Medical Review Panel Case Studies

Medical Review Panels
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In Louisiana, before a patient can institute a lawsuit, he must first present the case to a Medical Review Panel. A Medical Review Panel is made up of three physicians in the same specialty as the physician who is accused of malpractice. The Louisiana Medical Malpractice Act allows the plaintiff or patient to pick one member of the panel, the accused or defendant doctor to pick the second member of the panel, and those two physicians get together and agree on the third member of the Medical Review Panel. Statistics show that approximately 95% of all Medical Review Panels rule in favor of the doctors and against the patients. Once the Medical Review Panel gives its opinion, the patient has 90 days to file a lawsuit in a State district court. However, the opinion of the Medical Review Panel is admissible as evidence at the trial of the case and the Medical Review Panel members may testify at trial regarding their opinion. Since the Medical Review Panel opinion and the testimony of the Medical Review Panelists is admissible at trial, it is extremely important, and sometimes critical to try and win the case at the Medical Review Panel level. However, since 95% of the Medical Review Panels go in favor of the doctors, this is a very difficult task. Only the most experienced and top medical malpractice attorneys consistently win Medical Review Panels. Listed below are recent Medical Review Panel victories our attorneys have accomplished. The rate of success that our attorneys have had at the Medical Review Panel is at or above the highest rate of any Louisiana attorney. ........................................................................................................................................................ The foregoing results were dependant upon the facts of each case. Even though your case may appear to be similar, every case is different and similar results may not be obtained in your case. › RESULTS OBTAINED DEPEND ON THE FACTS OF EACH CASE. › PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS.

Performing Back Surgery Under The Influence of Non-Prescription Drugs
Panel found a question of fact existed as to whether physician who performed back fusion surgery was under the influence of non-prescription drugs at the time of the surgery. Surgeon could not confirm under oath that he was not high at the time of the surgery. Panel found that if Louisiana law required physician to disclose his drug addiction problem to patient as part of informed consent, physician breached the standard of care in failing to inform this patient.

Failure to Diagnose Heart Attack in Touro Emergency Room
Unanimous opinion that triage nurse breached the standard of care by failing to categorize the patient as urgent which caused more than 2 hours delay in treatment of ongoing heart attack from which a 35 year old patient died.

Failure to Diagose Heart Attack in Jennings American Legion E.R.
Unanimous opinion that hospital nurses and emergency room physician breached the standard of care in allowing a woman who was suffering from a heart attack to wait 5 hours in the emergency room without treatment. Once she was taken to the back the emergency room physican failed to institute heart attack protocol.

Complete Transsection of Superficial Peroneal Nerve During Fasciotomy
Majority panel opinion found that surgeon breached the standard of care when he completely transsected the superfical peroneal nerve during a fasciotomy surgery for suspected compartment syndrome. Panel determined that complete transsection was not an ordinary risk of the surgery.

Failure to Diagnose and Treat Heart Attack At Meadowcrest Hospital Date:
Panel unanimously found that gastroenterologist breached the standard of care in failing to diagnose and timely institute treatment for a woman who was having a heart attack. Physician admitted her from the E.R. and did not consult cardiologist on a stat basis after receiving lab work indicated patient had elevated cardiac enzymes and had a positive EKG.

Failure to Offer Routine Colon Cancer Screening Is Negligence
Panel unanimously found that it was a breach of the standard of care for a primary health care provider to fail to offer a 72 year old patient routine cancer screening even where she was not experiencing any symptoms (such as a bloody stool). Patient died from colon cancer 2 years after she began seeing her primary care physician. The panel determined that every person over the age of 50 is supposed to have screening for colon cancer even if they have no symptoms.

Failure to Diagnose Heart Attack In Terrebone General E.R.
Panel found that emergency room physician breached the standard of care when he failed to consider and treat symptoms which turned out to be a heart attack. He treated patient for gastrointestinal problems and discharged her. She had a massive heart attack the next morning and died from it a few days later.

Prolonged Exposure to Surgical Tourniquet At Charity Hospital
Panel unanimously found that nurses at Charity Hospital in New Orleans breached the standard of care in inflating a tourniquet on a patient's leg for over 4 hours without telling the surgeon. Patient suffered extreme compartment syndrome in his leg. Surgeon testified that she did not order the tourniquet to be inflated and was unaware it was inflated at all during the surgery.