Nursing Malpractice - Law Med Blog

Judge Rules Dr. Desai Competent For Trial In Nevada Hepatitis C Case

February 04, 2012 lawmed No comments

Citing a report from two psychiatrists and a psychologist at a state mental facility in Sparks who found that Dipak Desai is “competent and obviously exaggerating his symptoms” from strokes in September 2007 and July 2008 to avoid trial, Clark County District Court Judge Kathleen declared him competent to stand trial. Desai received six months of treatment at the facility last year after being court ordered there after state psychiatry experts declared him incompetent.

“The only impediment to competency asserted by the defendant is self-reported memory loss, secondary to two strokes, regarding facts relevant to his criminal charges,” the judge said. “Memory loss itself, even if true, is not a bar to prosecution of an otherwise competent defendant.” Desai’s lawyer, Richard Wright, contends that Desai is incapacitated by his strokes and other physical and mental ailments, to the point he is legally incompetent for trial.

The ruling cleared the way … (Continued…)

$2.4 M Verdict: Nurse Failed To Report Patient Change

November 03, 2011 lawmed No comments

On June 27, 1996, 71-year-old Pearl Cominsky entered Holy Redeemer Hospital in Meadowbrook, Pa., for an elective knee replacement. The surgery progressed normally and the patient was placed in a monitored bed on a telemetry floor post-op where she suffered a devastating cardiovascular event and later died. Originally, in a medical malpractice lawsuit filed by her husband, the plaintiff’s theory of the case was that Cominsky’s psychiatric medications, one of which was the potentially dangerous Clozaril, interacted with her anesthetic and/or her post-operative pain medication, causing her cardiovascular collapse. The original claim cited a failure by a psychiatrist, surgeon and anesthesiologist to order close post-operative monitoring due to these potential interactions as a causative factor in the death of Cominsky.

However, as discovery in the case progressed, it became apparent that adequate monitoring had taken place, but the results were not properly reported to the patient’s physicians, despite a … (Continued…)

Hospital & Surgeon Equally Responsible For Retained Surgical Sponge

October 28, 2011 lawmed No comments

In a somewhat odd case out of Louisiana, an appellate court has ruled that a hospital cannot have greater liability for a surgical sponge left in a patient than the surgeon. It is not this ruling which is odd. It is the fact that the plaintiff in the case filed the appeal, asking the court to assign the hospital a greater portion of the $50,000 judgment the trial court awarded. The trial court split the responsibility 50/50 between the surgeon and the hospital. But the plaintiff, for some strange reason, decided that spending thousands of dollars in legal fees appealing who should pay what percentage was worthwhile. The surgeon did not file or join the appeal to have the hospital pay a greater portion…and the hospital did not file an answer in the appeal against it. Unusual.

The plaintiff, Brenna Davis, originally brought this medical malpractice action against Dr. Richard … (Continued…)

$260K For Retained Surgical Sponge

May 26, 2011 lawmed 1 Comment

On March 26, 2008, Justin Bartle, 26, underwent a resection of a portion of his bowel. The procedure was performed by a colorectal surgeon, Dr. Fred Boehmke, at Sisters of Charity Hospital, in Buffalo, NY. Boehmke was assisted by another surgeon, Dr. William Heyden. A surgical pad was left in Bartle’s abdomen and caused an infection, and required additional surgery for removal.

In a medical malpractice action Bartle sued Boehmke; Boehmke’s practice, Amherst Colon & Rectal Surgery; Heyden; and the hospital. Bartle alleged that Boehmke and Heyden failed to properly perform the surgery, that nurses failed to properly assist the surgeons, that the failures constituted malpractice, that the hospital was vicariously liable for the actions of Heyden and its nurses, and that Amherst Colon & Rectal Surgery was vicariously liable for Boehmke’s actions.

Bartle’s later dropped the claim against Heyden. The matter proceeded to a trial against the remaining defendants, … (Continued…)

Sponge Count Erroneously ‘Correct’ And Sponge In Abdomen? Surgeon Cannot Claim Nurses To Blame In TN.

August 28, 2010 lawmed No comments

We recently talked about res ipsa loquitur in an offbeat and roundabout way. Now let’s take a real case from current court proceedings which relate to the fact pattern of another case we also previously discussed.

Dr. Richard Geer (no kidding) operated on the late Clyde Deuel on August 22, 2006 to remove a pancreatic mass. As is common in an open abdominal procedure, surgical lap pads (special cotton mesh towels with a strip of fiber that shows up on x-ray) were utilized. In addition to surgical instruments, suture needles and other devices, lap pads are part of the surgical count. At the end of the procedure, before the abdomen is closed up, all items that are part of the surgical count must be accounted for. Prior to beginning the operation all items are counted and the count is recorded. During the procedure if items are added to the … (Continued…)

Going Rate For Leaving Surgical Towel In Abdomen 6 Years: $564k

August 06, 2010 lawmed 2 Comments

Since undergoing an abdominal hysterectomy in 1999 at Lutheran Hospital of Indiana in Fort Wayne, Sylvia Mata continued to have abdominal pain for 6 years. And it’s no wonder. A surgical towel, not a type of towel know as a “lap pad” which has a stripe of thread running through it that will show up on an x-ray, but a towel similar to one of your cheap dishtowels, which is not meant to be placed into the abdomen, because if left there it may not show up on x-ray, was. And for six years, no xray detected it.

Her bowel eventually encapsulated the towel (likely forming some adhesions, tissue growth and nasty scar tissue that wasn’t much fun to cut away so that the towel could be removed without perforating the bowel. Doctors thought she had a cancerous tumor until they opened her up and, viola’!….a towel.

Mata sued her … (Continued…)

Horrific Story Of Homicide At DePaul Health Center: 16 y/o Dead After Being Restrained

August 03, 2010 lawmed No comments

From the St Louis Post-Dispatch

The charge nurse found Alexis Evette Richie alone in a small room at SSM DePaul Health Center, motionless and sprawled facedown on a bean bag chair.

Minutes earlier, the 16-year-old foster child had tried to hit, scratch and bite staff members in the adolescent psychiatric ward. Two aides grabbed her arms and took her down a hall and into a small room called the “quiet room.”

They held her facedown in the chair while a nurse injected a sedative into her hip. Alexis continued to struggle and then went limp. The nurse and the two aides left without checking her pulse or making sure she was breathing.

Charge nurse Iris Blanks checked on her minutes later and didn’t think Alexis looked right. An aide helped Blanks roll the girl over. Alexis wasn’t breathing. Her pulse was faint. It was 12 minutes after she stopped moving

… (Continued…)

RN’s Sciatica Blamed on IM Post Delivery $1.69 Million Awarded: Hospital Found Vicariously Liable.

July 31, 2010 lawmed No comments

On October 2007, plaintiff Tina Holstein, 31, a nurse who provides residential care, underwent the delivery of her third child. The delivery was performed at Community General Hospital, in Syracuse. During the delivery’s aftermath, Holstein began vomiting. The vomiting was addressed via the administration of an intramuscular injection. Holstein claimed that the injection caused a permanent injury of her sciatic nerve.

Holstein sued the hospital and the nurse who administered the injection, Jacinta Colombo. Holstein alleged that Colombo failed to properly administer the injection, that Colombo’s failure constituted malpractice and that the hospital was vicariously liable for Colombo’s actions.

Holstein’s counsel ultimately discontinued the claim against Colombo. The matter proceeded to a trial against the hospital. Holstein’s expert nurse opined that the injection was administered to the wrong area of Holstein’s buttocks. She contended that Colombo should have targeted a higher area of the buttocks.

Defense counsel contended that Holstein’s … (Continued…)

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