Decedent's Family v. Nurse, Doctor, and Hospital

In May of 2011, Wendt Goss, P.C. confidentially settled a medical malpractice/wrongful death case that occurred in Jackson County, Missouri. The case arose from medical treatment provided to Decedent on November 12, 2004, which ultimately caused her death that same day. At the time of her death, Decedent had two natural children and three adopted children. All of the family members were extremely close before Decedent's death, and they remain the same today.

As it relates to her medical history, Decedent was injured in an automobile collision in the late 1980s. She sustained several fractures, developed septic shock, and ultimately suffered from kidney failure. As a result, Decedent had been a dialysis patient for over 12 years preceding her death. Prior to her death, Decedent was not employed outside the home, and she received Social Security disability benefits. Decedent was active in all aspects of maintaining a home for her family and providing her family with services, such as care, help and assistance, support, guidance, and counsel. She was also active in her church and maintained a very close relationship with its preachers and her congregation, many of whom would have testified at the trial.

On November 12, 2004, Decedent was admitted to outpatient surgery at Hospital for a procedure to declot a right femoral AV graft. Doctor performed Decedent's dialysis declot procedure. During the procedure, he was unable to declot her femoral AV graft and attempted to gain venus access through the external jugular vein in her neck, which was also unsuccessful. Ultimately, Doctor gained venus access through her right femoral vein and placed a temporary catheter. Decedent was mildly sedated, but awake, during the entire procedure and was never intubated. Doctor's attempt to insert a catheter in Decedent's neck perforated, punctured a hole in, or tore a vein or artery, resulting in internal bleeding. Upon emerging from surgery, a visible hematoma (reportedly as large as a grapefruit) was present on Decedent's neck.

At approximately 6:40 p.m., Decedent was admitted to Hospital for observation. Shortly after admission, Nurse was assigned to provide nursing care for Decedent. Following the procedure, Decedent was experiencing tremendous pain at the puncture site in her neck, and she had difficulty speaking. Eventually, Decedent's condition progressed, and she developed a raspy voice and required bedside suction due to her inability to swallow excessive secretions.

Unfortunately, Decedent's condition continued to deteriorate, and she was unable to speak - only grunt. She became very agitated and unable to relax. According to the medical records, Decedent was even unable to swallow her medications without apple sauce at 9:00 p.m. Nurse believed that Decedent's trouble swallowing was due to her being intubated during the surgery; however, Decedent was never intubated, and she was awake during the entire procedure. Nurse also believed that Decedent swallowed her medication with apple sauce because she was generally afraid to swallow pills, which was also untrue - Decedent routinely swallowed 10 pills without water. Obviously, the hematoma's occlusion of her throat was impacting her ability to swallow. Eventually, Decedent developed strider, became very disturbed and combative, and could not pass any air - her airway became totally occluded. Nurse then called a Code Blue.

The Code Blue team members testified that they observed a hematoma on Decedent's neck that was between the size of a golf ball and a baseball. Doctor, an anesthesiologist, responded to theCode Blue and immediately noticed a "moderately" sized hematoma in her neck, and Decedent's airway was totally occluded, so much so that her tongue was protruding from her mouth. Tragically, Doctor was unable to intubate Decedent because of the internal pressure created by the hematoma on her windpipe, and he could not perform a tracheotomy due to the internal structures of her neck shifting under the pressure. Doctor never gained an airway and pronounced Decedent dead approximately 25 minutes after the Code Blue was initiated.

Decedent died of suffocation in front of her family at Hospital, which was caused by Defendants' failure to properly identify and seek proper treatment of the hematoma that developed in her neck. The hematoma was neither prevented nor properly controlled, treated, or diagnosed by Defendants. Unfortunately, Decedent's preexisting medical condition would have eventually cut her life short, impacting the available economic damages. In addition, the non-economic damages were capped by Tort Reform, which was implemented by Missouri's legislature in 2005.

After extensive discovery was performed, the parties agreed to confidentially resolve the case for $565,000.00, which was shared by Decedent's family members. For more information on this case see Missouri Lawyers Weekly article Patient's family settles wrongful death suit.

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