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Medical Negligence, Mistakes and Malpractice

8/24/2008
Thomas Pleasant
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Doctor Alleged to Have Ignored Patient Drug Allergy, Leading to Hospital Death
By North Carolina Medical and Surgical Negligence, Malpractice, Mistakes, and Errors Attorney Thomas W. Pleasant (Fayetteville, Raleigh, Wilmington, North Carolina).The following link, http://www.post-trib.com/news/1111760,hospdeath817.article takes you to a recent Post-Tribune article about a medical malpractice case where the doctor allegedly ignored the drug allergy of the patient. This patient had had a severe reaction to morphine after some prior medical treatment, and the family allegedly told the healthcare providers about this allergy before she went for some fairly routine type back surgery. Despite the warning, morphine was given, and the lady ended up dying as a result of this medical mistake. Time and litigation will have to flesh out what exactly happened, and whether there are legitimate defenses to this medical malpractice claim, but the allegations here smack of negligence, at least on the surface. These are the kinds of situations where a legal claim or lawsuit might be justified. A “family warning” case of a similar nature recently came through my office. In that case, a lady underwent the insertion of a dialysis catheter, by way of her jugular vein. The family warned the surgery center – during the intake session with the nurses at the hospital – that  their mother had weak vessels in her neck area, a possible alternative site for the patient’s dialysis access catheter. Also, the problems with the blood vessels were known by the patient’s nephrologist, or kidney doctor (who was not to be actually performing the catheter insertion). For some reason, neck access for the catheter was attempted, a vessel was punctured, and the patient bled to death. While there is a legal argument that the puncture of the vessel was a known risk of the surgery, that does not mean that the puncture during surgery was within the “standard of care” applicable to the physician. Additionally, the records seem to reflect that nobody on the surgery team noticed the tell-tale signs that this patient was bleeding to death. Noticing the signs of the patient’s hemorrhaging internally would have allowed “converting” the surgical procedure into an “open” procedure, whereby the damage to the vessel could be located and repaired. Interestingly, the surgery center has produced some records, and they do not contain key records previously provided to the patient’s family (record reflecting the details of the “code” situation once the doctors and nurses realized this patient was in a life or death situation). At this point, this kind of possible concealment seems to reflect some serious concern about liability. When medical malpractice lawyers take on cases like this, the proper attitude to take is, of course, the attitude of getting to the truth. But when hospitals, doctors and other health care providers “hide the ball” like this, it hurts everyone. A medical negligence lawyer won’t bring a frivolous lawsuit – to do so jeopardizes the huge sums of money (the costs of the lawsuit) that the attorney risks. But if it is necessary to file a lawsuit or claim in order to even get all the records (via court order, etc.), then it makes it difficult for the lawyer to avoid having to file the lawsuit. This is also instructive in that, if you think you or a loved one has suffered negligence at the hands of a doctor, hospital, nurse or other healthcare provider, and if you are considering taking legal action or filing a legal claim as a result; you should immediately secure the medical records yourself.
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Labels:Medical Errors and Mistakes,Medical Negligence Lawyer

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The Law Offices of Thomas Waitt Pleasant, PLLC
427 Franklin Street
Fayetteville, NC 28301

Toll Free: 888-HELP-156
Phone: (910) 323-3250