Child Obtains $10,000,000 Judgment for Sexual Molestation

Judgment: $10,000,000.00    

Partial Settlement: $350,000.00

Parties: C.B. (a minor child) v. Huling and United Pentecostal Church

Facts/Claims: Roy Huling, the pastor of the Webb City United Pentecostal Church sexually assaulted one of the children of his parish repeatedly over the course of 3 years from the time the child was 9 years old, while the child was being cared for by he and his wife in their home after school. When the child was 13, she told her mother of the assaults, and Huling ultimately confessed to having sexually molested the child.   Claims of negligence were brought against Huling's wife and church. The homeowner's policy paid the policy limits of $300,000 and the Church paid its policy limits of $50,000 under a sexual acts provision in the policy. A Judgment was rendered against Huling individually for his intentional actions. He remains in prison.

Children obtain Judgment against murderers of their father.

Judgment: $10,000,000.00           Partial Settlement: $100,000.00

Facts/Claims:   Jamey Richardson was shot and killed while trying to escape from the home of defendant Gordon, who had asked Richardson to come to his home with the pretense of having a problem.   Instead, Gordon, Becker and Graham had conspired to induce Richardson to the home because other victims they had tortured had given them his name as possibly knowing where the trio's drug cache had been taken.   All three are in prison. Becker, the shooter, was convicted of multiple felonies.   Gordon's homeowner's policy has paid its $100,000 policy limits when JVM made negligence claims against him. Judgment for $10,000,000 was entered against Becker and Graham.

Emergency Room Physician Fails To Treat Heart Patient, Who Dies After Discharge

Facts/Claims: A Joplin emergency room doctor sent a patient home who had been recently discharged from the hospital after having open heart surgery and had returned to the hospital with acute abdominal pain. The doctor did not consult with the surgeon, nor did he have any imaging studies or blood work to assess whether it was safe to send the patient home. The man died within 24 hours of being discharged when peritonitis caused stress on his heart, which resulted in a heart attack.

Woman Struck While On Way To Car Outside Grocery Store

Facts/Claims: A woman was walking from the grocery store to her car when a woman struck her in the crossing area. The woman was turned around yelling at her child and had not been watching where she was driving. Mrs. Teegardin had a serious laceration to her head and orthopedic injuries.   The woman's insurer paid its policy limits of $25,000. The Hartford paid UIM coverages of $100,000 and then stacked the policy with another $75,000, after losing on summary judgment on the issues of whether it had a stackable policy. The supermarket paid $20,000 on claims that it was negligent for not having warning stripes in its cross walk. The Hartford paid another $25,000 under its med-pay provision.

Man Sues His Insurance Company For Underinsured Motorist Coverage

Verdict: $213,000                          

Settlement with liability carrier: $50,000

Facts/Claims:   A landscaper suffered back injuries when his vehicle was run off the road by a vehicle that crossed the center line. Mr. Pawlak tried to recover on his own, but ultimately the back pain became worse, he was worked up by a surgeon and had a fusion in his lower back. He was not able to continue his job as a landscaper.   The underinsured driver settled for $50,000. A jury trial in Federal Court resulted in a jury verdict for Mr. Pawlak for $213,000.

An Er Doctor Misses Diagnosis Of A Heart Problem, Leading To Man's Death

Parties: (Confidential settlement)

Facts/Claims:   A middle aged man went to the emergency room with acute chest pain and trouble breathing. The doctor diagnosed him with sleep apnea without ordering necessary tests. The doctor sent him home despite O2 saturations being dangerously low.   Within twelve hours, the man died while resting in bed. The autopsy revealed an undiagnosed coronary artery blockage.

Birth Injury Leads To Acute Bleeding When Young Doctor Hits Artery While Rupturing Membranes

Settlement: $275,000

Facts/Claims:   A family doctor resident who was in training for OB attempted to rupture the membranes of a young mother who was in labor. He inadvertently caused an acute bleed on the baby. When he and his supervising doctor tried to get the attending OB physician to come to the hospital in the middle of the night, they could not get him to come in even with repeated calls as the baby's fetal heart monitor show signs that the baby was in trouble. When the OB finally arrived, an emergency c-section was performed. Fortunately, the baby did not suffer catastrophic injuries, though he had to be in the NICU for several about two weeks.

Woman With Breast Lump Misdiagnosed

Verdict: $75,000

Facts/Claims: Plaintiff felt a small lump in her breast but when she went in for a mammogram she was told it was only cystic tissue. A year later she realized the lump was larger. She went to a different doctor and was diagnosed with Stage 3A breast cancer.   After undergoing a double mastectomy and chemotherapy, she went into complete remission. A jury awarded a verdict of 99% fault against the Freeman surgeon who misdiagnosed Mrs. Mounts and 1% fault against the radiologist. Freeman settled before trial for $50,000.

Woman Dies of Breast Cancer Following Failure By PCP to Order Tests

Facts/Claims:   A family doctor did not order BRAC genetic testing on a woman whose mother had died of  breast cancer in her 30s.   He also did not encourage mammograms for his patient, despite early awareness reports from the American Cancer Society that encourages this testing.  The woman developed breast cancer, which had metastasized by the time she was diagnosed.  Later BRAC testing of the woman confirmed that she had the gene for breast cancer.

Pathologist Misses Melanoma, Leading to Man’s Death

Facts/Claims:  A Springfield pathologist missed the diagnosis of melanoma from a skin biopsy.   Four years later, the melanoma had spread throughout the man’s body and when the original biopsy was reviewed by a specialist, it was interpreted correctly as melanoma and the report was revised.  It was later discovered that this was the second misdiagnosis where a person ultimately died because of the same pathologist having missed the diagnosis of melanoma.  The man died in his 40s, leaving a wife and two young children.

Woman Survives Tornado, but Dies When Doctors Fail to Diagnose Internal Bleed

Facts/Claims:  A Neosho area woman was caught with her husband and daughter in a tornado and flung airborne, suffering a mild head injury and a serious leg fracture.   She went to one hospital by ambulance, while her husband and daughter went to another.  She was not given a CT of her abdomen and pelvis and a bleed was undetected.  She began having alarming symptoms the next day, but the nurse did not timely notify the doctor.  She ultimately bled to death internally from the undiagnosed bleed.

Catastrophic Stroke Missed In ER by Doctor Who Brings Down Blood Pressure Too Far Too Fast

Facts/Claims:  A Carthage woman presented to an emergency room with extraordinarily high blood pressure and a bad headache.   The ER doctor had possible stroke on his differential diagnosis, but he did not rule it out with a CT scan.   Instead, he lowered her blood pressure too far, too fast, thereby disabling the body’s natural responses to fighting off the undiagnosed stroke, and then he sent her home, where she had the completion of a disabling stroke over the next 24 hours.

Woman in 30s Suffers Catastrophic Stroke When Warning TIAs Not Followed up on by Doctors

Facts/Claims: A Joplin woman was sent for an MRI of the brain/orbit area by her ophthalmologist when he detected that she was not able to see entirely from her peripheral vision.   The MRI report revealed mini-strokes had occurred, which is a warning sign of a potential major stroke.  The radiologist faxed the report to the eye doctor several days later, but the findings were not reported to the patient, nor was she set up to see a neurologist.  Three weeks after the MRI report, she suffered a catastrophic stroke.

Medical Bed Left Unlocked Causes Fall and Fractured Back

Facts/Claims:  A southeast Kansas woman was in the hospital.  When she returned from the restroom to her hospital bed to get back on the bed, the bed moved, causing her to fall and fracture her back (which had been previously surgically repaired), requiring surgery to repair the fracture.  The bed had been left unlocked.

Man Dies on Motorcycle When Driver’s Vision Blocked by Brush

Parties: Allen v. Kusnerick, American Family, et al.

Facts/Claims:   A Joplin area man was killed when Mr. Kusnerick pulled directly into his path from an intersection controlled with a stop sign.   Kusnerick’s view to the left was impeded by overgrowth of foliage and brush.   Mr. Allen was on a motorcycle and was being followed in a car by family members, including his young children.   Kusnerick’s insurance company paid its policy limits; American Family paid its UIM limits.  Further payment was made by the property owner’s insurance, and the County, despite disputing fault.