Frederick Memorial Hospital | Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Frederick Memorial Hospital is now Frederick Health Hospital, the flagship hospital of Frederick Health. Longtime Frederick residents still call it FMH, and many older court records use the former name. We use both names on this page so patients can find the hospital they know and readers can follow the older cases accurately.

Frederick Health has grown well beyond the hospital campus on West Seventh Street. The health system now reports more than 4,000 team members, more than 25 locations, and a large network of primary-care and specialty providers throughout Frederick County. The hospital remains the center of that system and provides emergency, surgical, cardiac, cancer, maternity, neonatal, critical-care, imaging, rehabilitation, and other inpatient and outpatient services.

Our view of this hospital comes with some personal history. One of our lawyers was treated for cancer at Frederick Memorial Hospital and remains eternally grateful, and I mean eternally grateful, for the care he received. Frederick Health has good doctors and nurses. It has also been the defendant in serious medical-malpractice cases. Both things can be true. The question in a malpractice case is what happened to one patient on one day, what the providers knew, and whether timely, competent care would have changed the outcome.

Frederick Health Hospital Today

Frederick Health Hospital operates a 24-hour emergency department with separate treatment areas for adults, children, and patients experiencing behavioral-health emergencies. Frederick Health reports that the emergency department sees an average of about 200 adults and 40 children each day. It is also a certified cardiac center and uses a rapid chest-pain evaluation process for suspected heart attacks.

The hospital’s Birth Place includes labor and delivery, a family center, a newborn nursery, and a neonatal intensive care unit. Frederick Health also operates a prenatal-care program that is accredited as a CenteringPregnancy site. The old page referred to the “Auxiliary Prenatal Center.” That name is no longer used on the hospital’s current website.

The system provides a broad range of care, including:

• Emergency and pediatric emergency care
• Labor, delivery, newborn, and neonatal intensive care
• Cancer diagnosis and treatment
• Cardiology, interventional cardiology, and cardiac rehabilitation
• Critical care and pulmonary services
• General, orthopedic, bariatric, breast, and other surgical care
• Imaging, laboratory, and pathology services
• Behavioral health
• Physical therapy and rehabilitation
• Primary care and specialty physician services across Frederick County

Frederick Health has received recognition for cardiac, stroke, cancer, imaging, surgical, and critical-care programs. It is designated as a Primary Stroke Center and Cardiac Interventional Center by the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems. Its cancer program holds several national accreditations.

Those credentials matter when choosing a hospital. They do not answer whether the standard of care was met in a particular case. A missed lab result, an unread imaging study, a delay in delivery, or a failure to respond to a deteriorating patient can cause enormous harm in an otherwise respected institution.

How a Malpractice Claim Involving Frederick Health Works

The first task is identifying who actually provided the care. A patient may see the Frederick Health name on the building while receiving treatment from an independently organized emergency group, radiology practice, anesthesia group, surgeon, obstetrician, or other specialist. The medical chart, consent forms, professional bills, credentialing records, and contracts may all matter.

A lawsuit may include Frederick Health Hospital, an employed provider, a private physician, or a separate medical group. Sometimes the hospital is responsible for its own failures, such as inadequate nursing care, unsafe policies, poor communication, negligent credentialing, or a breakdown in handling test results. Other cases involve whether the hospital is legally responsible for the conduct of a clinician who appeared to the patient to be part of the hospital team.

The old version of this page stated that the emergency department had been run by Emergency Physician Associates since 1979. Staffing arrangements can change, and the correct defendant should never be selected from an old web page. Our lawyers identify the responsible people and entities from the current records before filing suit.

Anderson, Coe & King and Kramon & Graham have appeared for Frederick Memorial Hospital in past malpractice claims. That is historical information. The hospital may use those firms or different defense counsel in a new case.

Verdicts and Settlements Involving Frederick Memorial Hospital

Below are reported historical results involving Frederick Memorial Hospital or medical providers who treated patients there. They are included to show the kinds of disputes that have reached Frederick County juries. They are not average values, and they do not predict what a new case will be worth. In one result below, the hospital was dismissed before trial and the verdict was entered against other defendants.

• Maryland: $435,000 verdict. A 41-year-old woman went to the emergency department with jaw and head pain from an abscessed tooth. An IV was placed in her dominant hand. She reported burning pain during the infusion, but the infusion continued. A blister later appeared at the IV site, and she returned the next day with pain, swelling, and bruising. A neurologist diagnosed complex regional pain syndrome. The jury awarded $100,000 for past medical expenses, $165,000 for future medical expenses, and $170,000 for pain and suffering.
• Maryland: $1,225,000 verdict. A 22-year-old woman had a chest X-ray interpreted as showing left upper-lobe pneumonia. She was later diagnosed with cancer in the left lung. Her estate brought a wrongful-death malpractice claim against a doctor and the hospital. The jury awarded $1,225,000.
• Maryland: $3,991,000 verdict. This was a classic birth-injury case in which a woman arrived at the hospital with an obstetrical emergency and the response was anything but urgent. She was eight months pregnant and reported epigastric pain, vomiting, and yellow diarrhea. A nurse attempted fetal monitoring, and the emergency physician ordered blood work. The patient received Demerol and Phenergan while the physician consulted the on-call obstetrician. When the nurse and emergency physician could not find a fetal heart rate, the obstetrician came to the hospital, moved the patient to labor and delivery, and performed a cesarean section. The child showed signs of hypoxia, was resuscitated, and was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The parents sued the physicians, Emergency Physician Associates, the OB/GYN center, and Frederick Memorial Hospital. The hospital was dismissed because of a problem with the plaintiffs’ qualified-expert filing. The jury returned a $3,991,000 verdict against the remaining medical defendants. Nearly $4 million sounds like an impressive verdict. It is still painfully modest when a child will require medical care and assistance for the rest of his life.
• Maryland: $215,000 verdict. A man with end-stage renal disease was receiving dialysis and died after two days under the defendants’ care. His estate alleged a failure to diagnose and treat elevated potassium and a delay in reporting laboratory results. The defense denied negligence. The jury found for the family and awarded $5,000 in funeral expenses and $210,000 to the patient’s wife for loss of future support.
• Maryland: $430,000 verdict. An 82-year-old patient had been admitted for delirium and IV hydration when she fell three stories from a hospital window and died. Her estate alleged that the premises were unsafe and the window should have been secured. The defense denied liability. The jury awarded $430,000.
• Maryland: $750,000 verdict. A 38-year-old woman went to Frederick Memorial Hospital for childbirth. She received Prostin E2 to induce or accelerate labor. Fetal monitoring was stopped for a shower intended to help control her pain. Seventy-three minutes later, the fetal heart rate was found to have dropped significantly. An emergency cesarean section was performed, but the baby had no heartbeat and resuscitation was unsuccessful. The mother alleged that the providers failed to appreciate fetal distress and failed to monitor a high-risk pregnancy consistently. The defense maintained that the care was appropriate. The jury awarded $750,000.

Cases Filed Against Frederick Memorial Hospital

The following cases appeared in the original public-record review of claims filed against Frederick Memorial Hospital. As requested, the filing dates have been removed. A filed complaint states allegations. It does not establish negligence, and the presence of a case on this list does not tell us whether it settled, was dismissed, proceeded to trial, or resulted in a defense judgment. Repeated docket entries under the same case name have been consolidated.

• Lambert v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — medical-malpractice allegations.
• Bedard v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — alleged failure to diagnose sepsis, resulting in amputation.
• Walton v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — medical-malpractice allegations.
• Brown v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — medical-malpractice allegations.
• Krasovski v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — medical-malpractice allegations.
• Castano v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — allegations involving an epidural hematoma and incomplete paraplegia.
• Smith v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — medical-malpractice allegations.
• Krawetzki v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — medical-malpractice allegations.
• Fazzie v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — alleged failure to make a timely and careful diagnosis.
• Klosterman v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — medical-malpractice allegations.
• Bennett v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — medical-malpractice allegations.
• Imwold v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — medical-malpractice allegations.
• Mills v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — medical-malpractice allegations.
• Bryers v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — allegations involving complications during a hysterectomy.
• Moore v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — allegations involving a cancer misdiagnosis.
• Heavner v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — medical-malpractice allegations.
• Sill v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — medical-malpractice allegations.
• Shane v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — medical-malpractice allegations.
• Faul v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — allegations that a patient was diagnosed with cellulitis in the emergency department, was later found to have an ankle fracture, and ultimately underwent an amputation.
• Johnson v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — allegations that inadequate treatment resulted in paralysis.
• Main v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — medical-malpractice allegations.
• Howard v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — allegations that a foreign object was left in the patient after surgery.
• Wildberger v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — alleged delay in diagnosing ovarian cancer after an emergency-department visit for abdominal pain.
• Pittman v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — alleged delay in removing an infected shunt, followed by headaches, nausea, and vomiting.
• Davison v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — allegations arising from a laparoscopic cholecystectomy.
• Sickeri v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — medical-malpractice allegations.
• Jimenez v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — medical-malpractice allegations.
• Roberts v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — alleged failure to diagnose a retinal detachment, resulting in loss of vision.
• King v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — allegations involving the interpretation and follow-up of chest imaging before a lung-cancer diagnosis.
• Filigenzi v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — wrongful-death allegations involving fetal death and meconium aspiration.
• Schlesinger v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — allegations that appropriate testing was not performed after an emergency-department visit.
• Raboteau v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — allegations of brain injury connected to labor, delivery, and resuscitation.
• Litchfield v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — medical-malpractice allegations.
• Trott v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — allegations that a patient diagnosed with aseptic meningitis was discharged and later readmitted with herpes encephalitis.
• Wantz v. Frederick Memorial Hospital — allegations involving the interpretation of a CT angiogram of the chest with IV contrast.

Maryland Filing Requirements and Deadlines

Maryland medical-malpractice cases usually begin in the Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution Office. When a qualified-expert certificate is required, it must address the defendant’s departure from the standard of care and whether that departure caused the claimed injury. A defect in the certificate can end an otherwise serious case, which is exactly what happened to the hospital claim in the 2009 birth-injury case discussed above.

Under Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 5-109, a malpractice action generally must be filed by the earlier of five years from the time the injury was committed or three years from the date the injury was discovered. The statute contains special rules and exceptions, including provisions involving minors, foreign objects, and fraudulent concealment. Calculating the deadline can be difficult when negligent treatment, discovery of the injury, and death occur on different dates.

Do not wait for the hospital’s internal review, a provider’s reassurance, or a complete medical recovery before asking a lawyer to calculate the deadline. Records can also become harder to obtain and witnesses’ memories do not improve with time.

Records to Preserve

• Discharge papers and after-visit summaries
• Patient-portal messages and screenshots
• Medication lists and prescription records
• Photographs of visible injuries
• Names of nurses, doctors, technicians, and witnesses
• Bills from Frederick Health and separate physician groups
• A written timeline prepared while the events are still fresh

Obtaining a Lawyer for a Frederick Hospital Malpractice Claim

If you or a family member suffered a serious injury after treatment at Frederick Health Hospital, our lawyers can review the records and determine whether the outcome points to medical negligence. A bad result alone does not prove malpractice. The case becomes viable when qualified medical experts can identify a breach of the standard of care and connect it to an injury that probably could have been prevented.

More Information and Related Topics

• An overview of Maryland medical-malpractice claims
• Information about Frederick County injury cases
• How our lawyers evaluate the potential value of a medical-malpractice case
• A Frederick County cancer-misdiagnosis case
• Settlement value in emergency-room malpractice claims

Current hospital information was checked against Frederick Health’s official website. Maryland filing requirements were checked against the current Maryland Code. Historical case descriptions are summaries of allegations and reported results, not findings about the quality of Frederick Health’s present-day care.