Verdicts & Settlements

Here is a sampling of malpractice cases and other serious injury cases that our lawyers have handled. Remember that each case is different. We’ve won more damages in cases than we expected, and we’ve lost cases we expected to win. Once a case is in the hands of the jury, it is out of our control. We do believe, however, that significant trial experience in big cases is one factor that may cause people to choose one attorney over another. Many of our clients have told us that this is true. With these disclaimers in mind, here are some of our cases:

Settlement For Anesthesia Error

A toddler child of our client went to a hospital for routine dental work. The child was anesthetized by a nurse anesthetist who was not supervised by an anesthesiologist. The nurse anesthetist overdosed the child with narcotics, and neither the nurse anesthetist nor the dentist kept an eye on the child following the surgery. The nurse who was assigned to the child following the surgery was not qualified to care for pediatric patients and put an adult oxygenation monitor on the child that did not fit. The child suffered severe, permanent brain damage as a result of the medical negligence.

Settlement For Failure To Timely Evaluate And Treat Infection Resulting In Severe Brain Damage

Clients of ours had a child who was born with a known bowel problem and a known high risk for bowel perforation. A doctor and the hospital failed to timely evaluate and treat signs of bowel perforation, which resulted in shock, brain damage and blindness.

Settlement For Birth Trauma

Our client gave birth in a hospital. The doctor delivering the baby did not know how to read and interpret the fetal monitor. Because the doctor did not know how to read and interpret the fetal monitor, the doctor did not recognize when the baby began to be deprived of oxygen during the birthing process. The child was born with a type of brain damage called Cerebral Palsy.

Settlement For Brain Injury From Bleeding

A client of ours who was 39 weeks pregnant called for an ambulance when she woke up bleeding. She was taken to a hospital where the doctors negligently failed to recognize that she needed a blood transfusion. Instead, she was allowed to bleed until she went into cardiac arrest and suffered permanent brain damage.

Settlement For Brain Injury From Jaundice

A client of ours gave birth to a daughter at a hospital. The pediatrician recognized that the baby was jaundiced at less than 30 hours of life, but did not order a simple blood test to check the baby’s level of bilirubin. The baby was discharged without being put under bilirubin lights. It turned out that the baby had a dangerously high level of bilirubin that resulted in kernicterus, a form of brain damage caused by excess bilirubin.

Settlement For Wrongful Death Of Post-Operative Patient

Our client’s parent was admitted to a hospital for a bowel surgery. Post-operatively her respiratory status progressively declined with no appropriate interventions by the nursing staff, which led to her death.

Bernalillo County Jury Awards $2,500,000 For Wrongful Death

The 82-year-old husband of our client fell down a flight of stairs at a local Zip Lube shop and died. The open and unguarded stairwell was located in an unlit hallway open to the public. The three Albuquerque police officers who investigated the death testified at trial that the hallway was dark and that the stairs were open and unguarded. The most the insurance company for Zip Lube offered prior to trial was $50,000.

$2,100,000 Jury Verdict For A Cut Common Bile Duct

Our client had his gallbladder removed by a surgeon at the Presbyterian Hospital in Espanola, New Mexico. During the laparoscopic cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal), the surgeon negligently severed our client’s common bile duct and common hepatic artery. While his medical bills were only approximately $35,000 at the time of trial, we demonstrated to the jury that our client was likely to need a liver transplant sometime in the next twenty years due to the negligence. In post trial motions the Judge awarded almost $400,000 in post judgment interest because the hospital’s pre-trial offer was so far below the jury verdict.

$1,500,000 Jury Verdict For Wrongful Death

The mother of our client went to her Lovelace family practice doctor complaining of chest discomfort and shortness of breath. The family practice doctor did not perform a cardiac workup, but instead told her she had chronic bronchitis. A few days after her last doctor’s appointment, she suffered a fatal heart attack and died at home. The most the insurance company for Lovelace Hospital offered prior to trial was $250,000.

$1,100,000 Jury Verdict For Wrongful Death

The husband of our client was admitted to the Presbyterian Hospital in Clovis, New Mexico, for a suspected heart attack. The cardiologist negligently failed to administer a clot buster in a timely fashion. In addition, the nurses negligently failed to notify the doctor when his cardiac monitor showed that his condition was worsening. He was retired at the time of his death and the jury awarded $1,100,000 for the value of his life aside from his earning capacity.