Trial magazine of the American Association of Justice reported a half-dozen notable “Verdicts and Settlements” in its February 2013 issue. Three were variants of medical negligence. Id. at 8-11.
A Georgia jury awarded $3,400,000.00 for medical malpractice against a clinic physician’s assistant using a dirty syringe needle that caused staph infection, painful sepsis, and ultimate suicide. Id. at 10. Also, a $1,000,000.00 settlement was paid in California for a jail suicide were a mental health professional returned a depressed schizoaffective detainee to the general prison population while awaiting transfer to a psychiatric hospital.
A confidential settlement was paid for a wrongful death in Greater Pittsburgh where ambulance crews failed to pick-up a heart attack victim during a heavy snow storm. The dispatcher required the immobile patient to walk his unplowed street to the ambulance instead of having the crew walk to the patient or use a four-wheel drive vehicle.
