What Happened
Our firm successfully resolved a wrongful death and medical malpractice case after hospital staff failed to properly monitor a patient recovering from a traumatic brain injury, leading to a preventable cardiac arrest and catastrophic anoxic brain damage.
The evidence showed the patient was placed on continuous telemetry and pulse oximetry monitoring while admitted to a specialty hospital for rehabilitation. However, the telemetry system malfunctioned, leaving him unmonitored for an extended period of time. Despite knowing of the malfunction, staff failed to notify the bedside nurse responsible for his care.
Because the patient was not properly monitored, critical alarms signaling oxygen deprivation and cardiac arrest were missed. He was eventually found unresponsive and suffered severe hypoxic brain injury from prolonged lack of oxygen. Despite resuscitation efforts, he was declared brain dead days later.
The evidence further showed that had staff properly communicated the monitor failure and closely observed the patient, medical intervention would have occurred sooner and the catastrophic brain injury would more likely than not have been prevented.
Practice Areas Involved
This result arose from the kind of care reviewed on these pages. If something similar happened in your family, they explain what the records are read for.