April 19, 2022 by matray

ProAssurance Corp. announced that W. Stancil (Stan) Starnes, executive chairman of the Board of Directors, will retire from the ProAssurance board at the end of his current term and is not standing for re-election. Starnes will serve his remaining term as a director and executive chairman, which expires at the Annual Meeting Shareholders to be held on May 24, 2022.

“On behalf of our entire organization and the stakeholders we serve, I want to thank Stan for his visionary leadership and deep commitment to our insureds, our investors, our employees and the larger medical community,” said Ned Rand, ProAssurance president and CEO. “Stan’s support, encouragement and mentorship have been indispensable to me. We all wish him the best in his upcoming retirement.”

Starnes has been a member of the ProAssurance Board since September 2007 and has served as chairman, then executive chairman, since October 2008. In addition, Starnes served as chief executive officer of the company from July 2007 to July 2019, overseeing a period in which ProAssurance completed seven acquisitions, diversified its product offerings and expanded its geographical reach.

April 19, 2022 by matray

Attorneys for nine-year-old Jayden Vargas recently obtained an arbitration award of $25,638,058.93 for their client from Los Angeles arbitrator Robert Hanger for the negligence of 10 healthcare providers at Kaiser Fontana Hospital.

Vargas was born with a congenital bowel condition called atresia which was surgically repaired shortly after his birth. According to the Vargas’ attorneys, if he had been properly treated, he would have led a normal life. Instead, he was force-fed formula which led to a rupture of his bowels, sepsis and emergency surgery. Vargas’ blood pressure dropped to critical levels over prolonged periods of time, leading to a lack of oxygenated blood to his brain, which resulted in a profound brain injury that requires around-the-clock care.

According to Vargas’ attorneys, the more than $25.6 million arbitration award is one of the highest medical negligence awards for a single patient against the Kaiser healthcare entities.