Partners Russ Briggs and Greg Fibich from of the Houston-based law firm Fibich, Leebron, Copeland & Briggs, have secured a $6.6 million jury verdict on behalf of a client who suffered permanent injuries after doctors failed to diagnose and treat a serious blood clot. Announced on Feb. 15, the verdict is among the highest medical malpractice jury verdicts in Harris County, Texas in the last 20 years against individual doctors.
The case stemmed from a from a March 2012 surgery in which the then 23-year-old victim underwent a splenectomy to treat her anemic disorder. Briggs and Fibich convinced a jury panel that the treating surgeon and radiologist, Dr. Ziad Amr and Dr. Andre Arash Lighvani, were each negligent in failing to properly identify and treat the patient’s portal vein thrombosis. This is a serious condition in which a blood clot forms in the blood vessel that transports blood from the intestines to the liver, and which can cause a number of harmful symptoms, including accumulation of fluid in the abdomen and other parts of the body and severe bleeding in the esophagus.
The blood clot was not discovered until April 15, despite the patient’s extended hospital stay due to fever and stomach pain, a CT scan performed by the doctors, and several emergency room visits.
As a result of their substandard care and failures to timely diagnose and treat the condition, the plaintiff still suffers from the blood clot and lasting issues that will require a lifetime of medical attention and treatment. Her condition also forced her to drop out of nursing school and delayed her career, and has recently forced her to work only part time.