Failure to Aid Patient Promptly Lands Hospital in Court

A 60 year-old man went to the hospital to have a goiter removed. The usual post-operative result of goiter removal is a decrease in the amount of calcium in the body. If calcium falls too low, it can cause the patient to have difficulty swallowing and breathing.

While removing the goiter, the surgeon ordered calcium for the patient. After the surgery, the patient received no calcium which led to the patient’s family taking legal action against the hospital.

The following morning, the patient became extremely agitated and commented about having difficulty swallowing. Not much later, he complained about swelling in his neck and being unable to breathe.  Struggling to catch his breath, the patient went into respiratory failure. Eventually, because the lack of oxygen caused brain damage, he fell into a coma.

The patient’s family filed a malpractice lawsuit against the hospital. The case went to trial. Because the comatose patient could not tell his story, the case depended on expert analysis of hospital records and pretrial depositions.

The family’s lawyer showed evidence that a resident who was new to the hospital checked the patient the night after surgery. The resident did not order the appropriate tests and told the nurse that the patient was satisfactory. Based on this evidence, the plaintiff’s attorney proved that hospital employees failed to aid the patient promptly and the court issued a large judgment.