Dr. Margolick and the Textbook Case of Negligence
Lawyers for UAMS doctors Joseph Margolick and Natalie Applebaum, et al., blame the nurse for leaving a sponge in a surgery patient.
Download the brief in support of a motion for summary judgment here and read the last paragraph on page 6.
“The standard of care does not require the physician-defendants ‘to actually count and confirm the number of sponges used during Mr. Wesson’s surgery. That is the RN circulator’s responsibility.'”
Now check out this quote from a 1L textbook used at the UAMS affiliated law school.
Can the independent contractor surgeon delegate the duty to keep track of the sponges used during surgery (to make sure none gets left in patient) to the surgical nurse employed by hospital? Thompson v. Baptist Mem. Hosp., 247 So.3d 229 (Miss. 2018)(surgeon’s duty to account for all sponges is nondelegable). Prosser, Wade and Schwartz’s Torts, 15th ed., page 867.
This is not legal advice. I am a 1L, not an attorney. I am a co-plaintiff in a different case against Dr. Joseph Margolick, Dr. Natalie Applebaum and a host of other UAMS medical providers.
We made sure to name all the nurses and patient care technicians who are culpable as well. Let the finger-pointing begin.
P.S. If you are a plaintiff’s attorney who is interested in representing one or both plaintiffs, contact bohemian_books@yahoo.com. Here is the complaint.
Is the University of Arkansas Defending Felons?
The Board of Trustees made a motion to dismiss a complaint that asks for equitable relief against the University. The plaintiffs asked for the highly paid professors at UAMS who battered and imprisoned a non-consenting adult to be fired. Rather than costing money, that will save UAMS millions of dollars per year that can be spent to hire doctors that don’t commit brutal felonies.
More Stupid Lawyer Tricks: Brought to you by the University of Arkansas
My civil procedure professor was describing some sleazy, unethical moves she’s seen opposing counsel pull. She gave a play‑by‑play of exactly what UAMS attorney Sherri Robinson does.
The stupid lawyer trick goes like this: she asks for more time to respond to interrogatories. After the opposing party graciously agrees to the extension, the “response” finally arrives—nothing but objections to every single interrogatory.
The workaround is to agree to the extension only on the condition that all, or at least most, of the interrogatories will actually be answered.
Convicted attorney, poker, and taxes.
Which of these things belong together? Convicted attorney and litigator, of course. They are two of my favorite things.
Because I am too busy to blog about it, please read this fun yet serious story on Politico by clicking the link.
Sunday Funday: Analysis of Uber Litigation for 1L Torts
One of my favorite professors sent an assignment to write a couple paragraphs about how a recent real-life verdict might affect a fictional client. This was a pleasure.
The Jaylynn Dean verdict against Uber and the associated Multi-District Litigation, In Re: Uber Technologies, Inc., Passenger Sexual Assault Litigation is certain to have a significant impact on our client. It is likely this opened a floodgate of actions to hold companies liable for negligent hiring of independent contractors who commit intentional torts while “working” for companies like our client.
Beyond the negligence claims, there is a possibility that record keeping and production of documents in litigation will become burdensome. Doe LS 340 v. Uber Techs., Inc., 710 F. Supp. 3d 794, 805 (N.D. Cal. 2024). Besides potential direct suits against our client, plaintiffs may seek discovery through Rule 45 non-party subpoenas. Lyft is already feeling the impact. See Order In Re: Uber Technologies, Inc., This Document Relates To: all cases, No. 23-MD-03084-CRB (LJC), 2026 WL 459188 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 18, 2026)(Resolving Joint Discovery Letter Regarding Subpoenas to Lyft).
Happy to expand as needed, Laura
Arkansas denied counsel before imprisoning a TBI patient.
A traumatic brain injury patient refused treatment at UAMS Medical Center. Dr. Adam Watkins and 70 other employees forced the patient to undergo fentanyl administration followed by two weeks of dangerous drugs and physical restraint.
The doctors mistakenly claimed the patient fell 34 or 35 feet. He jumped 10 feet. Doctors and nurses claimed they gave the patient no drugs that would cause his odd speech and intoxicated mannerisms. They gave him a cocktail of benzos, fentanyl, psych meds and barbitruats that could have put a small elephant in a coma.
This is a list of the sedating and psychoactive drugs administered in the first 23 hours:
- 1,000 mg levetiracetam at 5:46 p.m. on January 13 (Nathan Ernst, ordered by Sarah Martin);
- 50 mcg fentanyl at 5:51 p.m. on January 13 (Ernst, ordered by Dr. Natalie Applebaum);
- 0.5 mg lorazepam at 2:40 a.m. on January 14 (Lyrex Williams, ordered by Krista Stephenson), not
documented until January 19; - 5 mg intramuscular haloperidol at 8:40 a.m. on January 14 (Jacob Langston, ordered by Kindy);
- 1,000 mg levetiracetam at 9:02 a.m. on January 14 (Langston, ordered by Martin);
- Continuous dexmedetomidine infusion from 11:02 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. on January 14
(Langston, ordered by Kindy); and - 5 mg olanzapine at 3:58 p.m. on January 14 (Williams, ordered by Tyler Rose).
The medical team intermittently claimed the patient was on a “72-hour psych hold.” For no explicable reason, the state employees never filed the petition required under Ark. Code Ann. Sec. 20-47-207, et seq. No judge was involved, and no counsel was appointed to represent the patient.
This writer negotiated the patient’s release after two weeks of confinement and numerous hospital-acquired conditions. The YouTube video posted above was taken three days before the release. We joined in a claim against UAMS and the individuals involved.
Instead of pursuing criminal charges against the persons responsible for the alleged false imprisonment and battery, highly paid state employees are trying to have me treated as if I committed the unauthorized practice of law. They also forbid me from video recording the continuous battery.
The statutory fee paid to counsel representing patients held without consent is $150. The litigation to compel compensation for the medical team’s victims will cost the people of Arkansas a million bucks, easy. Public funds wasted by MDs and JDs run amok.
Producer Wanted: UAMS False Imprisonment and Battery Victim Ready to Share His Experience in a Movie
No embellishment needed.
We have video and documentary evidence to prove that at least 71 people committed felonies against a man who was brought to UAMS after jumping from a falling ladder and hitting his head. The UAMS Police Department told us not to give our evidence to them. Security destroyed their video surveillance.
Our complaint filed in Arkansas Circuit Court gives some of the details.
Sean was an extra in a few movies and would love to play himself. Otherwise, he can play as an extra in one of the poker scenes, or one of the big goons dressed in scrubs that guarded his door and bound him to the bed.
Contact me at bohemian_books@yahoo.com to discuss joining on a project. Thank you.
Sunday Funday: The Insurance Rep and the Whopper
“…you arrived at UAMS as a trauma level II patient.”
This is just one lie told by The Doctors Company insurance risk manager, Steve Hillis. It is the purported reason the UAMS medical providers’ insurance company is making the non-consenting patient litigate to be compensated for two weeks of false imprisonment and battery.
Here is the trauma activation survey showing only one criterion checked off that can characterize a person as trauma level 1, 2, or 3. The criterion is a fall from greater than 20 feet. But the patient only jumped about 10 feet from the rung of a ladder. An EMT, who did not witness the injury, erroneously wrote that the fall was from the full height of the three-story house that the ladder had been leaning against.
The standard in academic studies is to consider the height of a fall from a ladder as the height of the rung the person was standing on. This makes sense. If a six-foot-tall man is standing on the ground and falls, you wouldn’t say he fell “six feet.” Or if a toddler falls from the same ground, you wouldn’t say he fell two feet. So, the EMT and the entire UAMS medical team are sticking to their assessment that the patient was standing on the top rung of the 35-foot ladder.
The UAMS medical team adopted the EMT’s error as their narrative.
Here are a couple questions for Dr. Nolan Bruce, Dr. Natalie Applebaum, Dr. Adam Watkins, Dr. Jordan Takasugi, and Nurse Nathan Ernst, some of the 72 named defendants who were involved early on. Don’t give them any hints. These will probably be questions we ask them each at the trial.
What is the maximum number of stories that a 35-foot ladder can reach?
A. ground level
B. one story
C. two stories
D. three stories
Assume 35 feet is three stories. In your expert medical opinion, which of these are injuries that would be consistent with a fall from three stories?
A. a broken limb
B. a sprained wrist or ankle
C. a laceration
D. inability to ambulate
E. being in a coma
F. none of the above
Oh, shucks, we already know the UAMS medical team’s answer to that question. It is “F. none of the above.” The patient had none of the above injuries, and the UAMS team insisted he fell 35 feet and would need over $115,000 of forced medical care.
They looked at a man who had no broken limbs, no sprains, no lacerations, was able to ambulate; they documented that the patient answered questions about his domestic life and moods over the past two weeks; and they did not ask him what caused his head injury. Still, the UAMS medical team decided that the patient fell 35 feet.
The logic used by the literal brain surgeons was that the patient did not look as bad as a person who landed on his head after a 35-foot fall, but they would force him to stay in the ICU anyhow, because he fell 35 feet and might start to look like it eventually.
There is a very real chance that if you walk into UAMS Medical Center with a mild injury, they will hallucinate a scenario that requires them to bind you to a bed, pump you full of fentanyl, and rack up a six-figure bill while they observe you for two weeks.
A Higher Law 