An Ohio couple was recently awarded a $1.5 million judgment in a medical malpractice case against two Akron doctors. A Summit County Pleas Jury ruled that Dr. Esther Rehmus was guilty of medical malpractice when she unsuccessfully performed a bone marrow biopsy on Milton Muhlfelder, 52, of Wooster, back in 2007.

While conducting the surgery, Dr. Rehmus hit a nerve and cut an artery in Muhlfelder's hip. The issue went untreated and unnoticed for five days after the initial surgery. As a result, surgeons had to remove two, softball-sized hematomas from his hip and pelvis.

According to a recent article on the case, an orthopedic doctor, Dr. Michael J. Smith, was called two days after the surgery but the doctor opted not to examine Muhlfelder, for some reason.

Milton and his wife had waited for more than two years to put this situation behind them. As a result of the malpractice, Muhlfelder has lost the use of his right leg below the knee and suffers from chronic pain.

In related national news, a Myrtle Beach-area jury awarded a man a $3 million verdict against a South Carolina hospital and doctor in a recent medical malpractice suit. Sean Fay filed a lawsuit against Grand Strand Regional Medical Center and Dr. Stephen Law over the death of his wife in 2002. Fay claimed that the doctors misdiagnosed his wife's symptoms which ultimately resulted in her death.

As a result, the jury found that the hospital and Dr. Law were negligent in the care of his wife and "failed to follow nationally recognized standards of medical care."

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