Donna Foster serves as the firm’s Medical Malpractice Defense team leader. She focuses her practice primarily in the area of medical professional liability in both state and federal courts throughout Virginia. Donna has represented physicians in a variety of medical specialties, as well as dentists, nurses, allied health providers, hospitals, and long-term healthcare facilities. Donna frequently represents physicians, nurses, psychologists, dentists, and other healthcare professionals during investigations and administrative proceedings by state licensing boards. Donna also provides advice and guidance to healthcare providers, hospital administrators, risk managers, and practice administrators on risk management issues in order to prevent claims before they occur. Donna’s practice also includes medical device and pharmaceutical products liability.

Donna began her healthcare practice as a Assistant Attorney General with the Virginia Attorney General’s Office in the Mental Health/Health Services Department representing several state agencies that serve the disabled, including the Department for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the Virginia Industries for the Blind, and Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center. While an Assistant Attorney General, Donna also participated in investigations conducted at Virginia’s mental health hospitals by the Virginia Attorney General’s Office and the Justice Department pursuant to the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA). Donna also served as substitute counsel for several state licensing boards including the Board of Psychology, Board of Medicine, Board of Nursing, and Board of Dentistry.

When Donna entered private practice at LeClairRyan, she became, and still remains, one of the go to persons for healthcare practitioners that request representation before Virginia’s various state regulatory and disciplinary boards.

Since entering private practice in 2000, Donna has successfully handled hundreds of medical malpractice cases and taken over 30 medical malpractice cases to trial in such venues as Hampton, Martinsville, Newport News, Chesterfield, Richmond, Fairfax, Danville, Williamsburg, Portsmouth, Henrico, Roanoke, and Lancaster. Most of these cases involved catastrophic injury or death. Donna also has extensive experience with mediation, has presented cases to arbitrators in lieu of a jury trial, and handled appeals to the Supreme Court of Virginia.

Representative Matters

Licensure and Board Defense

• Represented national healthcare system when its outpatient radiological technicians received “cease and desist” letters for practicing without state licensure despite a state law exempting technicians from licensure when practicing for a provider holding a hospital license
• Represented physicians and dentists accused of being impaired by drugs or alcohol and assisted them with the Virginia Health Practitioners' Intervention Program
• Represented psychologist accused of violating boundaries by having an affair with a client
• Represented physician accused of improperly prescribing narcotics
• Represented physician after settling a lawsuit for failure to appropriately recognize, respond to, and treat patient's acute neurological decline
• Represented physician who was required to undergo competency assessment pursuant to Virginia's “three strikes” statute
• Represented dentist with multiple offices on allegations ranging from improper advertising and billing to quality of care
• Represented nurse anesthetist following death of a patient
• Obtained complete exoneration of dentist after Informal Conference relating to allegations of improper treatment rendered to 11 pediatric patients
• Represented a family physician who allegedly failed to appropriately manage a nursing home resident’s diabetes and monitor his insulin levels
• Represented a gynecologist who allegedly failed to inform a patient of her lab results in a timely manner
• Represented a pain management practitioner who refused to continue to prescribe certain medications

Medical Malpractice Defense

• Plea of Sovereign Immunity sustained in the City of Richmond on behalf of a nursing home administrator resulting in dismissal of administrator from the case with prejudice
• Defense verdict for gastroenterologist in City of Richmond in lawsuit alleging a delay in diagnosing a perforated esophagus following an upper endoscopy with pneumatic esophageal dilation
• Defense verdict for psychiatrist in Henrico County in a matter in which patient was involved in auto accident after discharge from hospital for ECT
• Demurrer sustained in the City of Richmond on behalf of neurologist resulting in dismissal from case with prejudice
• Defense verdict in Henrico in wrongful death lawsuit where endodontist was alleged to have negligently instructed the patient to take NSAIDs following a root canal leading to a gastric bleed and death
• Defense verdict for emergency medicine physician in Hampton in wrongful death lawsuit alleging that physician was negligent in failing to diagnose arterial injury in patient who had been stabbed in buttock by his friend
• Defense verdict for gynecologist in Virginia Beach in lawsuit alleging that gynecologist failed to prevent and/or diagnose cervical cancer in young woman despite multiple Pap smears, colposcopies and LEEPs. Patient was incidentally diagnosed during a D&C by another gynecologist and underwent course of radiation and chemotherapy
• Defense verdict for a general surgeon in Hampton in which a 72-year-old claimed that a subtotal colectomy was unwarranted to treat her two precancerous polyps. Plaintiff claimed the defendant did not obtain informed consent and the surgery caused her to suffer fistulas and chronic diarrhea and undergo additional surgeries
• Non-suit taken during trial in City of Hampton in a case against a physical therapist alleging negligence during treatment that caused a fractured femur
• Defense verdict for family practice physician in Newport News in a wrongful death case alleging failure to diagnose pneumonia
• Defense verdict for surgeon in Lancaster in a matter alleging failure to perform cholangiogram during lap chole and failure to drain and investigate hepatic fluid accumulation post-op
• Verdict of less than a third of pretrial demand for general surgeon in Fairfax stemming from the transection of the common bile duct during laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Patient required a Roux-en-y repair, suffered cholangitis and other complications
• Defense verdict for podiatrist in City of Roanoke involving allegations of negligence following injury to Achilles tendon
• Defense verdict for dentist in Rockingham County in a matter alleging negligence in the performance of a root canal resulting in permanent cranial nerve injury rendering the plaintiff totally disabled
• Directed verdict for hospital in Henry County in lawsuit stemming from patient falling in radiology department and suffering a compression fracture of his spine
• Defense verdict for general surgeon in Danville in lawsuit alleging that he failed to timely diagnose appendicitis in child after four days of observation in hospital. Subsequent care required two abscess drainage procedures at another hospital

Appellate Court Decisions

• Howell v. Sobhan, 273 Va. 184 (2008)
• Goodman v. Cole, writ denied in 2009

Healthcare Risk Management

• Provide risk management services for large integrated healthcare system