Madeleine O'Neill - June 7, 2022    |   THE DAILY RECORD - Maryland

A Frederick County jury awarded nearly $10 million last month to the family of a man who died of colon cancer in his 40s after repeatedly seeking medical care for abdominal pain. The patient, Jason S. Turner, died in June 2019 after being diagnosed in 2017 with stage 3 colon cancer that eventually metastasized to his liver, lungs and bones. Turner had visited Frederick Primary Care Associates with abdominal pain and other symptoms five times in the two years before his diagnosis, according to the complaint filed in his family’s lawsuit.

Jurors awarded a total of $9.9 million to Turner’s surviving family, including his young son, wife and parents. The award included $469,000 for past medical bills, $815,000 for loss of support and $8 million in noneconomic damages to Turner’s family. That number will be reduced substantially by the state’s cap on noneconomic damages, though the amount of the final verdict is still in dispute. “This was just a very deserving family and a very unfortunate situation,” said Ben Salsbury, who represented Turner’s family with Kevin Sullivan of Salsbury Sullivan, LLC. “Mr. Turner was by all accounts just a great guy,” Salsbury said.

Turner worked as a photojournalist at The Journal in Martinsburg, West Virginia, before working as the director of photography at RidgeRunner Publishing in Hagerstown and later forming a commercial photography business with his twin brother, the Hagerstown Herald Mail reported after his death. Turner was 48 when he died.

He sought medical care for abdominal pain repeatedly beginning in 2015, when he first visited Frederick Primary Care Associates, according to the complaint. He was seen by a physician’s assistant who diagnosed him with diverticulitis, or an inflammation in the digestive tract. Turner returned to Frederick Primary Care Associates several times as he continued to experience abdominal pain and later discovered a lump in his abdomen. A colonoscopy was recommended but never performed, according to the complaint.

In November 2017, Turner was admitted to a hospital in Pennsylvania with severe abdominal pain. He received surgery and was soon diagnosed with adenocarcinoma. He received chemotherapy but the cancer ultimately spread throughout his body. The complaint alleged that several members of the medical staff at Frederick Primary Care Associates were negligent in caring for Turner because they failed to order appropriate testing, failed to refer Turner to a specialist and failed to order imaging that could have caught the cancer sooner.

Lawyer Ed Goundry, who represented the defendants, said he has filed a post-trial motion and is considering an appeal. In a motion to reduce the jury verdict, Goundry argued that the total noneconomic damages should be reduced to less than $1 million, and that the total award should be reduced to about $2.7 million.

“We are very disappointed with the jury’s verdict,” Goundry said. “We had strong expert support for the care of Mr. Turner.”

Montgomery County jury awards $1.5M in wrongful death case.

Steve Lash - September 29, 2021   |   THE DAILY RECORD - Maryland

The parents of a stillborn child have been awarded nearly $1 million after a jury found that negligence by a Rockville hospital and its obstetrician/gynecologist caused the prenatal death of their son.

The Montgomery County Circuit Court jury had awarded $1.5 million to Eva Hernandez Osorio and Elmer Artiga after hearing testimony that Dr. Neil J. Horlick at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital negligently waited nearly five hours before delivering the child despite a heart monitor showing the fetus was in cardiac distress.

The award was reduced by more than $550,000 — to $943,750 — due to Maryland’s cap on noneconomic damages. The jury also awarded the parents $2,364 for funeral expenses, bringing the total to $946,114.

The parents’ attorney, Kevin P. Sullivan, called the litigation emotionally draining for them as they endured multiple postponements that included a months’ long closure of the courts to stanch the spread of COVID-19.

As for himself, Sullivan called the litigation “very nerve-racking,” adding that the facts of the case clearly showed negligence. “You don’t know how a jury is going to turn out,” said Sullivan, of Salsbury Sullivan LLC in Baltimore.

Montgomery County juries, in particular, have a reputation among plaintiffs’ attorneys for being defendant-friendly in medical malpractice cases and unwilling to award substantial damages even when they find the hospital liable.But Sullivan said that has not been his experience and certainly not in this case.

“If you have good facts on your side, we’re comfortable litigating a case anywhere,” Sullivan said Wednesday. “We’re not intimidated.” 

The defense’s attorney, Catherine W. Steiner, said Wednesday that the verdict will not be appealed.

“It was an amicably tried case,” said Steiner, of Pessin Katz Law PA in Towson. “There are no appealable issues.”

Hernandez Osario arrived at Shady Grove in active labor and at full term shortly after midnight on July 19, 2015, according to the parents’ complaint. About four hours later, she began receiving doses of the hormone oxytocin to aid in delivery.

At 9:10 a.m., the fetus showed the first sign of cardiac distress as a monitor detected a too-fast heart rate of 160 beats per minute, the complaint stated. Horlick, the OB/GYN, chose to wait. At 12:30 p.m., Hernandez Osario felt intense pain in her abdomen, the complaint stated. Shortly before 2 p.m., Hernandez Osario was taken to the operating room for an emergency caesarean section. The fetus, identified in the complaint as John Doe, was delivered with no detectable heart rate. Efforts at resuscitation were unsuccessful. The parents filed their wrongful death lawsuit against the hospital and Horlick on Feb. 1, 2018.

During the five-day trial, the jury heard dueling medical testimony regarding whether Horlick’s decision to hold off on delivery despite the fetus’ accelerated heart rate deviated from the appropriate standard of care. The jurors deliberated two hours before rendering their verdict for the parents last week. Montgomery County Circuit Judge Ronald B. Rubin presided over the trial. The case was docketed as Eva Hernandez Osario and Elmer Ulises Abrego Artiga v. Adventist Healthcare Inc. d/b/a Shady Grove Adventist Hospital et al., No. 442928V.

Walmart sold a gun to an employee with history of mental illness, lawsuit says. He killed himself two hours later.

Kim Bellware - April 29, 2021    |   The WASHINGTON POST

The family of a Walmart employee who fatally shot himself in 2019 hours after buying a gun from the store has sued the retail giant for negligence, alleging those at the store knew the man’s history of mental illness and recent threats of suicide yet proceeded with the sale.