Our firm has a long history of successfully representing plaintiffs in medical malpractice actions and in prosecuting cases involving complicated surgical or medical problems in a wide variety of medical specialties. We have also represented plaintiffs in claims against pharmaceutical companies for serious personal injuries and death caused by adverse reactions to drugs.

Medical Malpractice

We regularly represent clients in negligence actions against health care providers including doctors, nurses, dentists, psychiatrists, technicians, hospitals and clinics for serious injuries and death caused by failure to administer the proper standard of care. Representative cases include claims alleging:

• failure to timely diagnose various types of cancer, including breast cancer;
• mismanagement of labor and delivery;
• failure to perform adequate prenatal testing or monitoring;
• improper interpretation of x-rays, MRI’s and other diagnostic procedures;
• failure to timely diagnose and treat various medical conditions;
• lack of informed consent to medical procedures;
• negligent surgery and post-operative care;
• psychiatric malpractice involving prescribed medications; and
• hospital malpractice for non-surgical treatment.

Our lawyers have established contacts with nationally recognized experts in virtually every medical specialty. We also have an experienced in-house support staff including personal injury paralegals with more than 15 years of experience reviewing medical records and performing factual investigation.

Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Liability

The firm has represented over 2,300 plaintiffs in litigation against the manufacturers of the diet drug Redux, and has successfully represented a plaintiff in a wrongful death case involving a popular antidepressant drug. We are also representing plaintiffs against the manufacturers of a birth control patch and defective heart devices. We have developed relationships with mass tort lawyers throughout the country, including the two attorneys most prominent in filing Vioxx suits in the United States. This network provides our clients with the benefits of accumulated discovery in similar lawsuits and assists us in selecting the most advantageous forum for clients’ cases. We also have access to world-class experts who can help us evaluate claims and will provide testimonial support for those with merit. Most importantly, our experience in dealing with issues that often arise in mass torts and other sophisticated products litigation enables us to provide highly effective representation to our clients in these complex matters.

Representative Matters:

• $2.9 million settlement of a wrongful-death claim on behalf of the estate of a woman who died after suffering acute liver failure following brief use of a popular antidepressant drug. Although the drug company had warned Canadian physicians and their patients of this potentially life-threatening adverse effect, no such warning had been given to American doctors and their patients, including the decedent;
• $1.5 million recovery on behalf of a patient (an experienced nurse) who alleged that her obstetrician subjected her to an unnecessary caesarean section despite her request to have a vaginal delivery. After the C-section, the plaintiff suffered severe gastrointestinal complication ultimately leading to several surgeries and post-traumatic stress disorder;
• $950,000 settlement on behalf of the plaintiff in a suit alleging negligent interpretation of a mammogram by the defendant radiologist and failure to diagnose breast cancer, thereby substantially increasing the plaintiff’s risk for recurrence of cancer and diminishing her chance for long-term survival;
• $900,000 settlement on behalf of plaintiffs' decedent in a wrongful death claim involving a 26-year-old man whose physicians failed to properly diagnose and treat a rare, but potentially fatal, reaction to his anti-psychotic medication;
• $750,000 settlement on behalf of a 79-year-old plaintiff in a suit against a vascular surgeon for negligent delay in operating on the plaintiff for peripheral vascular disease, resulting in above-the-knee amputation of the left leg, and against anesthesiologist for negligently failing to prevent and properly manage plaintiff’s hypotension during bypass surgery, resulting in paralysis;
• $1.5 million award in a jury trial of a negligence claim by a 48-year-old male plaintiff against a surgeon for failure to perform a sigmoidoscopy or pre-operative x-ray, prior to the performance of a sigmoid colon resection, to ascertain that the plaintiff’s rectum and colon were free from all residual barium from prior barium enemas. Following the operation, the plaintiff developed a severe intra-abdominal abscess, which was not properly treated and resulted in permanent loss of bowel function and a permanent colostomy;
• $750,000 settlement of wrongful death claim against an anesthesiologist for failure to properly manage the decedent's airway during routine gynecological surgery, leading to loss of oxygen, irreversible brain damage and death;
• $700,000 settlement of a claim against two doctors for failure to diagnose a leaking cerebral aneurysm in a 45-year-old male patient, resulting in his death from a subarachnoid hemorrhage three weeks later. The decedent was originally seen in the ambulatory care clinic by the physician on duty, who attributed his symptoms to a virus and prescribed Tylenol with codeine. Two days later, the decedent was seen by the second defendant physician for continued, unabated headache, stiff neck and nausea, and was again diagnosed as suffering from a “viral syndrome.” Plaintiff’s experts were prepared to testify that the decedent was experiencing a “warning leak” which could have been detected by CT scan or lumbar puncture and that had such a diagnosis been made, more likely than not, the aneurysm would have been surgically repaired and the decedent would have made a full recovery;
• $1.4 million recovery in a wrongful death claim involving a five-year-old girl who died after her right atrium was perforated by a catheter inserted during the course of her hospitalization at a Boston hospital. The child was being treated for serious but non-life-threatening orthopedic injuries from a lawnmower accident. Her parents claimed that the physicians in charge of her care failed to timely recognize and respond to the complication, permitting pericardial effusion which then resulted in cardiac tampanade causing the child’s death.

For more information regarding our medical malpractice and pharmaceutical liability experience, and how we can help you achieve your goals, please contact Michael S. Appel (Chair), at appel@srbc.com or 617-227-3030.

Related News:

August 17, 2010 -
$1.9 Million Partial Settlement for Estate of Abused Child
SRBC partners David Barry and Jeffrey Stern have obtained a $1.9 settlement with two of the defendants in an ongoing case on behalf of the estate of a severely abused child who eventually sustained a traumatic brain-stem injury that put her in a coma for several months, and left her permanently and deeply disabled. The settling defendants are a pediatrician and a nurse-practitioner who saw and treated the child, and, it was alleged, negligently accepted explanations for her injuries and thus failed to report clear signs of abuse. The case remains pending against several other health-care providers.

August 13, 2010 -
Eleven SRBC Partners Named to Annual "Best Lawyers in America" List

Eleven SRBC partners have been named to the 2011 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, an annual publication that calls itself "the definitive guide to legal excellence in the United States." This year's selections are based on surveys in which more than 3.1 million leading lawyers were asked to evaluate their professional peers.

The SRBC partners were recognized in nearly all of the firm's practice areas--see the list below (which for simplicity uses our own nomenclature rather than Best Lawyers').  And Tony Doniger was named in the prestigious separate category for "Bet-the-Company Litigation."

• Alternative Dispute Resolution (Jeffrey Stern, Natasha Lisman)
• Appeals (Susan Hartnett)
• Business Litigation (Ed Barshak, Tony Doniger, Natasha Lisman)
• Domestic Relations and Probate Litigation (Ed Barshak, Tony Doniger, Alan Geismer)
• Employment Law (Jean Musiker)
• Environmental Law (Lisa Goodheart)
• Insurance and Reinsurance (Sam Furgang, Susan Hartnett, Natasha Lisman, Regina Roman)
• Medical Malpractice & Pharmaceutical Liability (David Barry)
• Product Liability (David Barry)
• Professional Liability (Regina Roman)

May 11, 2010 -
Jeff Stern: Apologizing Doctors and Medical Malpractice
BBA partner Jeff Stern was a panelist at a May 11 Boston Bar Association program called "Medical Malpractice: Emerging Issues in Apology, Disclosure and Peer Review." The program included discussion of the impact in medical malpractice cases of institutional policies on apology and medical-error disclosure, and peer-review and privilege issues. Jeff offered a perspective based on his long experience handling and mediating medical malpractice cases.

April 15, 2010 -
Michael Appel Wins Retrial for Medical Malpractice Plaintiff

SRBC partner Michael Appel recently succeeded in persuading a superior court judge that a jury's verdict for the defendant doctor in a medical malpractice case was "against the weight of the evidence," such that the plaintiff was entitled to a new trial.

The case involved a 46 year-old man who suffered a knee injury while playing basketball. He underwent emergency surgery to repair a ruptured tendon, and was discharged. Days after the surgery, he was found dead in his home, from a massive pulmonary embolism resulting from deep-vein thrombosis caused by the operation. It then emerged that six years earlier, the patient had undergone the same surgery, and on that occasion too had suffered serious complications from deep-vein thrombosis. This history was shown in medical histories taken by two nurses prior to the second surgery. But the treating surgeon did not review these histories or discuss the subject with the nurses, and in his own interview with the patient inquired about the surgery but not whether the patient had suffered any complications. It was agreed at trial that the patient's prior history would have required different treatment and monitoring than he received. The key dispute was whether the applicable standard of care required the surgeon to do more to learn about the patient's surgical history.

The jury returned a verdict for the surgeon, but sent a note indicating that it had struggled with the evidence presented as to the standard of care. Following trial Michael moved on behalf of the patient's estate for a new trial, arguing that the verdict was so much against the weight of the evidence that this was a rare case in which the court should grant a new trial. The trial judge agreed--noting in particular the rather equivocal testimony of the defense expert as to what inquiry of the patient by the surgeon the standard of care required. A new trial will be scheduled soon.

Read the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly arti

May 01, 2009 -
Tony Agudelo to Appear at Bar Association Health Law Conference

On June 5th, SRBC partner Tony Agudelo will be a speaker at the 2009 Massachusetts Bar Association Health Law Conference. His presentation will focus on recent medical-negligence cases. For more information and to register, follow the link.

September 16, 2008 -
SRBC and Co-Counsel File Fraud Suit On Behalf of Consumers of Dietary Supplements
Consumers in sixteen states have filed lawsuits against Canadian company Wellnx Life Sciences, which markets and sells three dietary supplements throughout the United States, and against its owners and senior managers. The cases, which are pending in federal courts and consolidated in U.S. District Court in Boston, accuse Wellnx and its owners of deceiving consumers with false claims about what was in its products and their ability to cause “rapid weight loss.” David Barry of SRBC, one of the lead attorneys for the plaintiffs, commented, “Thousands of American women have put their faith in these supposed cures for obesity…were misled and cheated out of millions of dollars when Wellnx lied about what was in its products and what they would do to help them lose weight.”

September 08, 2008 -
Michael Appel Elected to American Board of Trial Advocates
SRBC partner Michael Appel was recently elected to membership in the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). Founded in 1958, ABOTA is a national association of trial lawyers and judges dedicated to the preservation of the right to civil trial by jury. Membership is limited to attorneys who have extensive jury trial experience and who exhibit “high personal character and honorable reputation.” Michael concentrates his practice in medical malpractice and product liability litigation.