Baltimore County Jury Awards $1.835 Million After Surgeon Delays Removing Infected Hip Prosthesis, Causing Septic Shock and Strokes

Gerald McCrae Sr., a Randallstown man, underwent bilateral hip replacements in the summer of 2022. The first surgery, in May, went without complication. The second, in late June, produced a persistent infection in the prosthetic joint that would not clear despite antibiotics and repeated washout procedures performed by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Peter Jay of The Centers for Advanced Orthopaedics.

Infectious disease consultants recommended removing the infected hardware and placing antibiotic spacer beads, the accepted standard of care once a washout fails to resolve a prosthetic joint infection. Dr. Jay instead performed two additional washout procedures over several weeks, leaving the infected implant in place. During that delay, McCrae's condition deteriorated sharply: he developed sepsis and septic shock, suffered small strokes, experienced memory loss, and showed signs of multi-organ failure including unequal pupils noted by a neurology consultant.

The infected prosthesis was finally removed on August 30, 2022, with spacer beads placed. McCrae was not discharged from care until October 19, 2022. He was left with permanent neurological impairment and lower-extremity disability.

Michael Rubin and Jonathan Goldberg of Schochor, Staton, Goldberg and Cardea tried the case in Baltimore County Circuit Court, arguing that Dr. Jay and The Centers for Advanced Orthopaedics breached the standard of care by repeating failed washouts rather than removing the hardware after the first washout did not clear the infection. As plaintiff's counsel told the jury, repeating the same procedure that already failed was not going to work.

On January 21, 2026, the jury returned a verdict of $1,975,000, allocating $268,000 for past medical expenses, $456,000 for future care costs, $250,000 for lost wages, and $1,000,000 for pain and suffering. Maryland's noneconomic damages cap reduced the pain-and-suffering award to $860,000, producing a final judgment of $1,835,499.