On July 19, 2023, a trial judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed a medical malpractice lawsuit against two emergency medicine physicians, Drs. Sellers and Laidley.
On June 15, 2023, a judge awarded a successful patient in a 25-day medical malpractice trial $3 million dollars in legal costs against three defendant physicians found negligent by the Court.
This is a trial decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice arising from a delay in transferring a patient with no pedal pules following a fractured femur (leg) after a motorcycle accident. The patient was initially assessed in the emergency room by the Defendant physician, Dr. Abounaja at Ajax Hospital, a community hospital that did not have a vascular surgery service.
This is a trial decision of a shoulder dystocia birth injury case causing a brachial plexus injury that occurred at the Mississauga Hospital in Mississauga, Ontario.
This was a medical malpractice trial decision of the Honourable Justice W.N. Renke of Edmonton, Alberta arising from a family doctor’s failure to refer a high-risk twin pregnancy to an obstetrician for ongoing obstetrical management. As a result of the failure to refer, the Court found that the diagnosis of a twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (“TTTS”) was delayed which resulted in profound and severe disability to both twins.
This was a judicial review application to the Divisional Court of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice of a decision of the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board (“HPARB”), dated January 16, 2020, confirming the decision of the Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee (“ICRC”) of the College of Physicians and Surgeons (“CPSO”) that dismissed a complaint against a doctor for having accessed the patient’s medical records for the purposes of defending himself in a medical malpractice lawsuit after he was no longer the patient’s treating physician.
This was an Ontario Court of Appeal decision regarding a Plaintiff who suffered an anticoagulant medication error. The trial judge found that the medication error caused no physical injury, however, he did conclude that there was a mental injury. The Defendant hospital appealed on the finding of a mental injury.
Two experts testified on the issue of causation. Dr. Louis Caplan, a world-renowned expert in stroke and professor at Harvard University, testified on behalf of the plaintiffs. Dr. David Gladstone, a leading Canadian expert in stroke, testified on behalf of the defendant. The expert evidence revealed the existence of a debate in the medical community around the comparative efficacy of anticoagulation therapy versus antiplatelet therapy in the prevention of secondary strokes stemming from vertebral artery dissections.
The Plaintiffs in two separate medical negligence actions requested that the defendants produce certain documents that they generated for use in quality of care review processes at the defendant hospitals.
This is one of those rare medical malpractice decisions where negligence is found against a doctor without the need for expert evidence. Expert evidence is almost always needed for the Plaintiff to prove negligence in a medical malpractice claim, however, there are those rare instances when it is not.
The trial judge considered all the evidence and determined that Dr. Lawson did not fall below the standard of care with respect to surgery. The trial accepted the physician’s evidence that she would have checked the ureters for injury during the procedure even though it was not documented in her operative report. Even if the ureters had not been inspected, the trial judge found that they would not have shown an injury at the time.
On February 2, 2023, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a class action trial decision from an infectious disease outbreak at the Rothbart Centre for Pain Care Ltd. (“the Rothbart Centre”) in Toronto.
