Background
- Dr. Kauffman is an Albuquerque, New Mexico native, born on August 9, 1952. Graduated from Albuquerque High School, class of 1970.
- During high school, conducted medical research on cancer immunology. Research presented at the annual convention of the American Medical Association, New York City, 1969.
- Attended University of New Mexico, triple majors programs in mathematics, chemistry and physics. Accepted into medical school prior to completion of Bachelor’s Degree requirements.
Medical Education
- University of New Mexico School of Medicine, M.D. awarded May, 1978
Special interests – surgery, neurosurgery, hematology and oncology - Residency: Anatomic pathology (surgical diagnosis), clinical pathology (laboratory medicine) and forensic pathology (medicolegal investigation of death-medical examiner); UCLA Affiliated Hospitals and University of New Mexico Hospital
- Board certification: Board certified by examination in anatomic pathology, clinical pathology and forensic pathology
- Medical licenses held: California, 1978 and 1982; New Mexico, 1979; Michigan, 1983 and Maryland, 1984 (inactive)
Legal Education
- University of Maryland School of Law, Baltimore, MD, Juris Doctor awarded August, 1987
- Law licenses held: New Mexico, May, 1988; Oregon, September 1988 (inactive); Ohio, 2002 (inactive); Federal Court, District of New Mexico, 1991
Medical and Legal Organizational Memberships, Certificates
- New Mexico State Bar
- AAJ-American Association for Justice (formerly Association of Trial Lawyers of America)
- New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association (NMTLA)
- American College of Legal Medicine, Fellow
- National Board of Medical Examiners of the USA, (Diplomate)
- American Bar Association, (inactive)
- National College of Advocacy, Advocate
Practice
Dr. Kauffman has been practicing law for almost 24 years. His practice consists entirely of representing medical malpractice and personal injury victims and their families, with resulting catastrophic injuries, spinal cord and brain damage, birth injury and wrongful death.
- A child brain damaged at birth, whose parents, until the child was almost 9 years old, had been told by doctors that their child's brain damage was the result of an infection during pregnancy or an inherited genetic disorder which had yet to be identified. Dr. Kauffman was consulted only a few weeks before the deadline to file suit. Dr. Kauffman recognized malpractice during labor and delivery as the cause of the child's injuries, and filed suit immediately, without needing to hire other doctors to review voluminous medical records. Clients received a substantial settlement.
- Parents of a blind and partially paralyzed child consulted Dr. Kauffman after being told by doctors that the cause of their child's disability was unknown. Dr. Kauffman determined that the cause was, in fact, low blood sugar that had not been recognized due to nursing negligence and a hospital protocol for blood glucose screening that was substandard and did not call for blood glucose screening of certain infants that should have been considered at risk. A multi million dollar settlement allowed that this child to receive therapy that otherwise would not have been available. The hospital changed its protocol, undoubtedly saving other children a similar fate. Dr. Kauffman recently received a Christmas card from the family. The injured child, now a young man, stood upright between his mother and father, wearing a cap and gown, having graduated from a special needs high school.
- Dr. Kauffman was called to investigate an intra-operative death at a major university medical center said to have resulted from natural causes. Dr. Kauffman determined that instead, the death had resulted from failing to properly secure an IV during elective minor surgery, allowing the patient to bleed to death.
- Dr. Kauffman represented a child with cerebral palsy which resulted from labor and delivery nurses not recognizing fetal distress (changes on a fetal heart tracing resulting from lack of oxygen to the baby) during labor. Defendants paid a multi-million dollar settlement to the child and his family. As a condition of settlement, the hospital was required to educate and train its nurses in fetal heart tracing interpretation. It is likely that this education and training, over the years, saved other children from severe injury.
- Recently, Dr. Kauffman represented a young woman who had a massive heart attack due to a treatable clotting disorder. She had positive screening tests for this condition, but was never told about it. The heart attack was misdiagnosed as gallbladder disease, resulting in a delay of almost 48 hours in diagnosis and treatment. A very popular local doctor, known for having appeared on television broadcasts on numerous occasions over a number of years, testified at trial to the effect that it was acceptable for the emergency room doctor to have attributed his patient's severe crushing chest pain to gallbladder disease. Dr. Kauffman identified certain results of an echocardiogram, and was the first to conclude that this client might be a candidate for a future heart transplant. He then proceeded to locate a heart transplant program, and arranged to have her evaluated. The transplant cardiologist agreed with Dr. Kauffman's assessment, and the client is now a patient of the program.
- Dr. Kauffman has given numerous talks to attorneys and physicians on medical malpractice and other legal and medical subjects.
- As a medical examiner, Dr. Kauffman has personally investigated in excess of 5,000 deaths. As a medical examiner and triple board certified physician, Dr. Kauffman has testified as a medical expert hundreds of times in multiple states in cases involving medical malpractice, accidental injury and death, and prosecution and defense of homicide.
- Dr. Kauffman was recently named to Southwest U.S. Super Lawyers.
