Posts Tagged ‘medical malpractice suit’

A Columbia County jury awarded $1.5 million to the family of a patient whose pulmonary hemorrhage was allegedly misdiagnosed by a Bloomsburg doctor. The law firm of Dougherty, Leventhal & Price filed a medical malpractice suit on behalf of the family of Bruce Whitmire, 43, against the doctor, Donald A. Remaly, alleging he had mistakenly treated Whitmire for pneumonia.

“What killed him was that he was allowed to bleed into his lungs for three weeks,” said personal injury attorney Patrick Dougherty, who along with Attorney Brian Walsh represented the Whitmires. Whitmire, a truck driver, died on April 10, 2000.

A Columbia County jury found Remaly negligent in his care of Whitmire. It awarded $444,000 in damages to the victim’s family, $5,067 to cover the cost of Whitmire’s funeral and $1,050,933 to compensate for his suffering and mental and physical pain. This represents the largest jury verdict in the history of Columbia County.

In a recent decision issued March 27, 2007, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania affirmed a trial court decision which dismissed a medical malpractice suit based upon plaintiff’s failure to file the requisite certificate of merit.
In Shon v. Karason, the Court held that the patient’s complaint did not set forth a claim of lack of informed consent or a claim of negligent conduct independent of a professional duty. Instead, the complaint set forth a claim of professional negligence, such that certificate of merit was required. In the complaint, the patient alleged that he suffered various injuries and damages solely as a result of the negligence and substandard care of podiatrist in removing neuroma on patient’s foot, and patient alleged that podiatrist’s professional conduct fell below the standard of care.
The Superior Court stated that the defendant podiatrist’s corporation fell within the definition of health care or professional medical services for purposes of the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error (MCARE) Act’s definition of health care provider. Allowing the corporation, which functioned as podiatry center, to conduct business in Pennsylvania sufficed as “approval” by the Commonwealth, as required by MCARE Act, and as such, the corporation constituted a licensed professional and was a “health care provider” under MCARE Act, such that a certificate of merit was required to maintain an action in professional negligence.
Thomas P. Cummings, Esq.