A federal judge has rejected a request by Pittsburgh, Pa plastic surgeon Dennis Hurwitz to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Rae Schiff in 2010 after a liposuction procedure.

According to the lawsuit, Hurwitz performed liposuction on Schiff’s stomach, thighs, arms, and hips, but failed to inform Schiff that a device used the procedure was part of a clinical trial for which Hurwitz was being paid. More Judge Rejects Surgeons Request to Dismiss Liposuction Device Lawsuit

Retired Airman Colton Read and his wife Jessica have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, Texas against the U.S. government alleging that gross negligence caused Colton to have his legs amputated after a routine gallbladder surgery.

According to the medical malpractice lawsuit, Read, 23, underwent a routine laparoscopic surgery to have his gallbladder removed at the David Grant Medical Center at the Travis Air Force Base in California. Early in the procedure, Capt. Ryan Schutter, a resident physician allegedly improperly inserted a surgical device that lacerated Reed’s aorta. The surgery was supervised by Maj. Kullada Pichakron. The lawsuit says, “This aortic puncture, laceration or injury was about 9 to 11 millimeters in length, and it caused massive bleeding in Airman Read’s retroperitoneal area.” The suit continues, “However, Dr. Pichakron and Dr. Schutter did not recognize this traumatic injury to Airman Read’s aorta until later in the surgery.” More Feres Doctrine Challenged by Airman Lawsuit against U.S.

The Florida Supreme Court has heard arguments from both sides regarding the constitutionality of medical malpractice caps, which were enacted in 2003. According to the law, non-economic damages are capped at $500,000, except in the event of catastrophic injury or death, in which case the cap rises to $1 million. The law limits emergency service caps at $150,000 and $300,000. If someone other than a licensed health care provider commits medical malpractice, the caps are $750,000 and $1.5 million, the Insurance Journal reports.

The court is hearing the case of Michelle McCall, whose family members filed a lawsuit after Michelle bled to death shortly after giving birth to a child. In that case, the jury awarded the McCall estate $2 million in non-economic damages for pain and suffering; however the award was cut in half due to the state’s medical malpractice caps. An attorney for the McCall estate argued that cutting the damage award in half violated Michelle’s constitutional rights. “To the extent that there is $1 million in compensatory injury that is not being compensated, there is a limit on the access to courts.” An attorney for the state rebutted any access to court denial. More Medical Malpractice Caps Future to be Decided by State Supreme Court

Susanne Wilke has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit in Connecticut Superior Court against Tully Health Center, Stamford Health System, Emergency Medicine Physicians, and EMP physician Michelle Tomassi, alleging they failed to diagnose the condition that caused her husband, Frank Hermann, age 46, to die in 2010.

According to the lawsuit, Tully and its emergency room physicians were negligent when they failed to diagnose the pulmonary embolisms that were in both of his lungs and caused his death 10 days after going to Tully for help. More Tully Center Hit with Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

More than 100 lawsuits have been filed against Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY by patients and their relatives who say they were harmed due to negligence or medical malpractice.

Assemblyman Nick Perry said the “number of suits against Brookdale is alarming” and “a very strong indication that something is definitely wrong with how the hospital is run,” The NY Daily News reported. More Number of Lawsuits Filed Against Brooklyn Hospital Alarming

The U.S. Department of Justice working to expand the scope of a precedent set in the 1950 Supreme Court decision of Feres v. United States, which prohibits military members from taking the government to court. While the Feres Doctrine prevents active military personnel from filing lawsuits for monetary damages against the government for injuries or death while on active duty, government lawyers are currently trying to extend the doctrine to prevent the families of active duty military members from being able to file medical malpractice lawsuits.

“This is a whopper of a theory and it immediately raised the hackles of attorneys who practice in this field,” wrote Andrew Cohen for The Atlantic. “Now, all of sudden, family members of military personnel can’t sue the U.S. for negligence because their loved ones are on active duty?” More With the Expansion of Feres Doctrine, Military Families Will Be Unable To File Medical Malpractice Suits

A jury has awarded Stephanie Tesoriero $15 million in a case of medical malpractice filed against a doctor who misdiagnosed a lump in her breast as non-malignant and cost Tesoriero much time in fighting the disease.

After finding the lump in her breast in 2002, Tesoriero had a mammogram. Dr. Paul Fisher of the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Care Center in Stony Brook, New York found “no evidence of malignancy,” and ordered no other tests. When the lump didn’t go away over the next 16 months, Tesoriero went to another doctor, who found the lump to have grown to the size of a golf ball, and determined through further testing that it was breast cancer. More Breast Cancer Missed, Jury Awards $15 million

Today, the Florida Supreme Court hears arguments in a case involving a 20-year woman who had preeclampsia when she delivered her son in 2006, and died several days later from complications caused by severe bleeding. The estate of the woman, Michelle McCall, has filed a lawsuit that challenges limits on non-economic damages in medial malpractices cases, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

The potential landmark case is at the center of attention of numerous medical and legal groups because it will challenge limits put in place in 2003 during one of the biggest political debates in Florida’s history. The Florida Justice Association lobbied against the limits in 2003 saying they were unconstitutional. A briefing on their website state, “The legal staff at the FJA has always believed that our best chance at overturning this draconian law is before the Florida Supreme Court.” The group believes this case could have a “direct impact on our health care delivery system in Florida.” More Case Challenges Medical Malpractice Limits in Florida

The family of 10-year old Haley Cobb has been awarded a nearly $14 million settlement over medical malpractice charges that Haley was harmed during her birth because of a botched delivery that included the use of a vacuum device and contraction inducing drugs.

Haley Cobb’s parents filed the medical malpractice lawsuit against Dr. Tara Shipman, in which they accused the physician of going forward with a vaginal birth and inducing labor instead of recommending a Cesarean section when the baby was showing signs of distress. The lawsuit also accused Shipman of leaving the delivery room when she should not have. More Ohio Family Awarded $13.9 million in Botched Delivery Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

A state study commissioned by the James Madison Institute has shown that medical malpractice reforms have decreased insurance rates for Florida physicians, but that “there is no mechanism in place to mandate a reduction in the patients’ health care costs when providers realize savings.”

However, non-profit group Patients for Fair Compensation has proposed an overhaul to the reform measures that would create a workers’ compensation-type system that would “adjudicate malpractice claims and curb the costly practice of “defensive medicine, “” Sunshine State News reports. More Florida Facing Medical Malpractice Reform