American College of Surgeons Statements on Principles, revised April 12, 2016, found that “A primary attending surgeon’s involvement in concurrent or simultaneous surgeries on two different patients in two different rooms is not appropriate.”

In the case Boston case, the jury found that while the spine surgeon failed to inform the patient that he planned to operate on two patients at once, the jury decided that the doctor’s divided attention did not cause his quadriplegia. Judge Edward Leibensperger instructed jurors that they could only consider whether the medical treatment the patient received “deviated from established standards of care and caused his injury” (Boston Globe, 1/30/2017). Judge Leibensperger is a member of the Business Litigation Session of the Superior Court of Massachusetts.

When the attending surgeon is managing more than one case at the same time, he or she may be away from one of those patients for an extended period of time.  If complications arise, the patient may question whether “double-booking” was an appropriate medical procedure and bring allegations of medical negligence.

A 2019 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed nearly 12 percent of the 66,000 operations studied had some overlap with another case. For the majority of overlapping surgeries, we found no increase in deaths or overall complications compared to surgeries that did not overlap.  A subset of complications — major complications such as stroke and heart attack — were slightly higher.

The study found small increases in deaths and complications for overlapping surgeries involving coronary artery bypass grafting and high-risk patients. In both of these groups, small errors in surgical care could have harmful effects.

 

Orthopedic Hardware Failure and Shoulder Injury

Posted on by Burton Bentley II, M.D FAAEM

E-CASE STUDIES are brief clinical vignettes based upon actual cases handled by ELITE. Identifying information has been redacted or altered to protect case confidentiality.

FOCUS

A damaged orthopedic anchor results in permanent shoulder injury.

 

BACKGROUND

Orthopedic surgeons routinely deploy specialized surgical hardware such as pins, rods, nails, screws, and anchors. Improperly placed or damaged hardware can result in severe complications.

 

CASE

A 32-year-old man underwent a routine shoulder surgery utilizing an anchor. The anchor was apparently deformed during surgical insertion, but the surgeon proceeded utilizing the same anchor. The patient developed persistent pain and finally sought a second opinion two years later. The new surgeon found that the original anchor was both damaged and misplaced, resulting in chondrolysis and erosion of the humeral head. The patient required a total shoulder arthroplasty.

 

ELITE’S ROLE

Our physician-led team was asked to secure an orthopedic surgery expert witness with extensive experience in shoulder surgery. At no additional cost, ELITE reviewed the medical records to look for other issues and to identify the exact type of anchor system used in the patient’s case.

 

THE MEDICAL EXPERTS

ELITE rapidly secured a top-tier Professor of Orthopedic Surgery from a major West Coast medical university. The ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY expert witness had performed over 1000 shoulder surgeries and routinely deployed the same anchor system specified in the patient’s medical records.

 

OUTCOME

The orthopedic surgery  expert witness opined that the damaged anchor resulted in hardware migration that caused chondrolysis and pain. The orthopedic surgery expert also testified that the two year delay in removing the anchor caused additional damage to the shoulder such that it required a total arthroplasty rather than a simple revision.

Contact Elite today to secure a orthopedic surgery medical expert for your case.