Washington Injury Law Blog

Imagine your pregnant with your second child when some bad contractions hit that send you straight to the hospital. You had previous complications with your first pregnancy and you’re very concerned. As you’re checking in, the hospital staff allows the only on-duty baby doctor to go home for dinner despite knowing you, as a high risk patient, have entered the hospital.  In the time the doctor is at home having dinner your unborn baby’s heart beat is unsteady and dropping. The nurses see this but don’t call the doctor back to the hospital for another 20 minutes.

Your unborn baby has been suffocating for 20 minutes before the nurses call the doctor back to the hospital. Tragically the doctor is not told how urgent the situation is and that he needs to drop everything and get back immediately. Instead it takes the doctor 13 more minutes to travel the 2 miles from his home back to the hospital. When the doctor arrives he’s surprised you’re not already in the operating room for an emergency c-section, but there’s no time now. The doctor performs the surgery right there in your room, delivering your limp baby girl with no heartbeat. Your baby is revived but not before suffering profound brain damage and being left with severe cerebral palsy. Tragic and preventable medical malpractice has altered your baby’s life forever!

This is what Sharla Tavares had to go through when she delivered her daughter Miriam in May 2003. A King County Jury awarded $4.2 Million yesterday to Miriam as a result of her injuries suffered at birth due to the negligence of Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland, Washington.

Unfortunately money cannot make up for all that Miriam has suffered. She cannot walk, talk or eat through her mouth. Her hands and feet are disfigured, her vision is impaired, and she is only expected to live at the longest into her 40s. No money can heal her injuries, but the money can provide for the medical care she’ll need for the rest of her life.

The Hospital of course denies all liability and claims Miriam was injured before her mother showed up at Evergreen Hospital. The hospital plans to appeal the jury’s verdict.

As a Washington Injury Attorney who handles medical malpractices cases, I’m always shocked that these kinds of preventable medical errors happen all too frequently. An estimated 98,000 deaths occur each year as a result of preventable medical errors, and thousands more like Miriam are injured each year. It’s cases like Miriam’s that motivate me and keep me fighting against the insurance companies and large corporations that refuse to take responsibility for their medical malpractice when it injures people like Miriam.

It’s good to hear that eventhough Medical Malpractice cases are some of the hardest to win, 60-70% of the time the injury victim loses, that King County juries do find in favor of the injury victim when the facts justify the outcome.

If you or someone you know has experienced a significant injury due to a medical error or medical amlpractice please contact me as soon as possible to discuss your rights.

Max Meyers, Esq.

Source:  Seattle PI, 10/10/08