Brain Injury & Medical Negligence Lawyers in Pittsburgh
Free Case Evaluation
Fill out the form below to schedule a free evaluation.
Brain Injuries Caused By Medical Malpractice
Do I Have a Medical Malpractice Case?
A brain injury caused by medical malpractice can change a family’s life in an instant. Proving a brain injury case requires more than showing a “bad outcome.” We must prove that the medical team failed to meet the Standard of Care—meaning they didn’t do what a reasonably competent doctor would have done—and that this failure directly caused the brain damage. Whether it was a failure to diagnose a stroke, an anesthesia error, or inadequate monitoring after surgery, Pennsylvania law provides a path for justice.
Four Requirements for a Medical Malpractice Claim
- Duty of Care: A professional relationship existed (e.g., an ER visit, a scheduled surgery, or inpatient monitoring).
- Breach of Standard: The provider missed a “red flag” symptom or failed to order a necessary scan (like a STAT CT or MRI).
- Causation (Increased Risk of Harm): In PA, we prove that the doctor’s delay or error increased the risk of permanent brain damage.
- Damages: The injury led to measurable losses, such as cognitive impairment, paralysis, medical bills, or loss of income.
Diagnostic “Red Flags” Checklist
- The “Wait and See” Delay: A patient presented to an ER with a sudden “worst headache of my life” or slurred speech, but was left in the waiting room for hours without imaging.
- Unexplained Post-Op Deficits: A loved one went into a non-brain surgery (like heart or orthopedic surgery) and woke up with unexpected cognitive loss, paralysis, or personality changes.
- The Ignored Alarm: During a hospital stay, monitors for oxygen saturation or blood pressure were alarming, but staff failed to intervene before a “Code Blue” occurred.
- Medication Overdose: A patient became unresponsive or stopped breathing shortly after receiving a powerful sedative or pain medication (like fentanyl or morphine).
Commonly Occurring Medical Brain Injuries
Stroke Mismanagement (Ischemic & Hemorrhagic)
Medical negligence typically occurs when ER staff fail to recognize the FAST (Face, Arm, Speech, Time) symptoms or misdiagnose a stroke as a migraine or intoxication. If a hospital fails to administer tPA (clot-busting medication) within the required window or fails to order a STAT neuro-consult for a brain bleed, they have breached the standard of care. In Pennsylvania, our firm focuses on proving that a timely diagnosis would have significantly reduced the severity of the brain damage.
Anesthesia Errors & Hypoxia
These errors can stem from improper intubation, an anesthesia overdose that suppresses breathing, or a failure to monitor vital signs during the “waking up” phase. When an anesthesiologist or CRNA ignores a drop in oxygen saturation or fails to manage a patient’s airway properly, the results are often catastrophic. We investigate the electronic anesthesia logs to find the exact moment the standard of care was breached, causing permanent neurological harm.
Failure to Diagnose Brain Bleeds (Aneurysms)
Negligence occurs when a provider fails to order a CT scan or a lumbar puncture for a patient reporting a sudden, thunderclap headache. When these “warning bleeds” are ignored, a second, major rupture often follows, causing massive brain trauma. In Pennsylvania, we hold providers accountable for failing to follow diagnostic protocols that could have identified the bleed while it was still treatable.
Surgical Hypotension (Low Blood Pressure)
If a surgeon or anesthesiologist allows a patient’s blood pressure to drop too low for too long (intraoperative hypotension), the brain can suffer “watershed” strokes or global hypoxic injury. These injuries are often not apparent until the patient fails to wake up or shows neurological deficits in the recovery room. We look for failures in monitoring and fluid management that allowed the brain to be starved of blood flow.
Bacterial Meningitis & Infections
Malpractice often involves a failure to perform a spinal tap or start antibiotics when a patient presents with a stiff neck, high fever, and light sensitivity. In Pennsylvania, these cases are time-sensitive; a delay of even 6 to 12 hours can be the difference between a full recovery and a lifetime of seizures or cognitive impairment. Our attorneys are dedicated to helping families uncover where the diagnostic chain broke down.
Medication-Induced Respiratory Arrest
If a nurse or doctor administers a high dose of medication and fails to monitor the patient’s breathing, the patient may slip into respiratory arrest. By the time the staff notices the patient is unresponsive, the brain has already suffered irreversible damage. We investigate hospital staffing levels and alarm histories to prove that the facility’s oversight led to the preventable injury.
Pennsylvania Legal Rules & Deadlines
Navigating a medical malpractice claim in Pennsylvania involves strict procedural hurdles. At Lupetin & Unatin, we are dedicated to helping families understand these rules to ensure their right to compensation is protected.
Generally, Pennsylvania law requires a medical malpractice lawsuit to be filed within two years of the date the injury occurred. However, brain injuries are unique; symptoms like cognitive decline or personality changes may not manifest immediately after a surgery or a missed stroke.
- The Discovery Rule: If the connection between the medical error and the brain damage was not immediately apparent, the two-year “clock” may not start until the date you discovered (or reasonably should have discovered) the malpractice.
- Tolling for Incapacity: In some cases, if the brain injury is so severe that the victim is legally incapacitated and unable to manage their own affairs, the statute of limitations may be “tolled” (paused) until a guardian is appointed or the incapacity ends.
Within 60 days of filing a brain injury lawsuit, Pennsylvania law requires a Certificate of Merit. This is a formal statement from your attorney confirming that a qualified medical expert—typically a board-certified neurologist or anesthesiologist—has reviewed the records and believes the care fell below accepted professional standards. Without this expert backing, the court will dismiss the case.
In a significant ruling in February 2026, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court signaled that the expanded venue rules are here to stay. This is vital for victims in the Pittsburgh area.
Where We Can File: You are no longer restricted to filing your lawsuit in the county where the hospital is located. If a healthcare system (such as UPMC or AHN) “regularly conducts business” in Pittsburgh, we can often file your case in Allegheny County, even if the injury happened in a smaller neighboring county. This allows us to seek justice in venues known for more favorable jury pools and higher potential verdicts for catastrophic injuries.
Pennsylvania’s Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error (MCARE) Act was designed to ensure that victims of catastrophic errors have access to stable recovery funds.
Layered Protection: Most doctors carry a primary insurance policy, but the MCARE Fund provides an additional layer of mandatory “excess” coverage for large settlements. For families facing millions of dollars in lifetime care costs for a brain injury, MCARE ensures that the funds awarded by a jury are actually available to be paid.
Case Study
This case study examines how medical negligence — specifically, the repeated failure to investigate a dangerous secondary cause of headache — led to a tragic outcome, and what it means for patients and families who may be facing a similar situation. After several days of doctors failing to properly investigate his symptoms, a patient lost his life to a treatable infection.
Article
Meningitis can quickly turn life-threatening if not promptly diagnosed and treated. For families impacted by a delay in meningitis diagnosis or treatment, understanding the potential consequences and legal rights is paramount. Our attorneys of Lupetin & Unatin have extensive experience handling medical negligence lawsuits for patients injured or killed due to failures or delays in diagnosing meningitis.
Article
Younger patients are less likely to have a stroke, but when they do, they are much more likely to be misdiagnosed.
At Lupetin & Unatin, we have seen the tragic consequences of this oversight. If you or your child suffered a stroke that was missed by medical professionals, you need to understand why this happened and why it may be medical malpractice.
Brain Injury Case Results
Our client was a man who suffered permanent brain damage after an allergic reaction during an MRI led to cardiac arrest (co-counseled with Attorney Gregory Unatin). The top settlement offer was $3 million.
Brendan Lupetin and Gregory Unatin represented the Miller family in a medical malpractice lawsuit against Tyrone Hospital in Blair County, Pennsylvania. After three years of litigation the case came to trial in the Court of Common Pleas of Blair County. Christopher suffered permanent brain damage during an MRI at Tyrone Hospital.
Our firm secured a $13.5 million settlement for the family of a child who suffered catastrophic injuries due to medical negligence during a routine procedure at a Pittsburgh-area hospital. Despite clear signs of fetal distress and maternal complications, the healthcare team failed to take timely and necessary steps to ensure the baby’s safe delivery. This preventable delay led to severe hypoxic-ischemic brain injury and permanent disabilities. We fought tirelessly to hold the medical providers accountable and to secure justice and financial support for the family’s ongoing care needs.
Our clients were the parents of a five-year-old boy who suffered a brain injury in utero just before birth. On the day of his birth, the child’s mother was admitted to a community hospital in Western Pennsylvania for induction of labor. A nurse placed a device on the mother called a fetal heart rate monitor. A fetal heart monitor uses ultrasound to display a tracing of the baby’s heart rate on a TV monitor. Before giving medication to a pregnant patient to induce labor, nurses need to make sure the fetal heart rate pattern displayed on the monitor is normal. If nurses find the fetal heart rate is abnormal, they should withhold medication to induce labor because it could harm the fetus.
Regrettably, nursing staff failed to notice concerning changes in the fetal heart rate and wrongly administered a medication to induce labor known as Cervidil. Over the next two hours, the heart monitor showed the fetal heart rate was gradually dropping and going through prolonged decelerations. These were warning signs that the fetus was not getting enough oxygen in utero. Unfortunately, nurses did not promptly recognize these warning signs or report them to the on-call obstetrician. An emergency cesarean section was not performed in a timely manner, and the baby’s brain was deprived of oxygen for too long. As a result, the child was left with permanent physical and cognitive disabilities, and dependent on tube feeding likely for the rest of his life.
Our client was a young woman left with permanent blindness due to the delayed diagnosis of a large brain tumor. In her teens, the young woman experienced frequent headaches which she reported to her primary care providers and optometrist. The young patient also had unexplained visual field loss and other visual symptoms like light flashes which were uncharacteristic of a healthy teenager. These worrisome findings should have prompted referral for brain imaging which would have revealed the brain tumor. The tumor was diagnosed and treated days if not hours before it took the patient’s life, though it left her with permanent disability and irreversible vision loss.
Our client was in his early 30’s when he presented to an emergency department outside of Pittsburgh with signs and symptoms of shock, including weakness and low blood pressure. Lab work confirmed the patient was likely suffering from shock. A chest x-ray showed an enlarged heart and raised concern for a condition called cardiac tamponade. Cardiac tamponade is a life-threatening condition caused when the heart is compressed due to the build-up of fluid inside a sac surrounding the heart. This build-up of fluid around the heart is called pericardial effusion, and in our client’s case was related to an infection.
Our primary theory of negligence focused on multiple delays in evaluating our client after he arrived at the hospital. The most critical delay was the delay in performing an echocardiogram of the heart as soon as doctors suspected cardiac tamponade. An echocardiogram would have allowed a cardiologist to promptly confirm the presence of pericardial effusion and drain the fluid from around the heart. Instead, our client suffered a preventable cardiac arrest due to prolonged shock. Fortunately, our client was revived from his cardiac arrest. Though he would never be the same due to severe lack of oxygen to his brain. Our client underwent months of rehabilitation to re-learn how to speak, stand, and walk. Despite a miraculous recovery, our client was left with permanent cognitive and physical disabilities which deprived him of an independent life.
Our firm secured a $2.0 million settlement on behalf of the family of a forty-year-old man who presented to the emergency department of a local hospital four-times over five-weeks with complaints of persistent headaches, nausea, vomiting, and fever. Based on his history, symptoms and lab results, the patient should have received the gold-standard test to diagnose meningitis. Instead, the patient was repeatedly diagnosed and treated for migraines despite never having migraines in the past. The patient was eventually admitted to the hospital with worsening symptoms, but his attending neurologist did not order a lumbar puncture until the man developed seizures and became non-responsive. Unfortunately, his untreated brain infection led to increased intracranial pressure and irreversible brain injury resulting in death.