Q: “Do you believe wrong site surgery should never happen?”

A: I think we do everything we can do to minimize risk of things like that, but I don’t believe the world is perfect, no.

Q: But would you argree that, we both know it happens..wrong people get operated on, wrong organs get removed, but my question to you is different. Don’t you agree is should never happen?

A: I answered the question

Q: Then your answer is that it should happen?

A: maybe the court reporter can read back the answer. [court reporter read back answer, above]

The physician has been deposed. His deposition is here. Love to hear what others think.

Ms. Lopez was like many mothers, who opted for cosmetic surgery to make herself feel more attractive after having children.  The 36-year-old mother of four elected to have a breast lift and augmentation, liposuction, and a tummy tuck.  Just one hour after her operation, Ms. Lopez was sent home, despite that she was allegedly having trouble breathing. In the words of her family’s lawyer, Kenneth Wills, she was “whisked out the door.”

Supposedly, Ms. Lopez was not only having breathing problems, she was also experiencing dizziness, fever, concentration and difficulty moving, following the surgery performed by Dr. Matthew Galumbeck.  The next day, her sister reportedly called a nurse out of concern over Ms. Lopez’s symptoms, but according to Mr. Wills, no one followed up.  That evening, Ms. Lopez’s daughter found her mother in bed, unresponsive.

Based on the autopsy, she died of aspiration pneumonia, which was the result of the contents of her stomach traveling into her esophagus and down her trachea into her lungs.

What did Dr. Galumbeck have to say about the situation?  He testified that his patient, Ms. Lopez, did not have any complications during the operation.  The doctor said that he reviewed her medical records before she left the recovery room and did not notice any warning signs of distress.

Dr. Galumbeck’s attorney argued that his client did not violate the standards of care.  Mr. Wills put it differently – “what matters in this case is this lady had plastic surgery, she was ignored and she died.”

UPDATE 10/5/2010:

Following the jury’s decision, the defendant’s attorney filed a motion to set aside the verdict.  However, on Friday, October 1st, Circuit Court Judge Edward W. Hanson Jr.  denied the motion and upheld the jury verdict.

Mr. Wills was quoted as saying, “I think that the decision was correct. She left four children. Three of them are very young and will have many, many years without their mother.”

Dr. Mark Greenawald, a chairman of the department of family medicine at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and the director of medical student education at Carilion Clinic, supposedly violated standards for prescribing controlled substances to two patients.  He had allegedly improperly prescribed two versions of the sleep drug, Ambien.  Dr. Greenawald is now being required to complete 15 hours of continuing education classes on prescribing controlled substances.

According to a consent agreement between Dr. Greenawald and the board, he prescribed 676 Ambien CR pills and 225 Ambien pills during a 274-day period for just one patient.  That equates to three pills a day.  Apparently, this patient was also getting pills from other doctors.

Dr. Greenawald prescribed another patient 800 Ambien CR pills for a 319-day period.  He informed state investigators that once he realized the frequency of prescriptions, he stopped prescribing the drugs to the patient.

This case is not isolated.
Improper prescribing of drugs is the most common violation that is handled by the board of medicine.  According to Dr. William Harp, executive director of the Virginia Board of Medicine, over the past five years, the board has discovered about 32 violations a year involving prescriptions.

Four other Virginia physicians have recently been found to be in violation of standards by the board, some of which included improper prescribing.  Two of these doctors’ violations were considered to be severe enough to cause them to lose their right to practice medicine.

What happens if you find yourself injured due to medical negligence? Read Virginia medical malpractice attorney Ben Glass’s book, Why Most Medical Malpractice Victims Never Recover a Dime, for more information.

The following is a list of the top five misdiagnosed illnesses, based on the article:

1.   Cancer: Research has found cancer to be the most commonly misdiagnosed illness. It is believed that the rate of misdiagnosed cancer cases is partially tied with doctors’ failure to stick with cancer screening guidelines.

2.   Infection: A Harvard study found infection to be the second most misdiagnosed condition.

3.    Aortic disease: The symptoms of aortic disease are sometimes not interpreted correctly and are associated with other conditions.  In some cases, this type of disease is misdiagnosed as heartburn.

4.    Hear attack: Despite what Hollywood depicts in movies, sometimes the symptoms of a heart attack are subtle.

5.    Clogged arteries: This condition has some of the same warning signs of less serious illnesses.  Shortness of breath is one of the symptoms, which is frequently attributed to a patient being out of shape.

In some instances, a misdiagnosed illness can be considered medical malpractice. However, these cases are not easy to win.

To find out more about medical malpractice lawsuits, order a copy of Virginia medical malpractice attorney Ben Glass’s book, Why Most Medical Malpractice Victims Never Recover a Dime.

The local hometown paper in Fredericksburg has picked up on the story and here’s a link to it.

In one case it took a surgeon’s insurance company months to respond to a demand when the doctor had clearly operated on the wrong body part. Amazingly, after months of “evaluating” the case, they said “no payment.” (That doctor is now facing a medical board inquiry.)

In another case the hospital and surgeons left a sponge a patient after surgery. We wrote a fair demand package and provided all of the records. We gave them 30 days to respond.

Didn’t even get the courtesy of a response, for over three months.

Their response? “We need more time–please don’t sue us.”

All of these delays allow the insurance companies to bank millions in investment income while injured party, the one who ends up suing, winds up being called a “liar, cheat and fraud” because he had the temerity to file suit.

Lest there be no mistake about what actually happened, including the fact that the hospital’s attorney has actually filed a bar complaint about the attorney blogger he is litigating against, we have obtained the transcript of the hearing.

The judge said “no” to the hospital’s attempt to have the attorney remove the blog post. Read this interesting transcript about an attorney’s right to truthfully blog about a case and arrive at your own decision.

Here is a very interesting transcript that is wealth worth the read and will give you an “insider’s look” at a real medical malpractice case.

All credit to Newport News attorney Avery Waterman for continuing the fight to bring to light all relevant facts in a medical malpractice case in order that juries, judges and the public can see and arrive at their own decision.

Here is the medical malpractice transcript regarding incident reports and whether they should remain secret or not.