We have a record of securing large financial awards on behalf of our clients. These are just a few of our successes:
• Jane and John Doe v. Hospital XYZ (King County, Washington) A 53 year old father suffered from an abdominal aortic aneurysm and underwent surgery to repair it. After being incubated, ventilated and placed in CCU, the client was under 24 hour care to monitor his tracheotomy. As the patient improved, he was transferred from CCU to a step down floor. Because of the ongoing development of mucus, which required suctioning of his tracheotomy, it was important that the patient be monitored, assessed and suctioned, if necessary, every two (2) hours by the attending nurses or respiratory therapists. After the patient’s transfer to the step down floor, he was not regularly monitored and suctioned. Over one stretch, during his first night, the patient was not assessed or monitored, at one point, for over five (5) hours. As a result, the client through a mucus plug, could not breath and went into respiratory arrest and heart failure, nearly dying. The patient was revived but suffered catastrophic brain damage. He now requires care 24-7 by his wife. Settlement $2,500,000.
• Bond v. Valley Medical Center (King County, Washington) Michael Bond, a 37 year old construction worker, went into the hospital complaining of an ailment. Incidental films showed a mass and a follow up CT scan was read incorrectly to show it was cancerous. The attending surgeon, who held himself out as both a thoracic and general surgeon, ordered the patient to undergo a mediastinoscopy to biopsy this alleged mass. During this biopsy of the mass, the surgeon was exploring an area no where near the site of the alleged mass and perforated the esophagus. The patient was sent home and returned within one hour complaining of horrific pain. The client was admitted and the classic signs and symptoms of an esophageal perforation were not diagnosed and treated for over three days whereupon the patient was taken to the University of Washington for emergency surgery to repair and reconstruct his esophagus. The patient now has troubles swallowing, often regurgitates and has difficulty sleeping at night. According to plaintiff’s experts, the surgeon misread the films as this mass was a cyst and did not need to be biopsied and that the surgeon performed the mediastinoscopy the wrong way.
The case settled for $1,200,000.
• The Estate of Jane Doe v. Hospital: A retired patient went in for heart surgery and removal of an intra-aortic balloon pump from her femoral artery in her leg. After the IABP was removed, the client bled internally. The retroperitoneal bleed was not timely diagnoses post surgery and the patient bled to death. The Estate settled for $750,000.
•The Estate of Jane Doe v. Dr . Anesthesiologist: A patient with obvious facial and neck deformities went in for a routine D & C. Preoperatively, the anesthesiologist treated the intubation as a normal one despite the patients apparent deformities and dysmorphic features. The physician proceeded to put the patient to sleep with conventional intubation but was unable to find an airway. Because the patient was overly sedated, the doctor was unable to timely awaken the patient from the paralytic drugs, which were used to put the patient to sleep, after she was unable to intubate and establish an airway in a timely fashion. As a result, the patient suffered severe hypoxia and brain damage and died one week later. The matter settled for $750,000.
• Jane Doe v. John Doe and Budget Rental Car company: Snohomish County Superior Court No. 03-2-09292-2 . A 35 year old woman after a motor vehicle accident underwent multiple injections in to her cervical and lumbar spine, under went radiofrequency treatments to her spine along with a rhizotomy but still had limitations and discomfort after 4 years of treatment. Total Settlement $210,000.
• Jane Doe v. John Doe driver: King County Superior Court No. 02-2-26432-8 Seattle recovered $500,000 as a total settlement after her fibromyalgia was aggravated in a car accident of May 2000. She contended that as a result of the MVA, she suffered from spinal injuries to her neck and low back, radiculopathy, and a worsening of her pre-existing fibromyalgia. As an employee at Microsoft with a stellar record, she was forced to miss about one year of work off and on over 4 years. According to her rheumatologists, she could not return to such a high stress job as the extra hours and demands of being bent over a computer for most of the day made her injuries worse and caused her to lose sleep due to discomfort. The combination of the job aggravating her injuries from the MVA and resulting loss of sleep caused her fibromyalgia to worsen so that the treating doctors told her to find a 30-40 hour a week job rather than a 50-60 one as at MSFT for her health. Given that she was a large wage earner, the insurer agreed to pay it’s half million dollar policy limit to settle the case. 2004 settlement for $500,000.
• Judy Doe v. a pay day loan John Doe Company: Snohomish County Superior Court. 40 year old woman, who had worked for this national company for 5 years finally had enough harassment from a number of men in an old boys network of locations within a company. As one of the highest ranking women in this company, once she said enough, she was told to take a vacation, her email was cut off, and she was told not to call anyone in this company. Plaintiff considered this retaliation and a constructive discharge. Settlement for $175,000 in 2004. Employment Discrimination and wrongful discharge.
• Jane Doe v. Health Care Center (Superior Court - confidentiality settlement). Patient suffered from horrific headaches, “worst headache ever”, nausea, vomiting, blurred and double vision and was told she had the flu. Over several weeks no imaging studies were ordered of the patient’s brain to rule out an intracranial bleed or subarachnoid hemorrhage. Because of the failure of multiple healthcare providers to consider a subarachnoid hemorrhage and to rule one out by ordering a CT or MRI scan of the brain, the patient’s aneurysm ruptured causing a massive hemorrhage and permanent brain damage. Total settlement $2,500,000+
• John Doe v. Hospital and Doctor, (Superior Court - Confidentiality Settlement) Baby suffered from hypoxia and traumatic brain injury during birth caused by negligence of treating doctor and hospital nursing staff. Baby was born cortically blind and with cerebral palsy and other multiple birth defects. Plaintiffs contended this was caused by medical negligence during birthing. Total settlement $2,825,000.
• John and Jane Doe v. HMO facility: The health care provider failed to diagnosis an intracranial aneurysm which ruptured and caused permanent brain damage to a 54 year old mother, grandmother and house wife. She will never work again and need care 24/7. Case settled one month before trial for $2,500,000+.