Air embolism during a medical procedure is an event, not, by itself, a legal conclusion. Certain procedures carry a recognized risk that air will enter the circulation, and that risk exists even when every step is performed correctly. Whether a particular case involving catastrophic neurological injury warrants disciplined litigation review depends on how air entered […]
Few doctrines in tort law generate more disagreement at trial than the eggshell plaintiff rule, also known as the thin skull rule. The principle is well established: a defendant whose negligence causes injury cannot avoid liability due to the plaintiff’s preexisting condition, even if that condition made the resulting harm substantially worse than what an […]
Medical records can establish a diagnosis, and an expert’s testimony may explain physiology. Lost earning capacity may be described by economists while life-care planners can estimate future medical needs. Yet these things may not always show exactly how someone is living with their catastrophic injury. Day-in-the-life evidence attempts to provide insight as to how a […]
In many birth injury cases, there is no dispute that the infant ultimately developed neonatal encephalopathy. Instead, litigation asks whether the diagnosis happened within an hour or six—and whether it came too late to preserve opportunities that may have limited permanent neurological injuries. Failure to diagnose neonatal encephalopathy quickly has significant consequences. Should the evidence […]
Neonatal hypoxic injury cases begin with the existence of a hypoxic event being apparent from the beginning. Fetal monitoring records, blood gas studies, neurological findings, imaging results, or the infant’s clinical condition after birth may all point to hypoxia. The more difficult question is whether the resulting brain injury was fixed before delivery or whether […]