Medical Malpractice
This page is about medical malpractice lawsuits against UMBC.
A relative newcomer to Maryland, Greater Baltimore Medical Center was founded in Baltimore County in 1965 and currently has 257 beds. It sees 23,000 inpatient visits and 52,000 emergency room visits per year. It sits on 72 beautiful acres off North Charles Street.
GBMC employs 1,300 physicians and has numerous departments, including obstetrics & gynecology, general surgery, and oncology/cancer care. GBMC is growing larger, aided by the more than $50 million it raised for its 50th anniversary in 2015. GBMC has satellite facilities throughout Baltimore County in Hunt Manor, Hunt Valley, Owings Mills, Texas Station, Perry Hall, Joppa Road, and Jarrettsville.
GBMC Is a Good Hospital But…
Maryland has some wretched hospitals you should avoid. But GBMC is a good hospital. Many Maryland medical malpractice lawyers we know have their children delivered at GBMC if that tells you anything. You would never walk into a courthouse in Maryland and tell the jury GBMC is a terrible hospital. They wouldn’t buy it.
But medical malpractice – awful medical malpractice – occurs in every hospital and GBMC is no exception. Juries do understand this. Medical malpractice can occur in any hospital, regardless of its reputation or quality of care.
There are two reasons for this. The first is good doctors and nurses can make bad mistakes. The second is bad doctors slip through the cracks and find their way into good hospitals.
Where To File GBMC Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
GBMC is located in Baltimore County. This county is typically considered to be conservative in personal injury cases. Still, our lawyers believe the right cases can be successful anywhere, and we have had a lot of success settling cases and at trial in Baltimore County.
Some attorneys try to force lawsuits against this hospital into Baltimore City Circuit Court. One argument that has been used lately in cardiac cases is that GBMC and Johns Hopkins entered into an agreement whereby the Hopkins physicians manage the hospital’s cardiac unit. Many of these types of rulings are discretionary, to some degree, with the ruling judge.
While there is an argument that GBMC “has carried on a regular business in Baltimore City,” it may still be challenging to transfer malpractice claims to Baltimore City if the negligence occurred at GBMC and the plaintiff is not a City resident.
If you are suing GBMC, you want to serve:
GBMC Healthcare
6701 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21204
Serve on: Resident Agent
John B. Chessare
6701 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21204
GBMC’s Legal Defense Team
The lawyers at Goodell, DeVries, Leech & Dann, LLP, and Waranch & Brown, LLC typically defend GBMC. They are all excellent malpractice lawyers and well respected in the legal community. Do they lose malpractice cases? Absolutely. But to beat them, you need both a good case and good plaintiffs’ lawyers.
Ordering Medical Records from GBMC
The first step in determining whether you have a medical malpractice case is for you or your lawyer to order medical records. GBMC medical records can be obtained from:
Greater Baltimore Medical Center Medical Records
Department 6701 North Charles Street
Towson, Maryland 21204
443.849.2274
443.849.3223 (fax)
Previous Lawsuits Involving GBMC’s
Below are some of the claims that have been made in recent years against this hospital and, when available, the allegations raised in the lawsuit:
- Dermota v GBMC: failure to treat surgery complications leads to patient committing suicide
- Regel v. GBMC: Undiagnosed endocarditis leads to hearing loss
- Fava v. GBMC: failure to diagnose liver cancer
- Williams v. GBMC: failure to perform a C-section (gestational diabetes) causing a brachial plexus injury in the child’s left arm
- Arbogast v. GBMC: Back surgery malpractice case involving a misplaced screw. You can get details of this case here.
- Kirby v. GBMC: Failure to timely diagnose and treat stroke claim that included Johns Hopkins as a defendant.
- Hill v. GBMC: Birth injury case involving a brain injury from oxygen deprivation.
- Troung v. GBMC: Negligent treatment of a woman who vomited and aspirated during labor
- Armacost v. GBMC: Neck injury during surgery
- Jones v. GBMC: Negligent delivery during labor.
- Thornton v. GBMC: Infant wrongful death in childbirth.
- Andrews v. GBMC: Surgical negligence.
- Siebert v. GBMC: Infection.
Settlements and Verdicts Involving GBMC
- Ward v GBMC $2,400,000 Verdict. A 40-year-old woman underwent mastectomy surgery at GBMC to treat breast cancer after a tumor was found in her right breast. After the surgery, GBMC and Advanced Radiology negligently failed to identify that the tumor had not been removed during the surgery, causing the cancer to progress further and forcing the plaintiff to undergo additional surgery.
- Palmer v GBMC $450,000 Verdict: A former smoker voluntarily attended a lung cancer screening program at Greater Baltimore Medical Center in 2005, where a CT scan revealed an abnormality in his upper right lung. His primary care physician recommended arranging annual scans but never did. By the time lung cancer was diagnosed in 2010, it had already advanced to stage four. He died two years later. The estate and surviving family filed a suit against the primary care physician, the medical center, and the two radiologists who discovered the abnormality. After a nine-day trial, a jury found the primary care physician liable (but not the hospital) and awarded over $160,000 in economic damages and $300,000 in noneconomic damages.
- Barnes v GBMC $1.1 Million Verdict. A man suffering stroke-like symptoms was misdiagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. Despite being sent by his primary care physician for stroke evaluation, he was examined as a low-priority patient with hand numbness. The patient was discharged with a diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome, only to suffer a stroke the next day. A jury awarded him and his wife $1.1 million in damages after a nine-day trial.
- Smith v. GBMC $675,000 Verdict. A 59-year-old GBMC housekeeper was set for routine knee surgery. She suffered a drastic blood pressure spike to 287 over 169 in the recovery room. The immense pressure led to significant brain damage, pushing her brain against her skull and eventually causing her death. GBMC’s defense lawyers argued a rare, undetectable tumor caused the blood pressure surge that killed her. The jury did not buy it.
Contact Us
If you believe you have a medical malpractice lawsuit against Greater Baltimore Medical Center or any other healthcare provider in Maryland, contact our medical malpractice lawyers at 800-553-8082, or send us a free internet request for consultation.