Anderson, Hemmat & McQuinn Wins Suit Against Patric LeHouillier & Associates, PC for Legal Malpractice
Colorado Springs, CO (PRWEB) January 05, 2015 -- Anderson, Hemmat & McQuinn—a highly experienced team of personal injury attorneys from Denver, Colorado won court case number: 13CV032156 at El Paso County District Court, Division 19 against Colorado Springs attorney and law firm, Patric LeHouillier & Associates, PC, after a week of testimony and a day of deliberation. LeHouillier was sued for negligence in allowing a statute of limitations to expire in a client’s medical malpractice suit. Anderson, Hemmat & McQuinn took on the complicated task of not only proving LeHouillier’s negligence, but also showing that the client would have triumphed in the original medical malpractice case. The December 8, 2014, jury verdict in El Paso County awarded in excess of $800,000* to Della Gallegos.
“The standard of care for attorneys is of utmost importance and missing a statute of limitations, especially in a very strong case, is simply unacceptable,” said Chad Hemmat, experienced trial attorney and co-founding partner of Anderson, Hemmat & McQuinn. “Attorneys have the professional responsibility to work with clients in an ethical manner and to follow through with proper client communication.”
According to court documents, in 2006, Ms. Gallegos began experiencing severe headaches that steadily worsened. By October of 2006, the headaches were so bad that Ms. Gallegos went for testing at a local hospital. An MRI was performed, but nothing was found on the scans, so she was sent back to her family doctor. Ms. Gallegos’ family doctor then prescribed the typical medications used for migraine headaches. In the ensuing years, she did everything possible to alleviate her symptoms. However, because she had had an MRI performed, she reasonably believed there was no serious condition underlying her migraine episodes. Over the next three years, Ms. Gallegos’ condition continued to deteriorate to the point where she was experiencing loss of vision and numbness on the left side of her face as a result of the debilitating headaches, court documents showed. Alarmed at these serious collateral symptoms, Ms. Gallegos returned to the hospital in July of 2009, no longer convinced these were merely migraine headaches.
Documents presented before the court showed that another MRI was performed and this time the doctors immediately saw a very large meningioma tumor abutting Ms. Gallegos’ spinal cord and interfering with her optic nerve. The medical team then reviewed the 2006 MRI and found the meningioma tumor was clearly visible in the 2006 scan. Because three years had elapsed since the initial scan, the tumor had grown tenfold. What was initially a tumor that could have been treated with focused radiation therapy was now a tumor that required three open brain surgeries. Based on where the tumor had grown and its position in the brain, doctors have only been able to partially remove the tumor. Medical follow up continues to this day and is expected for the rest of her life, the court was told. A recent study published by Health Day on January 11, 2013 indicated that compared to open brain surgery, focused radiation treatments are substantially less invasive, and the recovery time is far shorter. This was a life-threatening brain tumor that had been completely missed in the earlier 2006 MRI even though it was clearly visible on the scan. The court further found that Ms. Gallegos had been put through an additional three years of complications because the initial radiologist failed to investigate her illness with the due diligence expected of medical professionals.
Gallegos sought legal help from Patric LeHouillier & Associates, PC. After accepting the medical malpractice case and working the case for two years, the jury found that Patric LeHouillier & Associates, PC failed to timely file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations for medical malpractice cases in Colorado. LeHouillier’s error meant the client lost her right to recover from the medical mishap, the court found.
Finally, Anderson, Hemmat & McQuinn, Denver, Colorado Personal Injury Attorneys committed to providing legal excellence, accepted the legal malpractice case. They had the tough job of proving not only that Patric LeHouillier &Associates, PC was negligent in handling the case, but also proving that the client had a strong medical malpractice case that would have prevailed if it had been handled correctly.
Anderson, Hemmat & McQuinn prevailed in the December 8th verdict resulting in an approximate recovery value in excess of $800,000*.
About Anderson, Hemmat & McQuinn
As an experienced team of personal injury attorneys, with over sixty years of combined experience, Anderson, Hemmat & McQuinn, offer its clients compassion, capability and a commitment to serve. For more information, please visit http://www.andersonhemmat.com, email Thomas W. Dean at tom(at)andersonhemmat(dot)com, or call 303-782-9999.
*Note: Amount with interest and court costs included.
Thomas W. Dean, Anderson, Hemmat & McQuinn, http://www.andersonhemmat.com/, +1 303-782-9999, [email protected]
Share this article