Sigmund, Timothy T

Verdicts and Settlements

• 9,300,000 Settlement.   Young woman admitted to Ohio State University Hospital with Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS).    She developed breathing problems due to the condition.  The resident physician failed to act upon an alarming blood gas study and instead went to lunch.  The young college student suffered a respiratory attack resulting in brain damage. She is in a permanent vegetative or minimally conscious state requiting round the clock care
• 8,600,000  Jury Trial   Middle aged woman presented to her ophthalmologist with Pseudo Tumor Cerebri a condition in which there is a build up of cerebral spinal fluid pressure in the brain.  If untreated with a shunt it can cause damage to the optic nerve and blindness. The doctor elected to treat with drugs and the patient lost most of her vision
• 3,200,000 Jury Verdict.  Woman admitted to the Mt Carmel hospital for a hysterectomy.  She developed an undiagnosed blood clot in her arm.  The failure to timely diagnosis and treat the condition resulted in amputation of her arm. 
• 2,325,000  Trial   Four month old baby developed a fever.  The pediatrician obtain blood work but failed to recognized that the white blood cell count showed signs of an infection.  As a result the spinal meningitis was untreated and the young boy suffered amputation of his feet and finger tips from the untreated bacterial infection that resulted  in lack of blood flow.
• 2,100,000   Settlement   Middle aged man went to the emergency room complaining of neck pain.  The Emergency room doctors discharged him without the benefit of a cervical x ray.  The next morning he awoke permanently paralyzed due to a spinal abscess.
• 2,000,000  Settlement   Driver of a truck hit a guardrail with caused his truck to collide with a bridge pier.  The driver  lost his leg in the accident.  The suit was against the auto manufacturer  and the Ohio Turnpike Commission   
• 2,000,000  A pregnant woman  with twins presented to the emergency room with possible premature labor.  She was 23 weeks pregnant.  The physician did a vaginal exam and noted her cervix to be dilated at 2CM .  Because he did not check the chart he did not know that two days prior her cervix was closed. She was sent home.  She continued to call in but the nurses did not tell her to come in. Three days later she came to the hospital dilated at 8 and in labor.  The physicians initially stopped the labor with drugs but the large dilation exposed the fetal sack an infection occurred causing new contractions.  The babies were born at 23 weeks 6 days and both survived.  Both children have learning disabilities.  The defense maintained that nothing could prevent  premature contractions and that nothing the physician could have done would have altered the course of events. 
• 2,000,000  A 35 year old had gastric bypass surgery.  As a result she had frequent episodes of vomiting and her diet was effected.  Approximately  6 months after the surgery she developed ataxia (inability to walk) and vision problems.  She was hospitalized for several weeks but the neurologist could have determine what was wrong so he decided to discharge her to that nursing home.  Prior to the discharge she began to develop mental confusion. She had what is known as Wernickes encepholapy caused by a thiamine deficiency.  All she needed was a shot of thiamine for immediate recovery. This disease is usually associated with alcoholics who don’t eat and only drink.  She was transferred to OSU and a diagnosis was made but it was too late to prevent serious complications including inability to walk and a speech impediment
• 1,800,000   Jury Verdict    Young mother was in a car accident with a dump truck.  Liability was disputed.  The defense claimed that the plaintiff ran the stop sign and failed to yield to the truck.
• 1,800,000  Jury Trial   Sixty five year old grandmother was killed when a young uninsured driver crossed left of center colliding with the plaintiffs car.
• 1,800,000 Settlement   High school senior was hit by a Conrail train in Hilliard.  The track had lights but no gates.  The crossing had site restrictions making it difficult to see a train. 
• 1,500,000   Sixty two year woman was on coumidin. Her INR level was monitored on a regular basis through regular lab work.  Her INR level was found to be in excess of 9.0 yet the lab failed to communicate this value to the physician.  As a result she did not receive the necessary fresh frozen plasma and vitamin K needed to lower the INR on an emergent basis. She suffered a bleeding hemmoragic stroke three days after her blood work showed the high INR level. She died as a result of the stroke.
• 1,200,000   Mr Morris a 70 year old man presented to Ohio State Medical Center for routine blood work after cancer treatment for acute leukemia .  Mr Morris was not told that there was Legionella in the water supply and seven days layer came down with Legionaries disease.  Mr Morris drank for the drinking fountain that had tested positive for the bacteria.  The nurses at Ohio State were told to merely give the outpatients bottled water but they did not instruct them to not drink the water.  Mr Morris became sick and eventually died from the complications from the infection.  The case was filed against the State of Ohio in the Ohio Court of Claims. The damage caps in the Court of Claims limit damages to 250,000 for pain and suffering. 
• 1,000,000 Linda Kimbler had back pain and was treated by an anestiologist who specialized in pain management.  He recommended a procedure in which the nerve in the back is deadened with an injection of chemicals.  In doing the procedure some the chemicals leaked into the spinal canal resulting in an injury to her spinal canal. As a result of the injury she suffered partial paralysis of one leg.
• 975,000  a 60 year old man  presented to the hospital for a routine hernia surgery.  In the recovery room he was given morphine pain  and phenergan for nausea.  The drug phenergan  increases the effects of narcotics. Narcotics can have the effect of suppression of respiration.  There was a standing order fore 2 mg of dilaudid for the surgeon but he surgeon did not realize he would receive the amount of narcotics tat he did with the phenergran. When he got to the floor the nurse gave Mr Heurer the full dose of 2mg of dilaudid. He began snoring immediately and was later noted to have bad coloring.  A code was called but Mr Heuer could not be saved.  He suffered brain injury and later died.
• 950,000   Derris Lewis, 17, was wrongfully imprisoned in jail for eighteen months awaiting trial  for the murder of his twin brother.  The sole piece of evidence against him was a bloody palm print on the bedroom wall which was left as a result of a bloody struggle .  Derris Lewis was held in jail pending trial on the murder case. The case was tried to a jury but a mistrial was declared before a verdict could be rendered.  Based upon devastating cross examination the bloody evidence was challenged and was after the mistrial resubmitted to independent experts.  It was determined that the police had made a mistake and the “bloody” palm print was in fact not in blood.  The only blood print was that of the victim as he struggled with the unknown assailants.  The murder case remains unsolved.   The case was against the City of Columbus for violation of his civil rights.     
• 850,000   Thirty three year old computer tech broke his arm while Indian wrestling.  He had surgery to fix the broken humerus 
• 700,000  Trial   Thirty year old man ran into the rear of a water truck that had failed to use turn signals.  The plaintiff broke both legs in the automobile accident.
• 600,000 Settlement     Woman's face caught on fire during a surgery.  The oxygen was ignited with a spark form electric cautery.
• 590,000   A seventeen year old boy from Houston Texas had back surgery for scoliosis.  He also suffered form muscular dystrophy.,  The surgeon noted air bubbles at the surgical site in his back, The surgeon demanded to know from the anestiologist as to what was going on . The anestiologist to his surprise saw air going in the IV line in his arm. The surgery was quickly finished and it appeared that the air had not caused a major problem but 6 hours later she suffered a clot stroke.  The plaintiffs expert Dr Friedman determined that the air for the vein had to have crossed over into the arterial system as evidence by the fact that there was air in the surgical filed in the low back.  The air in all likelihood contributed the  development of a clot on the value which broke loose later that night.  The stroke resulted in significant loss of vision. This case was venued in Houston Texas. The defense claimed that the air embolus could have caused a clot stroke.
• 500,000   A 60 year old man was at the hospital for a small bowel obstruction.  He had a previous history of colon cancer and previous bowel resections.  At approximately 5PM in the evening her complained of a severe pain in his abdomen.  Later in the evening his vital signs began to change.  The nurse ignored the change in vital signs as she thought he was a hospice patient and was there to die.  U0pon a nurse change in the early morning hours the new nurse saw the deteriorating condition of the patient and called the surgeons.  Bowel surgery was don on an emergent basis but he died after surgery  He had suffered a bowel perforation.  The defense claimed that earlier intervention would have made a difference in the case.
• 500,000  A 35 year old man presented to the emergency room with a dizziness and an headache. He was referred to a neurologist how ordered a MRI of his brain.  He presented to the hospital for the MRI but was denied because his insurance was not activated.  Medical Mutual claimed that his insurance paperwork was not in order. He agin presented a week later to obtain an MRI and was once again denied due to insurance paperwork issues.  A few days later he suffered a stroke that resulted in significant injuries.  We sued Medial Mutual who under ERISA law was only responsible for the cost of the MRI.  We then sued the broker  for failing to timely process the insurance paperwork and eventually settled the case. This is one of the first case that brought this type of action against the insurance broker.
• 400,000  A fifty year old woman presented  to Ohio State Medical center for heart surgery to implant a new leads for a defibrillator.  In preparing her for the surgery the nurse gave the wrong drug causing her heart to stop.  The doctors reacted in order to save her life and proceeded with the operation.  In attempting to dilate her vessels with balloons they ruptured the vessel resulting in additional surgery.  She now has a loss of ability to perform activities due to a now decreased cardiac output.
• 390,000   A 65 year old woman with significant health issues wa in the hospital for a liver biopsy.  One of the complication of a liver biopsy is bleeding.. When she got back to the room her vital signs began to change and her blood pressure was edging downwards.  She also complained of abdominal pain.  A physician was not notified of these changes for approximately 1 hour.  When notified the physician immediately ordered a blood infusion. As they started to give her blood she died.
• 300,000  Ms Leffler, a 83 year old woman was on coumadin to prevent blood clots. She was discharged for the hospital after a value replacement surgery.  She was left the hospital for a short stay at a nursing home.  The nursing home was to draw book every three days and check her INR to make sure the coumaden dosage was correct.  The bood results came back on Thursday and showed she needed more coumadin.  Her INR was 1.5 when it should have been 2.5 or higher.  The nursing home lost the lab report on Thursday but found it on Friday.  They faxed it to the doctor at 5PM on Friday but he doctor had left his office and did not see it until Monday morning at 10AM.  She had a stroke at 10:30 Am and later died. The defense claimed that the earlier use of coumiadin would have  prevented the stroke. 
• 250,000  Jury Verdict   Young woman injured her thumb in a auto accident.  The thumb injury interfered with her career as a hair dresser.
• 250,000   a 35 year old man presented to the  emergency room with sign and symptoms of a heart attack.  He was worked up and a heart attack was ruled out but he still had pain in his chest .  He was sent home and the pain worsened. He went to a different hospital ER 12 hours later with new sympo9tjm that includes shortness of breath.  A CT exam revealed a dissecting aortic aneurysm. He died during emergency surgery to repair the aneurysm.   The defense argued that the only way to have made the diagnosis was to do a CT exam on the first ER visit and that is not the standard of care as it is not practical be to give everyone with chest pain a CT exam. Our expert believed d-dimer blood work would have show formation of a clot that would have resulted in a CT exam. 
• 17,500   A 55 year old man presented to Grant Hospital for a bone biopsy which is a painful procedure.  Unfortunately the hospital staff lost the bone biopsy. Mr Walker decided to not go through the  procedure again.