Gary Brooks Mims

A 50-year old man had his routine physical, including a prostate exam and blood tests. His PSA (prostate specific antigen, a marker for prostate cancer) was normal at 1.0ng/MI (0-4 is normal) and his prostate was normal. He changed doctors due to a change in his health insurance and continued regular physical exams for four years. During his next physical, his PSA was 44.9ng/MI -- an increase of more than 400%. A biopsy confirmed prostate cancer which had metastasized and was deemed incurable. During the four years he was a patient of the second medical practice, he was never screened for prostate cancer. The defense argued that 'evidence based medicine' does not support preventive testing because there is insufficient evidence to conclude that early detection of prostate cancer saves lives. The plaintiff successfully argued that prostate cancer screening should occur annually; and, that had timely screening been done, his cancer would have been detected at a time it was curable. The jury awarded the victim $1.245 million. As a result, the medical practice's managing physician said they would revamp record keeping and institute new client protocols.

Patient had knee discomfort when walking for extended periods of time. The pain was the result of degenerative arthritis the cure, knee replacement. The procedure should be highly successful but the result for this patient was tragic. In preparing the leg for the prosthetic knee, the orthopedic surgeon drilled through the back of the femur and cut the artery. The complication was not recognized until after the surgery was completed. A vascular surgeon was called but could not repair the damage.The patient came to Frei, Mims and Perushek to find out why this happened to her. Gary Mims and associate Zachary Desmond agreed to handle her case. They went to one of the foremost authorities in knee replacement surgery. He reviewed the case and told the lawyers that this never should have happened no one drills through the back of the femur during this type of procedure.The case was prepared for trial. Experts were hired, depositions were taken, and just prior to trial the case settled for $1.4 million. This was slightly less than the statutory maximum for medical malpractice cases in Virginia, regardless of the extent of injury, the amount of medical bills or lost earnings or earning capacity, the law limits the amount the plaintiff can recover from the doctor, hospital or their insurance companies. The settlement allowed the patient, who was wheel chair dependent, to make her home handicap accessible, to purchase a vehicle specially equipped for wheel chair access, and to purchase a motorized wheel chair.

An 80-car, 10,000-ton CSX coal train en route to Washington, DC lost braking control while descending a seventeen mile grade. Due to excessive speed, the train lost its brakes and reached a curve at nearly 60 mph and derailed. Several fully-loaded, 100-ton coal cars smashed into a house, killing a 15 year old boy asleep on the couch and injuring several others. The plaintiff successfully argued that CSX should have set the track speed limit lower (as it did the day after the crash); that they lacked a corporate policy for checking dynamic brakes and that the engineer was poorly trained. The case was filed in West Virginia to pursue maximum benefits to the injured, as the state of Maryland caps recovery at $2 million. The case settled for $4.577 million.

A 50-year male was sitting on his Harley Davidson motorcycle when struck from behind by the defendant, driving a car owned by a car dealership after hours. The defendant had a BAC of .18. The defense admitted negligence but argued that the BAC was not a proximate cause of the accident. The defense also argued that the plaintiff's injuries were pre-existing. Partner Gary Mims successfully established that the accident was caused by the defendant's intoxication and caused the plaintiff's injuries to become symptomatic. The jury awarded $1.7 million.