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| Leaders in the Law 2024 - Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly |
Four attorneys at Lubin & Meyer were recently honored as
Leaders in the Law 2024 at a prestigious event, hosted by
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, that celebrates lawyers of the year, in-house leaders and the top five verdicts and top five settlements of the previous year.
Lubin & Meyer attorneys achieved an unprecedented feat by securing four of the top ten verdicts and settlements in Massachusetts during 2023.
$20 Million Medical Malpractice Verdict for Loss of Leg
Attorney Robert M. Higgins achieved the third largest verdict in 2023 with a $20 million dollar result in
Luppold v. Lowell General Hospital. The patient’s blood clot was twice misdiagnosed as sciatica by emergency department staff, and led to the amputation of his leg. With interest, the total amount came to $28.8 million.
Higgins presented an emergency medicine expert and an emergency room nurse expert who both testified that the defendants were negligent in failing to properly work up the patient’s foot and ankle abnormalities, which presented twice as cool and purple. A surgical expert testified that the patient’s leg could have been saved with the proper treatment.
See related news coverage and the lawyer’s trial report:
Blood clot misdiagnosed as sciatica leads to amputation of leg.
$20 Million Wrongful Death Verdict for Aortic Aneurysm
Attorney Higgins also secured the fourth largest verdict of 2023 with another $20 million verdict in the civil action Estate of Joseph Brown v. Kenyon, M.D. et al. The plaintiff a 43-year-old disabled man died from an undiagnosed and untreated aortic aneurysm and dissection. Higgins claimed the defendants were negligent in failing to order CT and perform surgery.
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly reported that demonstrative aids proved pivotal in achieving a verdict. Said Higgins, “You can tell the jury about an aortic aneurysm or dissection, but it is far more powerful to actually show them.”
With interest, the verdict totaled $28.8 million.
See lawyer’s trial report and related news coverage:
Failure to diagnose, treat aortic aneurysm and dissection.
$7.56 Million Verdict for Pulmonary Embolism Death
Attorneys Adam R. Satin and Lynn I. Hu recorded the fifth largest verdict of 2023 in
McDonald v. Ruberg, when the jury agreed that a woman’s death could have been avoided had the doctor considered a pulmonary embolism. Said Satin, “In a complex medical case like this, we tried to emphasize the things that jurors know — before they ever set foot in the jury box — aren’t right. In this case, a woman in the hospital under the defendant’s care decided she was safe to go home and sent her home with a plan to follow up with another doctor in about a month. I said to the jury, ‘She didn’t make it a month, she didn’t make it a week, she didn’t make it a day — she didn’t even make it one hour. Forty-five minutes after she left the hospital she collapsed and died.’ ”
For more information on this case, see lawyer’s trial report:
Failure to diagnosed pulmonary embolism.
$15 Million Settlement for Baby’s Sleep Study Death
Attorneys Andrew C. Meyer, Jr. and Robert Higgins achieved a record-setting settlement for a medical malpractice case, the
Estate of Jackson Kekula v. Boston Children’s Hospital, which was the fifth largest of all settlements in Massachusetts in 2023.
The child was undergoing a sleep study test when abnormalities in his vital signs were attributed to faulty equipment. For 30 minutes, technologists attended to the machinery rather than the child, who suffered irreversible brain damage. The tragic case settled quickly before a lawsuit was filed. Said Meyer, “You can resolve a claim with a velvet glove and you don’t always need the iron fist.”
“We were able to work cooperatively with ... all the parties involved. It was incredibly important to not only get a positive result for our clients to get closure in this case, but also to have the hospital change its policies and procedures to make sure that nobody else gets harmed.”
For more information on this case see:
Boston Children’s Hospital Agrees to Record-setting $15 Million Settlement for Death of Infant undergoing Sleep Study Lubin & Meyer represents individuals and families in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
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LubinandMeyer.com - Lubin & Meyer PC - New England's Leader in Medical Malpractice and Personal Injury Law
