Maryland Malpractice Verdicts & Settlements

Below we have listed verdicts and settlements in Maryland medical malpractice cases. We have provided only the winners: the reality is that most medical malpractice cases tried to verdict are won by the doctors or other health care providers. This cannot be said, thankfully, for malpractice cases that Miller & Zois takes to trial.

On the other hand, the best malpractice cases usually settle before the jury reaches a verdict. Unfortunately, we cannot list all our settlements here for confidentiality purposes. These settlements have won our clients ten times more than verdicts over the years.

These cases cannot be used as the sole basis to determine the value of your claim. Even if your facts line up exactly with one of these cases, there are just too many other factors to compare your case to another without more information. That said, this is one tool in your toolkit to determine the range of values for your case.

You can get more malpractice verdicts and settlements based on the type of injury here. The county your case is tried in may also affect its value. We also provide sample demand letters in malpractice cases for those rare instances when a pre-suit settlement is possible.

• $1,400,000 Verdict: Our client, a young woman in her mid-thirties, uses a laparoscopic gastric band to lose weight. She wants it removed because she is having gastric reflux, a common complication of that procedure. To remove the band laparoscopically, the surgeon uses a tool called a “visiport trocar” to enter the abdomen. While inserting the device, the surgeon pushed way too hard without visualizing the patient's anatomy. He punctured the abdominal wall and struck the patient's aorta, cutting the major blood vessel in two places. This caused hemorrhagic shock. Miller & Zois took this lawsuit to a Prince George's County jury on behalf of this woman's estate. The defendants offered no money. The jury, unfortunately, did not think much of the case and awarded $1.4 after only an hour of deliberation. 

• $10,000,000 Verdict: Our client is a pastor from Baltimore City. He is admitted to the University of Maryland Medical Center in 2013 because of multiple medical issues. While admitted to the hospital, he suffers an elevated level of potassium in his blood. Elevated potassium must be treated very quickly before it interferes with a patient’s heart rate. The doctor caring for our client is a critical care specialist. Once he realizes our client has elevated potassium, he orders a drug called Kayexalate to treat his condition. A severe side effect of Kayexalate, especially in patients with multiple medical problems such as our client, is intestinal necrosis, or bowel death. Within hours of receiving Kayexalate, Mr. Allen suffered intestinal necrosis, quickly causing his death. According to the defendant doctor, he was unaware of these serious side effects even though the FDA required numerous labeling changes in 2009 and 2011 to warn about these fatal consequences. Moreover, the University of Maryland itself had policies that warned of bowel death with Kayexalate. Experts for the plaintiff argue that there was no reason to order Kayexalate when dialysis, a safer alternative, was available. Dialysis was readily available in the hospital, more effective than Kayexalate at treating elevated potassium, and does not carry with it the risk of bowel death. If the doctor had simply ordered dialysis, our client would not have died. Miller & Zois tried the case on behalf of our client’s estate and the wrongful death beneficiaries of our client’s family. After deliberations, the jury returned a verdict for 10 million dollars against the defendant doctor and the University of Maryland Medical Center.

• $1,500,000 Verdict: Our client has diagnostic testing that indicates a risk of cancer. Her physician shows her a test result that has the words "tumor" and "mass" on it. She is told to get an immediate ERCP, but she gets pancreatitis from the procedure. The insurance company goes to mediation but refuses to make any settlement offer to resolve the claim without a trial. The jury awards $1.5 million in damages. 

• $5,200,000 Verdict: Our client, a 49-year-old man, presents to the emergency room after his leg is severely injured. The knee is X-rayed, and he is discharged after being diagnosed with a sprain. He returns to the ER two days later. A missed injury to the popliteal artery is discovered and he requires an above the knee amputation. He files suit, alleging a breach in the standard of care for failing to rule out the popliteal artery injury. Defendants deny the plaintiff’s allegations and allege the injury to his popliteal artery occurred after he was discharged. The jury disagrees and awards the plaintiff $5.2 million. 
• $2,100,000 Verdict: A woman presents to Carroll Hospital Center in Westminster to repair a paraoesophageal hernia. The hernia occurred through the hole in the diaphragm that the esophagus runs through. Within weeks, a second surgery had to be performed as the hernia recurred. During this surgery, a surgical synthetic mesh is used to close the hole. She returns to the hospital within a week and is diagnosed with an esophageal leak. She undergoes more than nine additional corrective surgeries, leaving her with a permanent hernia and unable to eat normally at one point. She files suit, alleging the surgeon was negligent in the use of mesh to repair the hole around her esophagus. She further claims that the wrong type of mesh was used in the wrong way. Defendants claim all protocols and procedures were within the accepted stands of medical practice. A Baltimore City jury disagrees and awards the woman and her husband $2.1 million.

• $5,500,000 Verdict: Our client's 53-year-old mother undergoes open-heart surgery. She has pacing wires placed in her chest to help regulate her heart rate after surgery. When the wires are removed, she bleeds to death internally. Her daughter files suit for the doctor’s failure to properly place the wires, causing her mother’s death. A Prince George’s County jury awards $5.5 million. 
• $15,600,000 Verdict: An 11-year-old girl is born with brain damage in Prince George's County. The plaintiff's lawsuit alleges that a nurse midwife did not properly check a fetal monitor before delivery that would have made obvious that the baby was choking and not getting oxygen.
• $1,400,000 Verdict: An 11-year-old girl born at Prince George's Hospital Center is born with brain damage. The plaintiff's lawsuit alleges that a nurse midwife did not properly watch a fetal monitor before delivery that would have made obvious that the baby was choking and not getting oxygen.
• $9,500,000 Verdict: A two-week-old infant is brought into the emergency room after her parents notice she is short of breath. Blood tests are conducted, and she is discharged home with instructions to follow up with a pediatrician. More than twenty-four hours pass before the parents are informed that the infant’s test results indicate Group B streptococcus. The baby develops meningitis and suffers irreparable brain damage, resulting in cerebral palsy. The plaintiffs file suit, alleging that the defendants failed to inform them of the infant’s test results promptly, resulting in a delay in treatment. The defendants claim their care was reasonable and appropriate. The plaintiffs are awarded $9,500,000 which was subsequently reduced to $7,150,000 by Maryland’s non-economic damages cap.

• $1,420,000 Verdict: A pregnant woman goes to her doctor for an ultrasound. The ultrasound reveals that she has an ovarian mass on the left side. The doctor recommends the removal of the mass, and she is admitted to the hospital to have the mass removed. The surgeon, however, incorrectly removes the plaintiff’s healthy ovary and fallopian tube on the right side. She files suit in Baltimore City and is ultimately awarded $1,420,000 by a jury.
• $761,000 Verdict: The plaintiff has a C-section at GBMC in Towson on July 14, 2006. Four days later, a CT scan shows a bowel obstruction. Her bowel perforates six days later, and she needs emergency surgery. The plaintiff's suit alleges that her doctors failed to timely treat the obstruction. She has $52,097 in past medical expenses and $9,684 in lost wages. The jury awards $761,782, which is reduced to $711,782 under the cap on non-economic damages of $650,000 that was in place in 2006 when the accident occurred.
• $21,000,000 Verdict: The plaintiff goes to Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park to give birth to her child. The baby's left shoulder becomes stuck behind the mother’s pubic bone. The plaintiff says the doctor "pulled down forcefully" on the baby's head during the delivery. The boy suffers permanent left brachial plexus injuries. After a five-day trial, the jury awards $881,082.17 in past and future medical bills and lost future earning capacity and $20 million in non-economic damages for pain and suffering. The verdict is reduced by the cap on non-economic damages to $1,531,000. Medical Mutual was the doctor's insurance company.
• $21,000,000 Verdict: A Glen Burnie couple alleges their son's doctors at Johns Hopkins should have performed a Caesarean section instead of a prolonged vaginal birth that lead to oxygen deprivation and cerebral palsy.

• $2,500,000 Verdict: Our client's husband is injured in a fall, breaking his hip. He receives treatment at Montgomery General Hospital. A simple recovery stay in the hospital turned into a wrongful death case and a nightmare for his family. Two days into his recovery, he suddenly experiences multiple organ failures and dies. The plaintiff’s surviving family argues that the organ failures started with their father’s kidney shutting down due to a lack of fluids. They produce evidence that nurses alerted the defendant doctor to the fact that the patient had not produced urine in twenty-four hours and that a bag of saline and a blood transfer could have saved his life. The family further argues that mental changes (such as the patient seeing dead relatives) and disorientation should have alerted doctors to the lack of blood flow to the brain. The defendant denies all the allegations and says the patient died due to aspiration of Kayexalate, a drug given to reduce potassium. The jury sides with the family. Miller & Zois tried this case. You can meet our client here.
• $825,000 Settlement: The plaintiff visits her doctor seeking relief for chronic neck and back pain. The doctor diagnoses cervical radiculopathy, otherwise known as a pinched nerve, in her spine. The doctor decides to perform a cervical epidural steroid injection and branch nerve blocks at C7. Both procedures are completed the same day. Immediately after the injections, the patient experiences severe pain and numbness in her entire left arm. She develops a claw grip deformity and eventually loses the use of her arm. She brings suits against the doctor, arguing that he should have injected the steroid into the space around her spine, not directly into it. The doctor denies liability but agrees to an $825,000 settlement in Prince George’s County.
• $1,200,000 Verdict: A twenty-five-year-old kindergarten teacher seeks help for chest pains and a persistent cough. Her doctor performs an x-ray and diagnoses her with pneumonia. After thirteen months of treatment with no improvement, another scan is performed. It is discovered that she has terminal lung cancer. The teacher dies less than three years later. The plaintiff’s estate claims that if the diagnosis were performed properly, the teacher would have had a 90% chance of survival. A Frederick County jury gives the young woman's family a $1,225,000 verdict against the Medical Group.
• $5,500,000 Settlement: A baby is delivered at the defendant hospital when the mother is thirty weeks into her pregnancy. Despite weighing less than three pounds, her brain scans and umbilical cord pH are normal. As part of her intensive care, a venous catheter is placed through the umbilical cord into the baby. An initial x-ray shows a successful placement, but a follow-up x-ray performed five minutes later reveals that the catheter had extended into the baby’s heart. The following day, a third x-ray shows the same problem. The baby soon afterward becomes hypotensive. By the time the incorrectly placed catheter is withdrawn the baby suffers a global and irreversible hypoxic brain injury. The plaintiff argues that defendants should have repositioned the catheter as soon as they had the initial x-ray evidence that it was misplaced. The defendant denies liability but offers five and a half million dollars in an out-of-court settlement.
• $6,000,000 Verdict: A twenty-five-year-old husband dies after his doctors fail to diagnose a pulmonary embolism. After being rushed to the emergency room at Fort Washington Medical Center, the patient spends two days in the hospital with a temperature and hypoxia. Though a pulmonary embolism is the initial differential diagnosis, it is ruled out after an EKG, and the patient is transferred to Southern Maryland Hospital for pneumonia treatment. He is never seen by a house physician and collapses in front of his wife. He never regains consciousness and dies. An autopsy confirms the embolism as the cause of death. The plaintiffs allege wrongful death, claiming that the doctors were negligent in not timely diagnosing and treating the embolism. If it had been noticed earlier, the patient’s chance of survival would have been 95%. Defendants deny liability and claim that they acted in the standard of care at all times. A Prince George’s County jury finds for the plaintiff, awarding his family a $6,116,000 verdict.
• $405,000 Verdict: An elderly woman is taken advantage of by her dentist and is grossly over treated. To correct a mild rotation of two teeth, the dentist recommends six crowns and performs the operations without gaining informed consent. Eventually, the dentist places twenty crowns in total, and the patient cannot chew or even close her mouth fully. All the crowns are eventually removed, and the plaintiff undergoes several root canals. The plaintiff alleges the crowns were unnecessary and that they did not match each other in color and shape. The plaintiff’s experts state that she might eventually have to lose many of her natural teeth. The defendant contends that all of the crowns were asked for and that the alleged future corrective treatment was overpriced. A Rockville jury awards the plaintiff $404,592.
• $29,000,000 Verdict: The plaintiff is rushed to the emergency room complaining of severe abdominal pain. He is quickly diagnosed with acute appendicitis and is operated on by the defendant. The patient is sent home two days later. Soon afterward, the plaintiff is back in the emergency room complaining of a pain in the same location. A body scan reveals that an appendix is still present, revealing that the patient had a double appendix. Instead of promptly removing the second appendix, the patient is sent home two further times. Finally, another doctor removes the second appendix. The plaintiff sues the original surgeon alleging that he was negligent and breached the standard of care by not correctly reading the CT scan and for ignoring the patient’s worsening condition. Defendants argue that the standard of care does not require the surgeon to suspect dual appendices. An Annapolis jury finds that the surgeon was negligent and awards the injured patient $28,874.85 for medical bills, pain, and suffering, and lost wages.

At Miller & Zois, We have earned millions of dollars for malpractice victims by fighting every single case like it was our last case. Can we help you? Call 800-553-8082 or get an online consultation.