Case Results

Walkup’s Kaiser Malpractice attorneys negotiated a settlement in excess of $1,300,000 on behalf of a widow and two surviving children of a man who over a period of more than two years, was repeatedly misdiagnosed with urinary tract infections instead of cancer.

The man reported to his primary care Kaiser physician complaining of frequent, painful, and bloody urination. Although his symptoms suggested the possibility of bladder cancer, however, his Kaiser physician was convinced the problem was related to aging and an enlarged prostate. Kaiser sent the man home with medications to help with the patient’s symptoms. Over the next two years, he repeatedly returned to Kaiser with no improvement in his bladder condition. Kaiser was given repeated opportunities to diagnose and begin treating the man’s bladder cancer, which was developing at a rapid rate. By the time doctors finally diagnosed the man’s bladder cancer it was in stage IV and had already metastasized to his other organs. The settlement was reached prior to mediation and consisted of both an annuity and lump sum cash payment.

Walkup attorneys obtained a binding Kaiser arbitration award in the amount of $946,616 on behalf of the surviving heirs of a Kaiser member who suffered a heart attack at age 48.  His survivors contended that Kaiser Walnut Creek physicians should have followed up with Holter monitor test results that the decedent underwent immediately and that a proper workup, including a thallium treadmill examination, would have resulted in a diagnosis of severe coronary artery disease and permitted timely bypass surgery. Kaiser disputed liability, claiming that the findings reflected on the Holter monitor tracings were not diagnostic and were, in fact, insignificant. Kaiser also claimed that bypass surgery would not have prevented the fatal heart attack. The case was arbitrated for five days before a panel of three arbitrators.

Failure to diagnose Down syndrome: We obtained an $875,000 settlement in a wrongful birth case after the medical center failed to offer prenatal screenings for a high-risk pregnancy.

Walkup attorneys negotiated an $850,000 settlement of claims brought by a deceased patient’s wife and two adult children for the wrongful death of a 56-year-old engineer following arterial rupture during a routine angioplasty. The patient presented to Kaiser South San Francisco’s ER complaining of chest tightness and chest pressure. He received nitroglycerin, quickly stabilized and was determined to be a suitable candidate for cardiac catheterization, which was performed later that day at Kaiser San Francisco. The patient elected angioplasty procedure over bypass surgery. The stent did not expand fully against the vessel wall, though, so the doctor replaced the balloon with a slightly larger, non-compliant type, and inflated it to a higher pressure. This attempt was also unsuccessful, as was the second effort to expand the stent. A third effort was made, after which the patient began complaining of chest pains. Some 10 minutes later, a perforation in the left anterior descending coronary artery was recognized, and the patient’s vital signs collapsed. Resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful. The member alleged that the stent used in the procedure was too large and that the doctor doing the procedure did not have adequate experience. The settlement, in this case, included the statutory maximum amount allowed under MICRA for non-economic damages, as well as compensation for lost wages.

Attorneys at Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger obtained a settlement in the amount of $575,000 on behalf of the heirs of a 62-year-old Kaiser member who died due to a failure by Kaiser Redwood City nurses to adequately monitor his neurological status following brain surgery.

The member underwent a resection of the third ventricle to remove a tumor. He came through the procedure in stable condition but developed increased intracranial pressure during the night following surgery. Nurses failed to adequately monitor his neurological status as required by existing protocols, and the swelling of his brain was not reported to the member’s neurosurgeon until the following morning. That physician attempted to reduce the pressure caused by the swelling by performing an emergency shunt procedure, but it was too late, as the increased intracranial pressure had caused irreversible global brain damage. The member was comatose until his death three days later.

Walkup’s Kaiser team obtained a settlement of $350,000 for the wrongful death of a woman who died due to the administration of a drug contrary to Kaiser policies and protocols. At age fifty the deceased suffered a minor heart attack and was sent to the Kaiser Santa Clara emergency room. Two hours after her episode she was acting normally and barely felt any pain. Despite this, the on-call doctor, a kidney specialist, decided to administer the antithrombolytic agent tPA (tissue plasminogen activator), a blood clot dissolver used to prevent permanent heart damage immediately following a severe heart attack. According to FDA labeling and Kaiser’s own guidelines and policies for its administration, tPA must be administered within four hours of the onset of symptoms and should only be used to treat an acute heart attack. Bleeding, including intracranial bleeding, is a well-known and dangerous side effect of the drug. The house doctor, without informing the patient about the time parameters for administration of the drug, administered the drug over six hours after her symptoms began. This drug therapy caused a massive fatal cerebral hemorrhage.

Walkup attorneys prosecuted arbitration on behalf of the surviving children of a 34-year old male who went to the emergency room at Kaiser Oakland complaining of flu-like symptoms, fever, pain, and weakness so pervasive that he had difficulty walking from his car to the urgent care center. On arrival, a nurse, rather than a doctor, evaluated the patient. The nurse incorrectly determined that he was not in need of medical care and discharged him home without treatment. The next day the patient returned to the emergency room again, with worsening pain and weakness and a new symptom: unusual spotting on his fingers. He was again sent home with orders to report to the clinic that afternoon. When he returned as ordered, the doctor who saw him gave no significance to the odd spots and attributed all of the patient’s complaints to a viral illness. The member was discovered dead two days later. An autopsy demonstrated that he had been suffering from overwhelming sepsis, which should have been treated sooner with immediate medical attention and IV antibiotics. Walkup attorneys demonstrate that the Kaiser personnel who saw the decedent had breached the standard of care and caused economic loss to the surviving children, aged 9 and 8.

Our Kaiser wrongful death specialists brought a Kaiser Permanente Arbitration claim on behalf of the surviving husband and two adult children of a 58-year-old Permanente member who died from an untreated pulmonary embolism. The deceased Kaiser member had visited a South Bay Kaiser Emergency room complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath. A blood test was elevated. After a referral from the emergency department to the cardiology department, a Permanente Group cardiologist performed a left heart catheterization that ruled out coronary artery disease but failed to perform the right heart catheterization which would have shown a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism. As a result, the patient’s pulmonary embolism was not diagnosed. Blood-thinning medications would have prevented death but were not given. She died leaving her husband and children unsupported.

Walkup attorneys obtained a settlement in a Kaiser Arbitration proceeding for the wrongful death of a man who suffered a hypoxic brain injury and died following a misdiagnosis at Kaiser Vallejo’s Emergency Room. The man arrived at the Kaiser emergency department complaining of a high fever, severe sore throat and difficulty swallowing and breathing. These symptoms suggested the possibility of supraglottitis, a serious inflammation of the upper airway. However despite the clear symptoms that the man represented a medical emergency, Kaiser’s emergency room triage nurse told the man his case was not severe enough for the Emergency Room and sent the man to an Urgent Care Clinic, where his condition worsened and eventually caused respiratory arrest. Despite resuscitation attempts, the man suffered severe hypoxic brain damage and died three days later. Walkup attorneys negotiated the maximum settlement available by law on behalf of the two surviving children left behind.

Walkup attorneys obtained a confidential settlement on behalf of the siblings of a 49-year-old man who died as a result of undiagnosed and untreated pulmonary embolism at Kaiser South San Francisco. The man had previously suffered a pulmonary embolism, and informed Kaiser of the history of pulmonary embolism when he reported to the emergency department at Kaiser South Francisco. In addition he presented with a heart rate of 120 and elevated pulse rate, shortness of breath and chest pain. Kaiser diagnosed asthmatic bronchitis despite the fact that the man had no history of asthma. He was given albuterol and no testing for pulmonary embolism was done. Walkup attorneys successfully argued that the man’s history of acute pulmonary embolism in conjunction with the man’s symptoms necessitated a differential diagnosis of pulmonary embolism.

A settlement in the maximum amount permitted for general damages was obtained for the heirs of a 77-year-old woman, following a routine laparoscopic cholecystectomy at Kaiser Walnut Creek. The decedent underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy in order to relieve abdominal pain resulting from gallstones. She was sent home following the procedure, only to return to the emergency department two days later, complaining of severe abdominal pain, inability to eat, and inability to walk due to pain.

She underwent two additional exploratory laparotomies, where bowel perforations were found. Decedent died in the hospital due to an abscess in her heart. Due to the original failure of the doctor who performed the laparoscopic cholecystectomy to discover the rents in decedent’s bowel and cystic leaks caused by slippage of the clips, the 77-year-old decedent was subjected to numerous surgeries, each of which rendered her increasingly weakened.

Walkup attorneys negotiated an undisclosed settlement after Kaiser failed to timely diagnose and treat breast cancer in a 56-year-old woman. By the time the breast cancer was discovered, it was in Stage III and the woman’s prospects for survival were grim.

The woman presented to Kaiser Oakland with breast lumps and was diagnosed with Stage I breast cancer in two different locations in her left breast. She underwent treatment for one area of lumps, however, was discharged without any follow-up to the lumps in the other area of her breast. She saw several Kaiser physicians over the next two years, and although the lumps were recorded in her medical chart, no Kaiser physician ever followed up with her about them. Over this period of time, the breast cancer developed from a highly treatable Stage I to Stage III from where it eventually metastasized to her brain. In addition to the failure to follow-up on the previous findings of lumps, Kaiser also negligently misread a mammogram as negative during this two-year period.

Our medical malpractice wrongful death trial lawyers obtained a major Confidential Settlement in a wrongful death case on behalf of the surviving wife and daughter of a 55-year-old contractor who died of an undiagnosed aortic dissection after spending 36 hours in the hospital without ever being seen by a cardiologist. The doctors who saw the patient failed to recognize that he needed an emergency evaluation to rule out aortic dissection. A cardiology consultation and echocardiogram would have made the diagnosis but were never ordered. Instead, the doctors continued to prescribe nitroglycerine and intravenous morphine for ongoing chest pain. The decedent died shortly after a stress treadmill test, which worsened the tearing of the aorta.