{"id":322237,"date":"2026-08-15T21:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T21:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/322237\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T21:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T21:06:08","slug":"medical-malpractice-runs-rampant-in-new-york-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/322237\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical malpractice runs rampant in New York, study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Empire State \u2014 and particularly New York City \u2014 is known for having some of the finest doctors and medical care in the world, yet it still ranks second in the nation for medical malpractice<\/a>, reported a new study.<\/p>\n

While the state employs nearly 55,000 medical practitioners, it also recorded 5,321 medical malpractice payments between 2022 and 2026, according to research conducted by High Rise Financial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Approximately 17,000 medical malpractice lawsuits are filed each year in the US. InfiniteFlow \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Only New Mexico ranked higher at 115.7 malpractice reports per 1,000 practitioners.<\/p>\n

New York\u2019s malpractice rate of 97.2 per 1,000 practitioners topped neighboring Pennsylvania with 95.9 reports, Florida with 83.0<\/a> and New Jersey with 76.1.<\/p>\n

North Dakota recorded just 11.3 reports per 1,000 practitioners.<\/p>\n

This graph shows America\u2019s medical malpractice hot spots. National Practitioner Data Bank<\/p>\n

Cases can include surgical instruments or sponges left inside patients after surgery or a physician mistaking cancer for indigestion or prescribing the wrong drug if it causes physical harm or injury.<\/p>\n

This X-ray shows a retained surgical object left in a patient\u2019s body after surgery. sandwegandager.net<\/p>\n

One of the most infamous New York cases involved surgeon Allan Zarkin \u2014 dubbed \u201cDr. Zorro\u201d<\/a> \u2014 who in 1999 carved his initials into Liana Gedz\u2019s abdomen after delivering her baby via Caesarean section at Beth Israel hospital in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

Doctors and surgeons are routinely sued by patients. Prasit Rodphan \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a scene from a horror movie,\u201d Gedz told CBS in 2000<\/a>. \u201cHe branded me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The doctor resigned, and the patient later received $1.75 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cMary Poppins\u201d star Julie Andrews filed a lawsuit against
a New York hospital and two doctors for ruining her singing voice. FilmMagic<\/p>\n

\u201cSound of Music\u201d star Julie Andrews sued Mount Sinai Hospital and two doctors<\/a> in December 1999, stating that a botched throat operation to remove non-cancerous nodes destroyed her professional singing voice. <\/p>\n

The settlement amount was never disclosed.<\/p>\n

Even with all the incredible medical advances, human error still plays a large part in patient care. Georgii \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

In January 2026, Fox Varian, 22, who identified as a boy in her teen years won $2 million in a landmark lawsuit against New York doctors<\/a> accused of pushing a life-altering double mastectomy on her when she was just 16 years old \u2014 the first \u201cdetransition\u201d malpractice lawsuit in the nation to go to trial and win. <\/p>\n

Unlike many other states, New York does not place a legal limit on damages for pain and suffering, so wronged patients can see high payouts.<\/p>\n

In one instance, Columbia University and New York-Presbyterian agreed to pay a staggering $165 million to 147 former patients <\/a>victimized by disgraced gynecologist Robert Hadden.<\/p>\n

Statistics show that Brooklyn <\/a>consistently leads the five boroughs in total medical malpractice filings and high-payout verdicts in the five boroughs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Empire State \u2014 and particularly New York City \u2014 is known for having some of the finest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[972,20777,30720,75,35381,9,11,10,49,51,50,32544,129,58],"class_list":["post-322237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-doctors","tag-legal","tag-malpractice","tag-manhattan","tag-medical-care","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-survey-says","tag-the-bronx","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}