Wrongful Death Lawsuit Sonja S. Kennedy MHA 622 (NDB 1435A): Health Care Ethics and Law Instructor: Jared Rutlege September 15, 2014 Abstract: The plaintiff in Ard v. East Jefferson General Hospital, stated on 20 May, she had rang the nurses station to inform the nursing staff that her husband was experiencing symptoms of nausea, pain, and shortness of breathe. After ringing the call button for several times her spouse received his medication. Mrs. Ard noticed that her husband continued to have difficulty breathing and ringing from side to side, the patient spouse rang the nursing station for approximately an hour and twenty-five minutes until the defendant (Ms. Florscheim) enter the room and initiated a code blue, which Mr. Ard didn’t recover. The expert witness testified that the defendant failed to provide the standard of care concerning the decease and should have read the physician’s progress notes stating patient is high risk upon assessment and observation. The defendant testified she checked on the patient but no documentation was noted. The defendant expert witness disagrees with breech of duty, which upon cross-examination the expert witness agrees with the breech of duty. The district judge, upon judgment, the defendant failed to provide the standard of care (Pozgar, 2012, p. 215-216) and award the plaintiff for damages from $50,000 to $150,000 (Pozgar, 2012, p. 242). Why Did Things Go Wrong In a healthcare organization, “professional nursing is
This case involves a physician, Dr. Burditt, who had disregarded the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). This act was implemented to prevent “Medicare-participating hospital from “dumping” patients out of the emergency room” (Pozgar, 2016, p. 245). In this case, Dr. Burditt had had examined the patient and made the decision to transfer her to another hospital that was located quite a distance away. When the patient was evaluated, it was noted that she had “dangerously high blood pressure (210/130) and was in active labor with ruptured membranes” (Pozgar, 2016, p. 245). Dr. Burditt should have continued to treat this patient because of her symptoms, which could have resulted in the death
While the seriousness of a patient’s death should be investigated, the hospital failed to act promptly and investigate the supervisor’s or human resource (HR) department’s denial of reasonable accommodations or the previous errors made by the nurse. Therefore, the wrongful termination seems more likely to have been the case in this situation. The defense will show that rather than terminating her employment earlier the hospital waited until something catastrophic happened. The nurse took appropriate action discussing her health condition diagnosed by her physician that precludes her from working in the ER at full capacity with her supervisor. The nurse should have been given alternative assignments as appropriate or disability leave if no other alternative was available and should not have been terminated wrongfully after the incident (Pozgar,
Two experienced nurses had been working at the Winkler county hospital for more than 20 years. In 2009, Ann Mitchell and Vicki Galle became whistleblower in the small town of west Texas. The nurses field an anonymous report to Texas Medical Board regarding to retaliation in the hospital. In the letter, the nurse stated the unsafe practices of Dr. Rolando Arafiles. The nurses were concern about the improper treatment to patient provided by Dr. Arafiles. Since. Dr. Arafiles tried to misuse his connections in order to save himself. Upon receiving the notice from the Texas Medical Board, Dr. Arafiles contacted his good friend and patient-Winkler county sheriff. Dr. Arafiles filed a complaint of harassment by the nurses to the sheriff. The sheriff started investigating the complaint and obtained the copy of the TMB report that clearly identifies that Mitchell and Galle had filed a complaint. Then, the sheriff obtained a search of warrant and seized each nurse’s work computer and found the copy of TMB letter. The nurses were charged with the third degree felony for misuse of official information to cause damage to the physician. However, the TMB disputed with District and County Attorney over the charges asserting that there was no misuse of official information in the state-governing agency. The complaint process allows anyone to report a physician for any unsafe, improper or poor practice including nurses. Since TMB is a government agency there was no violation of Health
The plaintiff Yolanda Pinnelas has evidence of a documented necrotic tissue injury that resulted from a Mitomycin infiltration that was not appropriately monitored on the night in question. There is no documentation that would support adequate monitoring up to the point of the infiltration. However, there is evidence proving that there was a nursing staff shortage on a unit with a high census of sick patients. The defense could claim that Jeffery Chambers did not have adequate rest and his fatigue contributed to the inadequate monitoring of Yolanda Pinnelas. I major defense for the plaintiff is if it is not charted it did not happen. The documentation in this case study does not paint a clear picture of events that took place and leave
Defendant Dr. Turk was performing gall bladder surgery on a patient, he became frustrated because the surgery was not going as planned. The plaintiff Snyder, a nurse was helping Turk in the operating room, she made some mistakes which included handing the wrong size surgical instrument to Turk. The defendant became angry because Snyder was making the procedure more complicated. The defendant grabbed Snyder by the shoulder and moved her closer to the surgical opening on the patient. There were other medical students and colleagues in the operating room witnessing this. Snyder wanted to leave but there was no one to cover her, so she had to finish the surgery with the
A elderly patient by the name of Mr. Nathan was hospitalized for Prostatic surgery. He woke up in the middle of the night and tried to leave. A registered nurse approached him and tried to hold him down. He pushed her into a wall and hit her in the face. As a result, she developed an concussion. There after, the unit clerk that was on duty called for security. Mr. Nathan tried escaping by running to the exit, but he was stopped by two orderlies and a security guard. During this time, Mr. Nathan was making accusations of false imprisonment. A doctor ordered restraining for him to be checked in an hour and ordered the patient to be sedated. Mr. Nathan was bruised in the struggle. In addition, the registered nurse was taken to the emergency room and couldn't go back to work for two weeks. Mr. Nathan said he will be suing the hospital for assault and false imprisonment.
This memo is sent in context of a lawsuit received from the lawyer of Patient ‘Y’ regarding retention of a surgical pack in the patient, due to which the patient has suffered. The lawyer has threatened to sue the hospital if the patient’s claim is proven.
The legal ramifications of this case include medical malpractice from the nurse, physician, and the hospital, a wrongful death lawsuit, and possible revocation of licenses of the involved parties. Basing on the Components of Professional Negligence as stated on Table 5.3 by Marquis and Huston (2015), the nurse and the physician are both guilty of malpractice. The physician wasn’t able to provide the best care, failed at meeting the standards of care, disregarded the possibility of the patient bleeding out after numerous attempts by the primary caregiver to inform her of the abnormals, and the patient died as a result of failure to assess the patient on a timely manner. Assuming that the nurse followed the physician’s orders and documented all of her observations and the physician’s responses to every inquiry the nurse made, he or she should have notified the charge nurse of the situation and follow the hospital protocol regarding instances like this. According to the components, the nurse is guilty because her failure of not acting on the perceived threat to patient safety has resulted in demise. Although the learning exercise did not mention any other available employee that could’ve helped prevented this case, the charge nurse, nurse supervisor, or nurse administrators who have not physically provided care for the patient may also be included in malpractice claims as a result of lack of leadership (Cooper, 2016).
The patient had been admitted to the hospital by her physician who suspected that she was suffering from an exacerbation of COPD, but he intended to rule out a heart attack, pulmonary emboli and pleurisy. To do that, he brought in the respiratory therapist who drew blood from the patient’s left brachial artery after several attempted punctures. The patient said the respiratory therapist was negligent in drawing the blood and punctured and/or damaged the nerves her wrists during the procedure and she screamed out in pain immediately at the time of both attempted punctures.
When someone dies because of another party’s reckless or negligent behavior, the surviving family members may want to file a wrongful death lawsuit. Though no amount of money will bring a loved one back, damages can cover funeral costs, lost wages, and pain and suffering. The attorneys at Balderrama Law Firm LLC in Carlsbad, NM, take a compassionate approach to wrongful death litigation and assist clients with their suit every step of the way.
The case involves negligence on behalf of the physician and nurse. The infant was given an injection of a drug that was administered through the wrong route. Dr. Stotler wrote an ambiguous order with resulted in the nurse giving the misinterpreted dosage of drug. The standard of care was breached because it is the duty of the nurse to ask the prescribing physician if they do not understand. The court found the physician, nurse, and hospital liable. Under vicarious liability, the hospital was responsible for the negligence of its agents, the nurse and doctor. The court stated that the nurse also was unfamiliar with the medication. Providers should always seek clarification if they are unacquainted with something. While it may seem to
A child is brought into the emergency department by his mother. The mother is yelling that her child is not breathing. The nurse runs over and takes the child, runs inside the emergency room and yells for a doctor. No doctor has arrived, but another nurse comes into the room and both nurses begin CPR on the child. The nurses talk to one another and agree that the child needed to be intubated immediately in order to survive. However, the doctors were unavailable. The first nurse to respond to the mother decides to intubate the child even though intubation is outside of her scope of practice and she could be fired for performing the intubation. The nurse intubated the child successfully and the child is in a stable condition after the intubation.
Hello Alistair, I disagree with you about the hospital followed legal protocol by contacting the patient’s husband. The patient was in her right mind, so it was the patient decision not the husband decision to make. If the patient was not conscious or in her right mind, then the hospital should have contacted the husband. What make you believe that Mrs. Dubruil was incompetent? Because I believe the patient was well informed and aware of the situation, so that made her able to make any decisions on whatever treatment she receive.
Joanna is an experienced nurse taking care of Mrs. Kelly, who was Joanna’s patient many times in the past for her primary problem which is COPD. This time Mrs. Kelly was admitted with complaints of abdominal pain what was different from her primary diagnoses. Her vital signs were with normal limits and no significant changes from privies results, but for the nurse she looks sick, and Joanna know that something is wrong. She calls the resident doctor, but he tell her to watches and calls back with series changes. Joanna multiple attempts to report that something needs to be done to evaluate the cause of Mrs. Kelly pain was ask to calm down. However nobody took patient symptoms series and the next day patient died.
This case involves medical malpractice that caused Mrs. Smoltz her life. When analyzing this case I noticed that there are several laws that were breached by the health professionals involved with this case. Failure to follow standards of practice for the nursing skill; was breached by Caroline Scott because she started a I.V in Mrs. Smoltz foot when the INS standards of practice states, “ Cannulation of lower extremities in adults should be avoided because of the increased risk of phlebitis” Scott admitted to knowing that was taking a risk however proceeded because she noticed Mrs. Smoltz’s condition worsening. Being that she knew that the I.V. should not have been started here and was not told by a physician to do so then Scott should be held accountable for her actions especially the pedal I.V. is the center of what led to Mrs. Smoltz’s death. There was also a breach when Scott violated the hospital policy because the hospital prohibits nurses from inserting I.V. lines in the feet and legs. If Scott felt that this was the best course of action she should have then expressed such to a physician so that he could insert the I.V. in such actions the hospital policy would not have been violated. The nurse practice act was breach when the nurses fail to document properly. INS standards of practice state “Documentation in the patient; medical record shall