Baltimore Malpractice Verdict

The Maryland Daily Record reports on a Carroll County electrician who was recently awarded $2.3 million in a medical malpractice case by a Baltimore City jury. After a week long trial, the jury found the defendant doctor negligence for piercing the plaintiff’s spinal cord during a pain relief procedure.

The plaintiff, an electrician, now has a right arm which has atrophied and suffers from numbness and pain in his legs. He originally went to the defendant doctor after suffering a herniated disc injury.

At trial, two other physicians testified who spoke with the defendant who admitted that his needle hit the spinal cord during the procedure. Also introduced into evidence was a medical record which stated that the needle might have hit the spinal cord.

Not suprisingly given the current medical malpractice climate with some malpractice insurance companies, even with this powerful evidence the insurance company/doctor made no offers to settle this medical malpractice case.

The defendant doctor was named a “Top Doctor” by Baltimore Magazine in 2005. As I have written before in the context of ranking doctors and lawyers, while these rankings can sometimes be helpful to some people in some circumstances, the designation of “Top Doctor” is usually done by polling other doctors, who are presumably friends, colleagues, and acquaintances of the doctors in question and not necessarily in the best position to make the call. That is not to say that these doctors are not great physicians because most doctors voted "Top Doctor" probably are. Thus, such an award or recognition is of probative value in choosing a doctor. But too many people trying to make a quality decision as to the doctor or lawyer that is best for them stop at such a lofty designation when it is really only the beginning in considering the person who is best for you and your needs.