The following blog entry is written to illustrate an example of a personal injury case. Reviewing this kind of lawsuit should help potential plaintiffs and clients better understand how parties in personal injury cases present such issues to the court.
(Please also note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this personal injury lawsuit and its proceedings.)
FACTS/CONTENTIONS
According to Plaintiff: Plaintiff, age 23, entered defendant hospital on July 6, 2009 after sustaining a severe head and other injuries in a motorcycle accident. He was intubated in the ER and evaluated by a surgeon, who determined that none of his injuries required surgery. While in the SICU, he had a tracheostomy placed on July 20 and a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) placed on July 21.
Plaintiff remained in the SICU until July 28, when he was transferred to the medical-surgical unit of the hospital. On July 29, at 4:00 p.m., the nurse flushed the PEG line. The family heard a loud pop, but nothing was recorded in the records about this incident. The nurse did call the on-call surgeon about a decreased BP and increased heart rate. The surgeon asked that a cardiologist be called to consult on the patient, but the cardiologist claimed that he never received the page.
That evening, plaintiff began complaining of abdominal pain. On July 30 at 2:00 a.m., the nurse called the on-call surgeon and reported an elevated pulse. He was told that the cardiologist had never come in to see the patient. The cardiologist was called again at 4:15 a.m., and he ordered Cardizem and transfer to the Cardiac Care unit, which occurred at 5:45 a.m. At 7:00 a.m., the cardiologist came to examine plaintiff, and he ordered tests to rule out a pulmonary embolus. Defendant surgeon saw plaintiff at 8:00 a.m. and ordered that plaintiff be moved to the Medical ICU for a stat chest x-ray, which was read by defendant radiologist as normal.
For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.
Plaintiff was moved to the MICU at 8:45 a.m., and defendant hospitalist was paged, but he did not see plaintiff until 10:44 a.m. At 9:10 a.m., the MICU nurse called defendant surgeon to report a pulse of 180. He ordered Hespan and volume. At 10:30 a.m., the respiratory therapist responded to a decreased oxygen saturation, and he called defendant hospitalist for an order to put plaintiff back on the ventilator. At 11:00 a.m., defendant hospitalist noted plaintiff to be pale, diaphoretic, with a tachycardia and a low blood pressure, with respiratory distress. At 11:30 a.m., he ordered a stat chest x-ray and KUB to rule out a catastrophic event of the abdomen. These x-rays were done but not read by the radiologist until 1:00 p.m. Meanwhile, at 12:28 p.m., a Code Blue was called with resuscitation over the next 30 minutes.
For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.