Medical Malpractice

Recently Kevin Elder of Penney and Associates tried a case to verdict against a doctor that failed to diagnose an infection that lead to a knee replacement.

In Sum. On May 24, 2002, plaintiff David King, a 54 year old carpenter injured his left knee on the job. He was referred to an orthopedic doctor in the Chico, California area. The MRI came back positive for internal derangement. Plaintiff underwent arthroscopic left knee surgery to include a meniscectomy. After the surgery plaintiff's knee continued to get worse. On September 9, 2002, the orthopedic doctor aspirated 45 CC's of blood tinged fluid from plaintiff's knee. This went on a few times until October 8, 2002, the orthopedic doctor performed a second surgery, at which time he observed that the intra-articular cartilage had completely delaminated from the joint and bone. There were large free-floating pieces of cartilage within the joint that were removed. Again the condition did not improved and plaintiff finally showed up at the emergency room complaining of symptoms suggestive of systemic infection. The aforementioned infection in his knee was treated for 10 days at the hospital.

The plaintiff David King, switched orthopedic doctors to an orthopedic doctor in Redding, California who performed a total knee replacement on November 3, 2004. Plaintiff sought damages for a failure to diagnose a developing infection in knee; chondrolysis and knee replacement. The demand was for $179,999.00 by plaintiffs and the offer by defendant doctor was $29,999.00. The jury awarded $276,000.00.

At Penney and Associates we handle all types of personal injury cases, including medical malpractice. Penney and Associates cannot guarantee the outcome of any case, including ones that might be similar to the one noted above.