$1.25 Million: Failure to Respond to Medical Emergency in Intensive Care Unit

Medical Malpractice/Wrongful Death

The patient, a 51 year-old dedicated husband and father of two teenage sons, was recuperating in intensive care following an accident resulting in injuries including a broken femur and a ruptured spleen. Due to breathing difficulties, the patient was oxygen-dependent upon an endotracheal tube. The patient removed his EKG leads and his endotracheal tube, possibly as a result of agitation induced by breathing difficulty.

Despite the fact that alarms should have been triggered by the removal of the leads and consequences of the oxygen deprivation, no nurses responded to the alarms and the patient was not discovered for a period of 8-10 minutes or more. The alarms were either ignored or failed to sound. When found by a nurse that happened to be walking by his room, the patient could not be resuscitated and died.

The settlement of this case enabled the surviving wife to remain in the family home and will assist the two surviving sons with continuing their education and will assist with other expenses as they enter adulthood without the guidance of their father.

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