When health care providers commit medical malpractice, it means they deviated from fulfilling their duty of properly treating and caring for their patients. Medical negligence could leave the patient with significant injuries or severe complications and even lead to the patient’s death. The resulting emotional and financial strain on the victims’ families often results in the filing of big medical malpractice lawsuits.

Medical negligence is the third leading cause of deaths in the US, with around 250,000 patients dying from medical errors every year. New York City is among the top US cities where medical malpractice cases are rampant. NYC resolved 13,712 cases of medical malpractice in 2019 for a payout of $975.0 million. In 2018, the city paid $1.1 billion in medical negligence compensation against 14,390 lawsuits. 

Lucia Ferreira, 24, won $1 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit against a Brooklyn hospital in 2006 for her first child’s death during delivery in 1997. Ferreira and her husband were excitedly awaiting the birth of their first child – a daughter. She was seven months pregnant when she went into rapid labor at home on July 1, 1997. 

Unfortunately, complications arose as the baby ended up in a footling breech position, with her head stuck in the birth canal. The baby asphyxiated as she was receiving no blood or oxygen through the umbilical cord and was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. 

A Bronx woman was awarded $110 million in 2019 against her medical malpractice lawsuit against the St. Barnabas Hospital. Keimoneia Redish sued the hospital and several of its doctors for mishandling her asthma attack in Dec. 2010, according to the NY Daily News.

The 48-year-old grandmother was left hospitalized and confined to a nursing home for almost a year after the Hospital’s doctors mishandled her asthma attack, triggering a severe brain injury. She ended up with speech and motor defects, leaving her crippled and suffering for life.