California woman wins $28 million against Kaiser Permanente

A young California woman who lost her leg and won a $28.2 million lawsuit against Kaiser Permanente said Thursday she hopes the verdict will bring reform against the managed care giant and empower patients to question their treatment.

“I truly hope that this is going to make a change in health care reform,” said Anna Rahm, a 23-year-old Cal State Northridge student.

“However, I know that it takes so much advocacy and so much passion,” she said. “We went into this with an initiative hoping that no matter the outcome, we wanted to get our story out there for everyone to be able to relate to and to learn from.”

A jury on Wednesday found that Kaiser Permanente was liable for mishandling Rahm’s medical treatment, resulting in the loss of her right leg, half of her pelvis and parts of her spine. The jury awarded Rahm the $28.2 million for future medical expenses, future loss of earnings, and pain and suffering after a four-week trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, according to her attorneys.

In response to the verdict, Kaiser issued a statement Thursday saying it was evaluating the outcome of the case.

“Although we understand the jury’s findings and wish only the best for Ms. Rahm, highly respected medical experts testified that the medical care provided was appropriate,” according to the statement. “We will be evaluating in the days ahead how best to respond to this verdict.”

Rahm was 16 years old when she began experiencing lower back pain. A chiropractor urged her to see her physician for an MRI. But according to court documents, her physician, Dr. Charlene Huang, who specializes in adolescent health at Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills, told Rahm and her mother, Lynnette, she could not authorize the test. Rahm was referred to another physician, Dr. Ngan Vuong, who according to court documents noted that the young woman was experiencing pain down her leg and was unable to sleep. Instead of a diagnostic test, Vuong prescribed an epidermal injection and antidepressant, according to court documents.

Between March and June of 2009, Rahm’s family repeatedly requested an MRI from their treating physicians but both doctors refused to order any diagnostic exams. The complaint also said physicians failed to document the MRI request in the medical records.

Neither physician has had administrative penalties issued against them, according to licensing information by the California Medical Board.

When Kaiser Permanente agreed and the MRI was done on July 2, 2009, it revealed that Rahm had an aggressive tumor mass in her pelvis known as osteosarcoma. Rahm underwent chemotherapy, then surgeries lasting a total of 22 hours which resulted in the loss of her right leg.

Rahm’s attorneys said Kaiser Permanente’s refusal to give her an MRI not only resulted in the loss of her leg, but also was an example of medical negligence. Her attorneys said the physicians’ refusal to authorize the MRI was an example of Kaiser trying to keep costs low.

One of Rahm’s attorneys, Michael Bidart, said he hopes the verdict will change the way Kaiser provides health care to its members.

“The hope is that they will allow their doctors to do prompt imaging and diagnosis without having an institutional bias against getting MRI,” Bidart said. “There are a lot of good doctors at Kaiser, including the surgeon who did a magnificent job on her.”

But the same surgeon could have done more to help her, had the MRI been done earlier, Bidart said.

Bidart also noted this is one of the few cases of its kind involving Kaiser to be presented in front of a jury.

“We were able to avoid arbitration,” Bidart said. “When juries are able to see this, they are offended.”

For Rahm and her family, the verdict helped to cast light on an injustice.

“In our minds and in our hearts, it was important for justice to be done.” Lynnette Rahm said. “We felt she had been wronged. Monetarily, it could never be corrected. For years and years, Kaiser had been telling us, ‘We’ve done everything right.’ This was the greatest verdict of all.”

She agreed that after the MRI detected cancer, her daughter received great care at Kaiser.

“The doctors who came afterward were wonderful,” Lynnette Rahm said. “They saved her life. We love them. It goes to show we’re not against Kaiser or against all doctors. We’re against doctors who don’t do their jobs.”

Now that the trial is behind her, Anna Rahm said she plans to continue pursuing her degree at CSUN in child and adolescent development. She said she already visits children and teens who are hospitalized and frightened.

“When I ended up surviving cancer, I felt I needed to help children in the hospital, because I was helped after my diagnosis,” said Rahm, who has been cancer-free since 2010. “I felt as though it was important for me to give back. I just feel I know they benefit from what I’m giving to them and I can benefit from what they are giving me.”

If you or a loved one have become victim to medical negligence, contact Chhabra & Gibbs, P.A. today by going to http://www.cglawms.com or by calling 601-948-8005 for a free consultation.

How To Prep For Workers Compensation

The reality tv show “Doomsday Preppers” is about families who are preparing for the end of the world.  Everyday ordinary people who believe that life as we know it will end due to earthquakes, nuclear war or cyber-warfare, or some other disaster.  What’s remarkable is that the preppers are prepared for catastrophes that may or may not ever happen. 

We can learn from the preppers.  Maybe we don’t need to prepare for global earthquakes, but the way preppers know exactly what to do in moments of crisis is something positive we can all apply in our own lives.

At Chhabra and Gibbs, we regularly meet people during their times of crisis and it is our privilege to represent them.  But, like the preppers, it is important to know what to do before a crisis ever occurs.

If you are involved in an accident at your workplace or feel any pain while you are working, the first thing you should do is report it to your boss.  Tell your supervisor or your boss that you’ve been hurt—even if it was your own fault, even if it seems minor.

Accident = Tell your boss.  Even if you don’t think you’ve been injured in the accident = Tell your boss.

Sometimes a worker will be performing everyday ordinary tasks at their job and they will feel pain somewhere in their body. 

Pain = Tell your boss.

After you’ve reported your injury, seek medical treatment.  You have a legal right to medical treatment. We will work with you throughout your treatment process to get you the care and compensation that you deserve.

Do not quit or resign from your job.  If your doctor has taken you off work or given you light or medium duty, abide by your doctor’s instructions.  If your employer refuses to accommodate your restrictions, you should still continue to abide by the restrictions your doctor has given you.

If your doctor has cleared you to work and you do not have a job, search for a job.  This is good for your life and good for your claim.

If you feel that you have a workers' compensation claim, contact Chhabra and Gibbs, P.A. today for a free consultation by going to our website at http://www.cglawms.com or by calling 601.948.8005.

The Workers’ Compensation System Is Broken And It’s Driving People Into Poverty

There’s a good news & bad news situation for occupational injuries in the United States: Fewer people are getting hurt on the job. But those who do are getting less help.

That’s according to a couple of important new reports on how the system for cleaning up workplace accidents is broken -- both because of the changing circumstances of the people who are getting injured, and the disintegration of programs that are supposed to pay for them.

The first comes from the Department of Labor, which aims to tie the 3 million workplace injuries reported per year -- the number is actually much higher, because many workers fear raising the issue with their employers -- into the ongoing national conversation about inequality. In an overview of research on the topic, the agency finds that low-wage workers have disproportionately high injury rates, and that injuries can slice 15 percent off a person’s earnings over 10 years after the accident.

There are two main components to the financial implications of a workplace injury. The first is the legal status of the people getting injured. A staggering number of workers in the construction industry are misclassified as independent contractors, which means they’re not entitled to workers' compensation payments. Also, more of them are employees of temporary staffing agencies, who tend to be less well-trained and less likely to report their injuries. Businesses will often contract out their most dangerous work, which allows them to keep their own workers' compensation premiums to a minimum.

The second component is the degradation of workers' compensation programs themselves. That issue is addressed by the second report out Wednesday, from ProPublica and NPR, which looks at how employers have lobbied states to get out of paying as much as they used to in workers' compensation, leaving injured workers with inadequate treatment.

Since 2003, the investigation found, 33 states have weakened their workers' compensation regulations, scaling back the procedures that will be covered and the duration for which benefits are offered. In addition, while businesses often push for reforms on the grounds that workers' compensation costs are out of control, data shows that premiums are lower than they’ve been at any point since the early 1990s.

Somebody ends up paying for those injuries, though: taxpayers. When a worker ends up unable to work because of an injury, he or she can be covered by Social Security Disability Insurance, a program that has steadily increased in cost over the past two decades. The rise has many demographic factors behind it, but it looks like the abdication of responsibility by employers may have played a role as well.

The Department of Labor has tried to tackle the misclassification problem -- which contributes to unsafe workplaces, and prevents those who are injured from getting help -- by aggressively pursuing employers abusing the system. But there’s not much they can do about the decline in workers' compensation coverage. That’s something states are going to address themselves -- over employers’ strong objections.

Has your employer been ignoring your workers’ compensation case? Are you having problems getting your paychecks or receiving medical treatment after you’ve been injured in a work-related accident? It might be time to hire a good Mississippi workers’ compensation lawyer to fight for you. If you feel that you have a workers’ compensation claim, contact Chhabra & Gibbs, P.A. today by going to our website at http://www.cglawms.com or calling 601-948-8005.