Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
VII. ECONOMIC IMPACT REPORT
(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the proceedings.)
Robert Johnson, a Forensic Economist and President of Robert W. Johnson & Associates, has prepared an Economic Impact Report calculating the present cash value of Mr. Smith’s economic losses and future medical expenses. The report stated in part:
Total Expected Value Total Present Value
Expected Income $587,566 $579,542
Medical Expenses $2,286,027 $2,428,274
TOTALS: $2,873,593 $3,007,816
VIII. DAMAGES
General Damages $250,000.00
Wage Loss $579,542.00
Medical Expenses $2,428,274.00
TOTAL ECONOMIC DAMAGES: $3,257,816.00
IX. LIABILITY OF DR. X., M.D.
A. Dr. X’s treatment of William Smith’s back wound was below the standard of care.
1. FAILURE TO CONSIDER OR TEST FOR INFECTION:
The wound did not heal for more than two years under Dr. X’s inadequate care. During this time, Dr. X. failed to consider infection as a possible cause of the chronic ulcer or his severe back pain even though this possibility was immediately recognized by Mr. Smith’s family. Ms. Greene, plaintiff’s ex-wife, and both of his sisters (Susan and Mary Smith) described the wound’s appearance on March 17, 2002 while he was under Dr. X’s care as follows:
Ms. Greene:
“MC: You had been living at Ray’s house for a number of years prior to the date [3/17/02], right?
MG: I was still of and on living there. I hadn’t totally moved until after he went into the hospital.
MC: Ray went into the hospital 3/23/02 . . . Now you, from time to time, was looking at his wound? So do you think you were looking at it on and off for the two years before that?
MG: Yes.
MC: Now you from time to time were looking at his wounds in the year or two before he was hospitalized?
MG: Yes, I took care of it.
MC: And what did you see over time, was it getting better or getting worse?
MG: It got to the place where when he drove the car, he’d lay the seat back when he was driving, he rolled up a towel and put it there so his back didn’t touch the seat because he thought that would cause it less pain. He couldn’t get comfortable no matter where he sat.
MC: Do you remember being worried that the wound was becoming infected?
MG: Yes.
MC: Do you remember on the 17th of March when everyone gathered there – do you remember his aunt and his sisters looking at the wound too?
MG: I asked his aunt to look at it because he wasn’t listening to me. It wasn’t healing. It was getting worse and he was getting worse. This is a man who exercised all the time, he was going constantly. He never had any bad times or anything like that and he would out do me all the time and then I got to noticing that I could outdo him. . . . He was having all of these problems – I kept telling him I said listen you are going down hill, you need help.
MC: Now you said he was having all these problems – are you talking about the sore on his back?
MG: The sore on his back was causing him to not have any energy, he was so sore and in so much pain, that all night when he’d sleep he’d groan. It got to the place where, besides the smell, I couldn’t handle hearing him and I started sleeping in a different room.
MC: Was there a smell?
MG: Yes, it was horrific, it was – and I told him the smell itself told me that there was something really wrong.
MC: When you say really wrong, you mean infected?
MG: I thought it was very infected.” (See part 11 of 23.)
For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.