Medical Malpractice Attorney in San Francisco, California
Can you tell us about a memorable hospital malpractice case you handled?
Can you tell us about a memorable hospital malpractice case you handled?
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last year we had a very significant very
sad case involving a young man who
walked into the hospital with what was
clearly concerning symptoms related to
swelling in his brain for the longest
time as we looked at the case we could
not figure out why nobody responded
until we got the cell phone records of
the residents who were overseeing his
care as is so often the case in
hospitals there’s one story that is in
the official record and there’s another
story of what’s actually happening to
the patient and what we saw in those
residences were residents who were not
given proper guidance who were kind of
left to flounder on their own and were
making mistakes and nobody was
responding to them and nobody was
helping them understand what our patient
what our client needed and the result
was catastrophic that our client didn’t
get the care he needed he ended up with
a very bad brain injury in that case we
have these kind of parallel records we
had the official record and then we had
all the text messages between the
residents and that created a kind of a
secondary sub record of what was really
going on
and it’s a very dangerous practice
because basically what was happening was
everybody under 40 was caring for this
guy on text messaging and everybody over
40 was looking at the at the medical
record well the people who are over 40
of the people who actually knew what was
going on the people under 40 didn’t but
because the people under 40 have been
given cell phones have been told to use
them
they weren’t communicating in a way that
the people who were over 40 more
experienced could have seen and
evaluated so they had the more senior
Physicians were not looking at what the
junior Physicians were doing one of the
things that we’ve I find you know
both interesting and very frustrating
about doing Hospital cases is
recognizing how hierarchical hospitals
are in part that’s necessary you know
the the star surgeon talks down to the
hospitals the hospitalist talks down to
the nurse the nurse talks down to the
nurse’s assistant and this is clear
chain command the problem is that when
things go wrong that chain of command
means that people don’t know how to
evaluate themselves you know the surgeon
will always deny responsibility he will
always blame the hospitalists the
hospitalists will always denying
responsibility and they will always
blame the nurse and so some of the value
that we add as medical malpractice
professionals is we don’t respect that
hierarchy we’re not part of that
hierarchy we can scrutinize anybody’s
Behavior up and down the chain and that
allows us to examine and get better
understanding of what happened to our
patients often than the treaters in the
hospital themselves
San Francisco, CA medical malpractice attorney Nathaniel Leeds tells the story of a memorable hospital malpractice case he handled. In the previous year, they handled a significant and distressing case concerning a young man who had sought medical care with alarming symptoms related to brain swelling. As they delved into the case, they encountered puzzling questions regarding why there had been a lack of timely response. The mystery persisted until they obtained the cell phone records of the medical residents responsible for his care.
This case, like many others in hospital settings, revealed a stark contrast between the official medical records and the actual events transpiring with the patient. The cell phone records painted a different story, exposing inexperienced residents who were left without proper guidance and support, resulting in a series of mistakes and a lack of adequate patient care. Tragically, the client suffered a severe brain injury due to the insufficient care he received.
The existence of parallel records, one official and the other in the form of text messages among the residents, created a concerning situation. Essentially, the medical care for the patient under 40 was being managed via text messages, while those over 40 relied on the official medical record. However, the younger physicians, despite their access to cell phones and messaging, failed to communicate in a way that the more experienced senior physicians could comprehend and assess. This disconnect meant that the senior physicians were unaware of what the junior physicians were doing.
Hospital cases often highlight the hierarchical structure within medical facilities, which, while necessary in some aspects, can become problematic when errors occur. In such instances, the blame tends to be shifted down the chain of command, with each level denying responsibility and attributing it to the level below. One notable aspect of their work as medical malpractice professionals is their impartiality in relation to this hierarchy. They can scrutinize the behavior of individuals at every level of the chain, allowing for a comprehensive examination and a better understanding of what transpired with the patients, often surpassing the insights available to the healthcare providers within the hospital system.
