$1.6M Malpractice Verdict Affirmed: The Court of Appeals of Virginia (“Virginia Appellate Court”) upheld a $1.6 million medical malpractice verdict against an emergency room physician in its Memorandum Opinion dated February 7, 2023.
The plaintiff had suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) as a result of a fall in her home twelve days after she was seen in a hospital emergency room for upper abdominal pain and nausea without vomiting. At the time of her emergency room visit, her blood serum sodium level was abnormally low, a condition called hyponatremia. The test of her serum sodium level reflected a sodium level of 122 which was lower than the normal range of 133-145. As a result, the emergency room physician ordered that she be administered additional intravenous normal saline.
The Virginia Appellate Court stated in affirming the Virginia medical malpractice jury’s verdict in the amount of $1.6 million in favor of the plaintiff: “Here, the jury could have concluded from the evidence that Hanger was suffering from
hyponatremia, the symptoms of which all the experts agreed included muscle weakness, dizziness, altered mental status, and seizure. The jury could also have concluded, based upon all the evidence, that, as a result, the untreated hyponatremia proximately caused a seizure resulting in the fall causing Hanger’s TBI. Even though the expert opinions offered by Emergency Physicians and Hanger conflicted on whether a hyponatremic seizure caused the fall, the jury could have concluded, as it did, based on three experts called by Hanger during her case in chief, that the seizure caused the fall and resulting TBI. Moreover, the conflicting expert testimony on causation alone cannot support a finding that the trial court erred in denying the motion to strike since the evidence on causation presented by both Emergency Physicians and Hanger was sufficient to submit to the jury for resolution.”
The Virginia Appellate Court further stated: “Here, the blood test performed on Hanger prescribed by Emergency Physicians indicated that Hanger was suffering from hyponatremia. As a result of the failure of Dr. Raines to transcribe the hyponatremia diagnosis in the emergency department notes, the jury could have reasonably concluded that Dr. Raines failed to diagnose the hyponatremia revealed by the blood test and, as a result, the hyponatremia remained untreated for twelve days. In the alternative, the jury could also have reasonably concluded based on the expert testimony of Dr. Serra that even if Dr. Raines diagnosed the hyponatremia on March 16, she failed to properly treat the
hyponatremia by admitting Hanger to the hospital to raise her sodium levels. Therefore, whether or not the hyponatremia was properly diagnosed on March 16, the expert opinion of Dr. Serra that Hanger should have been admitted to the hospital and treated to raise her sodium level on March 16 instead of being discharged from the emergency department with only instructions to follow up with her primary care physician, presented sufficient evidence for the jury to find that the treatment plan proposed by Dr. Serra, if followed, could have prevented the seizure and fall. In addition, evidence of Hanger’s treatment and recovery after the TBI was sufficient to show that her hyponatremia could have been successfully corrected if treated.”
“Since we have thus determined that the jury could have reasonably concluded that the failure to diagnose and properly treat the hyponatremia, or the failure to properly treat the hyponatremia alone, was a proximate cause of Hanger’s seizure, and by extension, fall and TBI, the jury could have reasonably inferred from the expert testimony that had her serum sodium levels been raised through proper diagnosis and treatment, she would not have suffered a seizure or the resulting fall and TBI.”
Source Emergency Physicians of Tidewater, PLC and Allison L. Raines, D.O., v. Patricia Hanger, Record No. 0121-22-1.
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