Kevin McDonald brings to his cases 30 years of experience as a personal injury lawyer, virtually all in the area of medical malpractice. He has won close to 30 million dollar verdicts and settlements, including one of the largest verdicts in New York state at the time $46.2 million against New York Hospital for a young man who suffered severe brain damage due to failure to respond to respiratory distress.
Mr. McDonald combines a scrupulous approach to the preparation of a case for trial and a firm understanding of complex legal and medical issues, with an ability to translate that information into a comprehensible and compelling story for the jury. In contrast to many medical malpractice lawyers who rarely see the inside of a courtroom, Mr. McDonald has extensive trial experience, having taken many cases to trial and verdict. He has an intimate understanding of the dynamics of a jury trial, a unique combination of theater, persuasion and strategy--and uses the latest digital technology and other sophisticated courtroom techniques to maintain jurors' interest and convince them of the merits of his client's case.
Mr. McDonald reflects his single-minded pursuit of justice in what many consider to be the most challenging area of personal injury law. Medical malpractice work requires an in-depth knowledge not just of the law but of medicine as well, and a lack of preparedness can doom a case. "You've got to know your case cold," Mr. McDonald says. His achievements in the courtroom demonstrate that he never fails to live up to his word.
Significant Verdicts and Settlements
- $46.6 Million Verdict for 24 year old college student who sustained hypoxic brain damage when, after presenting to the ER with headaches and fever, underwent a spinal tap following which his breathing deteriorated over a two hour period. ER doctors failed to intubate him and he went into respiratory arrest resulting in hypoxic brain injury.
- $4 Million Settlement for a 4 year old girl who sustained hypoxic brain damage when the doctors at the defendant hospital failed to recognize fetal distress during the mother's labor and failed to perform an emergency Cesarean Section.
- $3 Million Settlement during trial of a 48 year old man who had an above the knee amputation of a leg due to a delay in diagnosing and treating post operative compartment syndrome.
- $2.9 Million Settlement for a child who sustained hypoxic brain injury at birth when the defendant obstetricians failed to recognize fetal distress during the mother's labor and do an emergency Cesarean Section.
- $2.85 Million Settlement for 57 year old man who suffered a disabling hemorrhagic stroke brought on by aspirin which was improperly prescribed by the ER doctor when plaintiff was sent home after presenting with neurological symptoms consistent with a small intra-cranial bleed.
- $2.6 Million Settlement for a 58 year old man who required bilateral leg amputations due to failure of the defendant vascular surgeon to recognize and treat post operative thromboses and ischemia following aortic aneurism repair.
- $2.1 Million Verdict of a man who became mentally unstable with fear of sudden death after learning that a surgical instrument had been left inside his body during surgery at the defendant hospital. His mental illness necessitated institutionalization at a psychiatric hospital.
- $2 Million Settlement for a 1 year old boy who suffered brain damage due to the failure of the defendant hospital to promptly identify and surgically drain a subarachnoid hemorrhage when the child was taken to the ER with acute neurological changes.
- $1.9 Million Settlement during trial for a 19 year old man who required amputation of a leg due to a delay in diagnosing and treating compartment syndrome that developed after surgical repair of an ankle fracture from a dirt bike accident.
- $1.6 Million Settlement during trial for the death of a 91 year old woman who resided at the defendant nursing home. Plaintiff was given sulfa medication, to which she had a known allergy, and developed severe burns as a reaction to the sulfa, and died.
