|
|
Over the last 28 years, Mr. Hodges has represented thousands of individuals in interesting and important matters. Cases run the gamut from medical malpractice cases, medical negligence cases, hospital negligence cases, orthopedic injury cases, birth injury cases, cerebral palsy cases, nursing home abuse cases, auto accidents, truck wrecks, premises liability cases, slip and fall cases, civil rights abuse cases, ADA cases, corporate abuse cases, class actions, and drug products. With regard to drug products, Mr. Hodges has represented hundreds of individuals in the Fen-Phen litigation. He has also represented people in cases involving Zyprexa, Ephedrine, Metabolife, Vioxx and others. Listed below are examples of cases of interest in which Mr. Hodges was the lead trial lawyer.
Police Abuse Case
As reported in the Kansas City Star, "For more than a decade, Kansas City Police ignored Federal Disability Standards they had sworn to uphold and on Thursday a U.S. District Court jury ordered the Department to pay. After a four day trial the jury awarded 2.2 million dollars to a man using a wheelchair who claims he was injured after officers improperly strapped him into a police van."
This case was the first of its kind in the United States against a police department requiring a department to live up to the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The case actually wound up in the United States Supreme Court. It is a frequently cited case in disability law across the United States. It resulted in changes in police department policies and procedures throughout the United States.
Click here if you or a family member has been a victim of police abuse.
Anesthesia Malpractice Case
Hodges Law Firm represented the family of a Kansas City resident who was given an awake intubation rather than an asleep intubation in the process of obtaining a back surgery. Because of the anatomy of the patient it was recognized it would be a difficult intubation. The standard of care required that intubation be done while the patient was awake. In violation of the standard of care the defendant anesthesiologist attempted the intubation while the patient was asleep resulting in the patient developing ARDS (Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome). This condition ultimately caused the patient to die. The physician, after suit was filed, changed the medical records to claim that the patient had refused the awake intubation. The defendant physician was caught in changing the medical records resulting in an ultimate settlement of the case.
Click here if you or a family member has been a victim of medical malpractice.Nursing Home Abuse
A Gardner, Kansas resident in a nursing home was under orders to be assisted while in the shower. She was left alone in the shower and allowed to fall causing a break of her clavicle and the defendant nursing home left the patient without medical assistance for two and a half days before taking her to a doctor. Shortly thereafter the patient died. The defendant nursing home changed medical records to indicate that the patient had no complaints of pain when in fact she did have complaints of pain. After being caught in the lie of changing medical records, the nursing home settled the case on the eve of trial.
Click here if you or a family member has been a victim of nursing home abuse.Clot Buster Drugs/TPA
Plaintiffs' mother, a resident of Kansas City, Kansas suffered a stroke in her home during a prayer meeting early in the morning. Her family called an ambulance, which came to the home and got her to the hospital within thirty minutes of the stroke. The defendant emergency room physician failed to obtain a CT scan in a timely way. There was a three hour window to provide the "clot buster drug", TPA. Because the three hour window passed without a CT scan being obtained and no drug being administered the plaintiffs' mother was denied the opportunity to be cured. As a result of this malpractice plaintiffs' mother died in the hospital. The case was tried to a jury in Wyandotte County, Kansas and resulted in a verdict of one million dollars for the plaintiffs. Plaintiffs' mother was 78 years old at the time of her death. The verdict was reduced to $750,000.00 as a result of Kansas law capping noneconomic damages at $250,000.00.
Click here if you or a family member has been a victim of defective pharmaceuticals.Stroke/Atrial Fibrillation
The plaintiff, a 76 year old woman, suffered from chronic atrial fibrillation. Sometimes her heart would go out of normal rhythm and would require conversion either by placement of electronic paddles or by medicine. The standard of care required that if the plaintiff was out of normal heart rhythm for longer than 48 hours the conversion should not be done until anticoagulants were administered. The risk was that clots would have formed in the heart. Plaintiff called her doctor in the morning on Friday telling him that she has gone into atrial fibrillation which she could feel. He said to wait and see if it came back on its own. Late in the morning on Sunday she went to the hospital where paddles were placed on her chest to convert her into normal sinus rhythm. More than 48 hours had passed. The following morning the patient was found having had massive stroke. This case was tried to a jury in Clay County, Missouri. It resulted in a verdict in favor of the plaintiff in excess of a million dollars. The case also resulted in the establishment of Missouri law that the caps for noneconomic loss were separate in a loss of consortium claim. The jury awarded over $400,000.00 to her husband for loss of his consortium.
Click here if you or a family member has been a victim of medical malpractice.Arson - Homeowner's Insurance Company Failure to Pay
Plaintiffs' lake cabin at the Lake of the Ozarks burned. Plaintiff had substantial debt prior to the burning. His insurance company, State Farm Insurance, refused to pay claiming that plaintiff had burned the house. State Farm Insurance Company hired a "fire expert" who determined that accelerants had been used to cause the fire. The plaintiff sued State Farm. The case was tried in Jefferson City, Missouri in Federal Court. Plaintiff's expert determined that there were no accelerants and that the marks were confused by the State Farm expert. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff finding that the fire was not set by the plaintiff and that State Farm Insurance had engaged in "vexatious refusal to pay", which resulted in an award of punitive damages and attorney's fees on top of the actual damages.
Click here if you or a family member has been a victim of an insurance company's failure to pay.Nursing Home Malpractice
The plaintiff's husband, a resident of Douglas County, Kansas, was in the hospital following a thyroid surgery. A trach tube was placed because of closing of the vocal chords in such a way that plaintiff had difficulty breathing. During the day when the "good" nurse was on duty and plenty of suctioning of the trach tube occurred, plaintiff had no problems. At night plaintiff's husband would become confused. On the first night he jumped out of bed and pulled out his IV's. On the second night he jumped out of bed and pulled out his IV's. On the third night he pulled out his IV's. Later that night he jumped out of bed and pulled out his trach tube causing him to die. The case was tried to a jury and a verdict rendered in favor of the plaintiff for the wrongful death of her husband.
Click here if you or a family member has been a victim of nursing home malpractice.Aneurysm - Medical Malpractice
Plaintiff's mother, a resident of Wyandotte County, Kansas, suffered the "worst headache of her life." She went to the emergency room in the back of a pick up truck taken by her neighbor. She was vomiting and very sick. The emergency room physician failed to take a CT scan and failed to recognize that she had an aneurysm such that the small bleed in her brain was causing the severe headache. Later she was taken to another hospital and yet later to a third. By the time she was ultimately diagnosed it was too late to do an "early surgery". While the physicians were waiting for an appropriate time to perform the surgery the patient died. The case resulted in a settlement with the initial hospital for a substantial undisclosed sum of money. The case with regard to the second hospital was tried. The jury determined that although malpractice occurred it was not the ultimate cause of the death as to the second hospital.
Click here if you or a family member has been a victim of medical malpractice.Wrongful Death - Asphyxiation
Plaintiff's mother was having an affair with a married man. They met at a friend's house who was out of town. The house was covered with snow. In the morning plaintiff's mother was dead. It was ultimately discovered that she had died from carbon monoxide due to a badly vented water heater. A furnace installer had put a new furnace near the water heater without obtaining a City permit. It was never discovered who put in the old water heater. Plaintiff sued the installer of the furnace alleging that if the furnace inspector had obtained a permit as required by law the City Inspector would have seen the bad water heater and made them repair it. The case was tried to a jury and a verdict was returned in favor of the plaintiff for the wrongful death of their mother against the installer of the furnace.
Click here if you or a family member has been a victim of wrongful death.Premises Liability - Slip and Fall - Trip and Fall
Premises Liability - Jackson County, Missouri - Sexual Attack
Plaintiff was a resident of an apartment complex in Jackson County, Missouri. She was abducted from the parking lot and sexually attacked in the woods next to the apartment complex. Defendants were the owners of the apartment complex where it was alleged that they provided inadequate lighting and created a place for the sexual predator to hide by erecting a large sign in the front yard. The two in combination created the perfect place for this sort of attack to occur. There were numerous other attacks in the surrounding locations. A Jackson County jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff in excess of $600,000.00.
Click here if you or a family member has been a victim of premises liability.Auto Collision - Road Broom - Soft Tissue Injury
Plaintiff was operating a road broom in Douglas County, Kansas creating a cloud of dust. Defendant drove into the cloud of dust striking the rear of the road broom. Plaintiff jumped off the road broom causing him soft tissue injuries to his neck and back. The case was tried to a Douglas County jury who returned a verdict in excess of $125,000.00.
Click here if you or a family member has been a victim of an auto collision.Nursing Home Malpractice
Plaintiff's mother was a resident of a nursing home in Douglas County, Kansas. Several things happened to her while in the nursing home. Ultimately she was left unassisted on a toilet after having sustained previous broken bones. She was allowed to fall off the toilet causing her a broken hip. Separate verdicts were returned by the jury for each of the injuries sustained by the plaintiff. She prevailed on each count of the petition. The case was ultimately appealed to the Kansas Court of Appeals establishing that separate caps were not available under Kansas law. Plaintiff was therefore limited to the noneconomic cap of $250,000.00.
Click here if you or a family member has been a victim of nursing home malpractice.
|
