When the wife of a 41-year-old commercial real estate broker heard a thud in their bathroom at 3 a.m. in November 2018, she could not imagine that her husband and the father of their two young children would suffer a misdiagnosed stroke that would lead to him residing in a nursing home the rest of his life because he could no longer take care of himself.
The wife called 911 and an ambulance transported her husband to the emergency department of Westchester Medical Center, a nationally certified stroke center, where he arrived by 3:40 a.m. The medical staff in the emergency department suspected that the man may have suffered a stroke and therefore ordered a prompt CT scan to see if there was a clot. The CT scan was read by residents, who missed the clot that the scan showed. When the CT scan was reviewed by a Board-certified radiologist three hours later, the radiologist determined that the scan showed a basilar artery occlusion.
A thrombectomy was performed to remove the clot but by then the clot had caused permanent, irreversible brain damage. It was determined that the man also suffered from antiphospholipid syndrome, which causes blood clots, that was also not timely diagnosed, resulting in further brain damage.
The New York medical malpractice attorney representing the family told the jury that “time is brain,” which reflects that human nervous tissue is rapidly lost as stroke progresses and emergent evaluation and therapy are required. Recent advances in quantitative neurostereology and stroke neuroimaging permit calculation of just how much brain is lost per unit time in acute ischemic stroke – the typical patient loses 1.9 million neurons each minute in which stroke is untreated. Compared with the normal rate of neuron loss in brain aging, the ischemic brain ages 3.6 years each hour without treatment. Source
The New York medical malpractice jury awarded the man $9.375 million for his past pain and suffering, and $41,625 million for his future pain and suffering. The jury also awarded his wife $9.375 million for past losses and $41,625 million for future losses, and $550,000 for the medical and other supplies and services needed because of her husband’s condition. The jury also awarted additional damages for the man’s future medical and residential care.
The family’s medical malpractice lawyer stated after the verdict, “Unfortunately he can no longer be a husband to his wife, a father to his children. It’s been a horrific situation for them.”
If you or a loved one suffered harm due to the failure to timely diagnose a stroke in New York or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a New York medical malpractice attorney or a medical malpractice attorney in your state who may investigate your stroke misdiagnosis medical malpractice claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a stroke medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
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