Case Results

Our client was run over by a truck on a construction site. Crandall & Pera Law represented this student, and his family, against several companies, some of which were worth billions of dollars, as well as their law firms and experts. Incredibly, these companies attempted to blame our client for his devastating injuries, a claim that was completely frivolous and eventually disproven. Our firm hired internationally known experts and litigated this case fiercely. We settled for $20.5 million on the first day of scheduled trial after several years of contentious litigation.

Max True was a two-year-old who had just started his first few weeks in day care. As is common, several kids in his day care were sick with the flu and strep throat; unfortunately, unbeknownst to his parents, Max caught strep throat. Max’s parents took care of him at home for several days and then took him to a local urgent care for testing. Max was only seen for several minutes by a very rushed physician, after which he was quickly diagnosed with a virus and sent home. No strep throat test was done, despite many symptoms that made it likely this is what he had. Max’s strep throat evolved into sepsis and septic shock, which occurs when the bacterial infection spreads throughout the body. Max was brought back to a hospital two days later, but by then the infection resulted in brain damage and the necessity of having both legs and both arms amputated. Crandall & Pera Law’s own Steve Crandall filed a lawsuit on behalf of Max and his entire family and was able to successfully obtain a $15M settlement. This settlement will allow crucial future medical care, including a specially equipped van, a specially outfitted home, prosthetics and therapy, to be provided to Max for his continued improvement.

Our client, just 18, was left with neurological injuries to the right side of his body and difficulty with word finding and speech. This settlement will allow him to get braces and other devices to walk and use his right arm and will give him peace of mind knowing that he will not have to worry about finances for the rest of his life.

When an Ethicon stapler malfunctioned during Nikki’s surgery, her life changed forever. The stapler malfunction caused additional surgeries and the removal of most of her large intestines. Now, she will need to depend on a colostomy bag forever, which means that she will never sleep through an entire night again. The manufacturer tried to blame the surgeon for the stapler problem for several years. The jury found in Nikki’s favor and returned a verdict of over $10.31 million.

Josh was only a teenager when he was paralyzed by a Toledo surgeon who negligently plunged an instrument he was using into Josh's spinal cord, causing permanent damage. Despite the obvious negligence Dr. Lindell's insurance company, ProAssurance, denied his claim and fought the case for many years by delaying the case and hiring lawyers to take the case to trial.

Thankfully, a jury found in favor of Josh, his mom and dad, providing the family the largest verdict in Lucas County history: $10 million. Josh has used this compensation for education, equipment and housing better equipped for his paralysis and future medical care, including research and care into curing his paralysis.

A 10-year-old girl was diagnosed with a stomach virus when she really had appendicitis. She was hospitalized for four days where no radiology studies or lab work was done to identify the problem. Her parents kept complaining of her declining health until she arrested from her infection spreading throughout her body. This arrest left her brain damaged and unable to speak, feed herself or take care of herself in any way.

The settlement of $8.5 million enabled her family to take her home, equip a special house for her needs, and provide her with nursing care and future medical care. The family has also invested in unique medical therapy, including hyperbaric oxygen chamber therapy and potential stem cell therapy.

Here are some of our other notable medical malpractice settlements and verdicts:

Dr. Xiao Di, who was employed by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (“CCF”), was a specialized neurosurgeon who pioneered the endoscopic repair of Arnold-Chiari malformations in the brain. In 2009, Dr. Di was featured by CCF in their year-end annual report as the only neurosurgeon in the world to have performed several variations of an endoscopic repair in the brain for various malformations and abnormalities. Dr. Di had a wide-reaching fan base of patients who had brain abnormalities repaired by endoscopic means, which utilizes very tiny openings in the skull rather than a large opening into the skull that traditional neurosurgery required. His social media accounts were swollen with past patients who espoused his surgical brilliance and patients hoping to be lucky enough to appear on his surgical schedule at CCF.

Unfortunately, Dr. Di suffered an eye injury during one of his endoscopic surgeries at CCF. Despite this, the eye injury could have been easily and successfully repaired by a simple cataract procedure. However, when Dr. Di underwent a cataract repair at CCF, the surgeon tasked with performing this operation on Dr. Di decided, on his own, to investigate and perform surgery on other areas of Dr. Di’s injured eye. In doing so, Dr. Di’s left eye became damaged beyond repair, rendering him unable to see out of his left eye. Dr. Di, with only “monocular vision,” meaning he could only see out of one eye, was forever unable to perform further surgery of any kind. Monocular vision results in a lack of depth perception, which any surgeon performing endoscopic procedures would need.

Despite Dr. Di's previous success as a neurosurgeon at CCF, and despite the obvious negligence at the hands of the ophthalmologist at CCF who wrecked Dr. Di’s left eye, as well as his future surgical career, CCF elected to fight his case, wrongfully terminate Dr. Di from employment and attempt to negatively affect his career at every opportunity. After many years of hard-fought litigation, a jury verdict was rendered in favor of Dr. Di, and against CCF, in the amount of $7.7M. The majority of this award was for the future lost wages Dr. Di and his wife suffered as a result of the negligence and loss of vision in his left eye.

Our client was a 3 year old boy with signs of neurologic issues, including increasing head circumference. This strongly suggested a condition called hydrocephalus, which can lead to brain damage if left untreated. Unfortunately, a brain MRI was not ordered and seizures led to brain damage and permanent injury. A settlement in this matter will provide crucial compensation for his future medical costs and care.

Our client was a wonderful 54 year old, married and employed man with two teenage children who went a cardiac surgery. Unfortunately, during the surgery material left behind in the surgical filed that led to clot formation in his brain. This clot caused a hemorrhagic stroke and permanent brain injury. Our client was unable to ever work again and unable to care for himself. Crandall & Pera Law put together an impressive array of expert witnesses, including a life care planner, a vocational expert and an economist to fully illustrate damages. This case was eventually settled and the funds received will help take care of our client and his family for the remainder of his life.

Settlement for the delayed diagnosis of a spinal infection resulting in quadriplegia. This settlement will allow our client to get the 24 hour care she will need for the rest of her life.

Our client was an incredibly sweet 58 year old woman who had an active lifestyle and was employed as a teacher. She suffered from lumbar back pain that radiated to her legs and saw a spine surgeon as a result. He convinced her to do a very complex surgery when only a simple procedure was warranted. Of course, this complex procedure would make the surgeon and his employer more money. Unfortunately, during this unwarranted and negligent complex procedure a surgical spacer was left inside her spinal canal leading to compression on her spinal cord and permanent paralysis and loss of bowel and bladder control. After all years of litigation and on the eve of trial the defendants eventually paid a significant settlement. This will allow our client to hire in home healthcare and to purchase a van and other medical equipment to best take care of her for the remainder of her life.

An energetic married woman was on her way to a fitness center during her lunch hour when she was broadsided by an 18-wheeler truck that ran a red light. She broke many bones in her body. The impact also caused a traumatic brain injury. This injury was particularly disturbing as she was able to talk and, at times, seemed normal. However, the brain injury left her unable to remember conversations and take care of herself or others.

The settlement allowed her to obtain brain injury therapy that was cutting edge at the time and resulted in some improvement. Unfortunately, she is still unable to take care of herself, however a trust that was set up to care for her has provided equipment and housing modifications.

The case settled for $5.5 million dollars against the Cleveland trucking company.

Portions of this matter are confidential. Our client was lawfully riding his motorcycle when an oncoming car driver, who was eating while driving, illegally went left of center and hit him head-on. He was thrown from his motorcycle and, despite being properly helmeted, he suffered permanent and severe paralysis. Attorney Steve Crandall represented him, his wife and children. After extensive litigation, the matter was settled for $4.7M, allowing for therapy, equipment and additional medical care for assistance and improvement. Incredibly, this client continues to work and speak to groups, despite his paralysis.

This case involved nurses at a Cincinnati hospital. They attempted to blame an OB for not attending to warning signs during a delivery. The OB indicated he was in the on-call sleeping room the entire night and was never called in a timely manner.

Lost in this senseless fight was the family of a little girl who was born brain-damaged because of the nurses and the OB to act and deliver the child appropriately. After researching the records, it was apparent the nurses had falsified the records to reflect calls to the OB they never made. Despite all this both defendants pushed this case to the eve of trial before resolving the matter.

The family has utilized the settlement of $4.65 million to provide education, equipment, housing and nursing care for their daughter who is now nearing her teenage years.

This was a tragic case of a young, happily married woman who was nearing the end of her second pregnancy when she became ill with strep throat. She went to a local hospital and was admitted with a fever and other abnormalities in her vital signs. Lab work came back, which confirmed she was infected; however, the nurses and her physician left the results sitting on the hospital's fax machine unchecked.

She became even more sick. Additional signs of this progression were ignored by the staff and her physician. Her infection forced her into labor where she died as she gave birth to her second child. While remaining one of our most tragic cases, the $4.6 million settlement allowed her two young children and husband to secure college education funds and attempt to rebuild their lives.

A young boy was in the hospital for pain in his stomach. A radiology study was being done to determine the cause and possible surgery for it. Because of the pain his breathing was difficult and had to be continually monitored. During the study his family was with him and became concerned that he was not breathing correctly. Despite their protests the staff ignored them and proceeded with the study. He ultimately stopped breathing completely and suffered brain injury when they were not able to perform CPR in a timely manner because of the delay. Because of the workup and time spent investigating the case, we were able to settle this matter before filing the case. The settlement was used to set up a trust for the child, enabling him to purchase special equipment and care to take care of his many needs due to his brain injury.

Our client was in the medical profession and eventually needed heart surgery. Immediately postoperatively he developed a blood disorder which went undiagnosed for nearly 2 weeks. This caused dangerously low platelets and clotting of his blood in various extremities. Unfortunately, due to the delay in diagnosing his blood disorder he suffered partial amputation of both feet and one of his hands. As a result of his injuries he was no longer able to care for patients again. We were able to negotiate a settlement through the use of medical experts as well as Life Care Planner’s and an economist.

Jim Layden was a librarian in his 50s when he began to experience difficulty walking and with his speech. He was eventually diagnosed with hydrocephalus, a condition where cerebrospinal fluid does not properly drain from the brain down into the spinal canal. Two proven and relatively common procedures are well known to successfully treat this condition; the patients go on to live a full and complete life with very few side effects. In Jim’s case, his neurosurgeon introduced a risky and less common procedure, for the first time on the day of surgery. This surgery was pushed onto Jim by his surgeon, despite being very risky. The surgery was also mis-represented and not explained properly to Jim. Unfortunately this negligently chosen surgery resulted in permanent damage to Jim’s brain, which has rendered him unable to work and unable to properly care for himself. After a lawsuit was filed by Crandall & Pera Law, founding partner Steve Crandall, a settlement for $4M was eventually paid by the neurosurgeon. These funds will allow Jim to remain at the care facility he prefers and provide for greater medical care and therapy than he was receiving.

A young married woman who had two young boys was admitted to her local hospital for an infection of her wound site after a recent spine surgery. She needed an IV line established so she could receive fluids and she needed antibiotics to cure her infection. Had this happened she would have been fine, the infection cured by these medications. Unfortunately, the nursing staff delayed placing the IV line during the day and the entire evening. By morning her condition had worsened, and she never recovered, eventually dying of her infection which had then shut down her important organs.

A young teenager developed a genetic spinal malformation and was eventually operated on at a local hospital. During the surgery, her spinal cord was being monitored by staff to ensure it was not put under undue stress by the procedure. Unfortunately, the obvious signs on the monitor were overlooked by an inexperienced and negligent staff member allowing the surgery to proceed when it should have been stopped. Upon waking up, she was found to be permanently paralyzed from the waist level down confining her to a wheelchair. After this settlement she was able to attend an outstanding university, which was well-known for being handicapped-accessible, and now lives in a specially designed home to accommodate and help with her paralysis. She remains an inspirational client with an eye toward curing her condition someday. She is also now contemplating to attend law school to help others.

Les Hall elected to have bariatric surgery after having failed at losing weight for many decades. He went to Dr. Schreiber who had advertised his services and program for this type of surgery as one of the best in Ohio. After surgery, Les developed a leak in his intestinal tract at the area where the surgery was performed. Many signs and symptoms developed, which were consistent with this leak; however, Dr. Schreiber did not follow up on these. Les eventually became infected throughout his body and, although he survived his ordeal, he suffered permanent and painful nerve damage, which affected his ability to walk and take care of himself. At trial, Dr. Schreiber attempted to blame other physicians for his failure to follow up. A Cuyahoga County jury returned a verdict in Les Hall's favor. Les' client testimonial regarding my representation of him can be found on Avvo.com and this website. He remains a close friend and has referred me cases frequently throughout the years.

A young boy in Southwest Ohio suffered a severe brain injury as a result of ABC Corporation's negligence. Shortly before trial, ABC Corp agreed to a $2.75 million settlement. This case is special to us for a couple of reasons. First, with the use of a structured settlement, the young boy will be taken care of financially for the rest of his life. Second, the law in this case was so difficult that several attorneys turned the case down. This will go down as one of the most satisfying cases we have ever handled.

Settlement for the wrongful death of a 60 year old man who sought help from his PCP for bloody stools. His PCP failed to emergently send him to the ER or a gastroenterologist. He died a few days later from a cardiac arrest secondary to massive blood loss.

Our client had a bowel perforation that was not timely diagnosed for a number of weeks. He, unfortunately, became septic, critically ill and was eventually correctly diagnosed at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. However, by the time the correct diagnosis was made, he was too sick to rally and recover and died. Crandall & Pera Law attorney Steve Crandall investigated the case, obtained multiple well-known medical experts in the fields of radiology, gastroenterology, general surgery, economic analysis, and general pathology and made the allegations of negligence to the hospital at issue. After a number of months of communication by both sides, a full and final resolution in favor of the family in the amount of $2.5M was obtained. The widow and son will now have the financial help they needed after the death of our client.

A young woman was not properly diagnosed in the emergency room as well as on the floor of a hospital leading to continued seizure activity. Unfortunately, this caused permanent brain injury and led to the necessity of physical therapy and other home-based care. This case was resolved after various experts were hired and a settlement demand was made prior to filing a lawsuit. The settlement was able to provide much-needed medical care and even a trust to help treat the condition for the remainder of the client's lifetime.

A man suffered a broken back and brain injury after he fell from a ladder attached to a commercial building in central Ohio. Our investigation revealed that the ladder had been improperly installed and maintained.

The case settled during trial. The settlement is a huge relief to our clients. Bills had piled up because our client had been unable to return to work and will never be able to work again. The settlement of $2.35 million allowed his wife to stop working so that she can help care for him at home.

This case was a tragedy but was fortunately settled before a lawsuit had to be filed. A young woman died after a short stay in the hospital due to an undiagnosed infection. She left behind a husband and two children they had together. Due to the settlement, we were able to provide college and retirement funds for the boys and the surviving spouse, respectively. While the compensation doesn't begin to make up for the loss, it was put to good use to advance the family and provide them security for education and allow child care help as well.

Mr. Woodruff, a married man with numerous children, was admitted to LMH to have a procedure. While there, he was placed on a ventilator after the procedure was completed. He began to show signs of a decrease in oxygen, which were ignored by the nursing staff. In fact, they attempted to blame a physician for not responding to their alleged complaints. Eventually, because he was being deprived of oxygen, Mr. Woodruff became disorientated and he dislodged his breathing tube, which caused him to go into arrest. This was also mismanaged and led to his eventual death. An Allen County jury provided this award, which at the time was the largest verdict in the county's history.

A 59-year-old woman just completed successful heart transplant surgery and was set to be discharged home. She developed shortness of breath and an X-ray confirmed fluid had collected around one of her lungs. A simple procedure needed to be done to drain the fluid and allow her to breathe easier. The X-ray was ordered in the early morning hours by a resident and then not properly communicated to various attending physicians who saw her later that same day. Both attending physicians failed to appreciate the X-ray findings and her condition began to deteriorate. Unfortunately, she suffered a respiratory arrest when the fluid was not drained, which left her with brain damage. She was unable to care for herself independently and required attention by her children at all times. This matter was settled a few weeks before trial and allowed for a trust to be set up to pay for home nursing care, medical equipment and home modifications for her to live safely.

Settlement for wrongful death arising out of the failure to diagnose unstable angina. Our client sought help from his PCP for chest pain. He was diagnosed with gall stones and died from a massive myocardial infarction a couple of weeks later.

Settlement for the wrongful death of a woman in her 70s. Following surgery, our client displayed signs and symptoms consistent with an intestinal leak and evolving sepsis. The hospitalist and the nurses failed to timely diagnose her and she died from overwhelming infection the following day.

This remains one of the most disturbing cases we've ever handled. The clients were a happy and close-knit family whose father had heart surgery. After surgery, his wound became infected and was being treated with another operation. During the evening, his wound began bleeding slowly but obvious signs were there. The nurse on staff that night was new and ignored the signs of bleeding. In addition, she later changed her records in an attempt to avoid liability. An expert in chart alterations was hired, who caught her in this attempt. Despite the chart alteration and the obvious and gross negligence, the defendants fought and the case was not settled until years later and the week before trial.

Settlement for the wrongful death of a 65 year old man following negligent performance of a gall bladder surgery.

Jane Doe sought help from her family practitioner with signs of sepsis: a racing heart, fever, elevated temperature and low oxygen level. She was diagnosed with a headache and sent home. She became unresponsive at home the following day and could not be saved. The family practice agreed to settle the case for $1.3 million before trial. The money will help her husband better provide for the small children she left behind.

This was a lesson Victoria and Steve Stamper learned when a surgical error by Dr. Michael Draznik left Victoria fighting for her life. Victoria Stamper shouldn't have even needed to have the surgery that put her life in jeopardy, but an earlier mistake by Draznik during a routine partial hysterectomy left Victoria with scar tissue and with remnants of a fallopian tube inside of her.

For more than a year, Victoria battled with pain and gastrointestinal distress. Draznik performed another operation to remove the rest of the fallopian tube – which no one had even told her was still there until a few days earlier – and, in the course of the procedure, nicked her bowel. The perforated bowel went undetected for four days, during which time Victoria suffered pain, fever, tachycardia, hypotension and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). In short, Victoria Stamper became septic during those four days where her condition went undiagnosed by Draznik or anyone else at The Christ Hospital. It took three full days for anyone to even order an abdominal CT scan.

Victoria Stamper underwent numerous surgeries and procedures and was intubated for approximately a week. When they finally pulled the tube out, Victoria couldn't catch her breath. The damage to her lungs, caused by the delay in diagnosis, left her with permanent lung damage. She lost 20 % of her lung capacity and still uses a walker to get around.

The case against Michael Draznik was complex; there were multiple parties involved, and the medical professional fought malpractice charges at every step of the way. This type of complex litigation requires a skillful and dedicated trial attorney, which is why the Stampers turned to Crandall & Pera Law's own Marc Pera for their medical malpractice case. Over the course of two weeks, Marc used thousands of pages' worth of medical documentation and records, interviews, hospital policies and discoveries to show that the negligence of Michael Draznik led to Victoria's undiagnosed sepsis and resulted in permanent injuries. After only three days of deliberations, the Hamilton County jury ruled in favor of the Stampers, and awarded them $1.2 million dollars in damages: $700,000 for Victoria and $425,000 for her husband, Steve, for his loss of consortium.

For attorneys like Marc Pera, these are bittersweet victories. Yes, the Stampers found justice in a courtroom – but this could have and should have been avoided.

A woman in her 50s was in her local hospital recovering from surgery when she began to develop pneumonia. Her oxygen saturation rates dropped several times during the day, and she had signs of chest pain and infection in her lungs. These signs were ignored by the nurses and doctors, and she eventually arrested and died in the early morning. Litigation ensued, and we deployed numerous experts to prove this case. After many depositions, and before trial, we were able to resolve this matter. The decedent and her husband had adopted their grandchild, who was very young at the time of her death. The settlement enabled him to be better taken care of and look forward to a college degree.

Policy limits settlement for the wrongful death of a 26 year old man who sought help for vomiting and a fast heart rate. He was misdiagnosed with a gastrointestinal infection and died from diabetic ketoacidosis the following day.

A surgical towel was left in Kelly's abdomen after a surgery to remove colon cancer and was not discovered for months. It caused the removal of two out of three of Kelly's small bowel and massive digestive issues that will last her entire life. Tried in Lake County Court of Common Pleas, the verdict reached for this case has been informally reported as the largest medical negligence verdict in that county's history.

Settlement of $700,000 for nursing negligence that led to the death of a 48-year-old schoolteacher after a surgical procedure.

Monica McKnight was in end-stage renal failure and needed dialysis to live. Unfortunately, the port in her abdomen became infected. She sought help from Dr. Moreira. Dr. Moreira surgically removed the port and sought to insert a new catheter in her jugular vein. Dr. Moreira, however, negligently inserted it into her carotid artery. A clot developed, and Ms. McKnight died a couple of days later. She was 57, but given her extensive health problems, had a life expectancy of only 3-7 years. The jury found Dr. Moreira negligent and awarded Ms. McKnight's family $515,000 for their loss.

A 34-year-old married mother of two boys recently delivered her third child. During surgery for the delivery, a C-section, a portion of the intestines were injured. This led to an infection that went undiagnosed for several days. Unfortunately, she died as a result. A confidential settlement was reached before trial.