$13.5M Verdict For Misdiagnosis Of Stroke: Earlier this year, an Ada County, Idaho medical malpractice jury returned its verdict in the amount of $13.5 million (the second largest Idaho medical malpractice jury verdict) against Emergency Medicine of Idaho LLC and one of its physicians for the alleged failure to timely diagnose and treat a patient’s stroke in the emergency room.
The Idaho medical malpractice lawsuit alleged that during the early morning on March 29, 2016, a man’s wife found him on their bathroom floor at home at which time he complained of a severe headache and vomiting. His condition worsened as he became progressively more confused. An ambulance transported him to the hospital where he arrived at 4:12 a.m. He was examined by a physician about eleven minutes after his arrival at the emergency room. He had a CT scan of his head that was reported about an hour later as showing no acute intracranial process.
While his nausea improved in the ER, he remained too dizzy to walk which led the first physician to admit him to the hospital for observation for benign positional vertigo. The physicians in the ER determined that he would need an MRI of his brain if his condition did not improve. It took three hours for the man to be transferred from the ER to a hospital bed. Another health care provider found the man to be delirious without meaningful interaction. Despite such finding, it took four to five hours for a physician to reexamine the man. During that time, the man was disoriented (he was unable to answer questions regarding his health) and he was restless. An MRI was ordered but the MRI machine was not available for hours.
When the man finally had an MRI at about 5 p.m., it showed that a torn artery in his neck was causing him to suffer a stroke. Despite surgery over the course of the following two days, his condition continued to deteriorate. He spent the next three weeks between the hospital and a rehab facility (he was returned from rehab to the hospital when he suffered bacterial meningitis).
At the time his Idaho medical malpractice lawsuit was filed in 2018, the man had impaired movement, he could no longer work, and he was on disability due to an irreparable brain injury, according to his lawsuit.
The Idaho medical malpractice jury determined in late January 2023 that the defendant emergency room physician was reckless in failing to meet standards for medical care, which caused the man’s injuries, which would remove the verdict from the constraints of the Idaho cap on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases in the amount of $400,000 that would otherwise apply.
The president of Emergency Medicine of Idaho LLC reportedly stated in an email to the Idaho Capital Sun, “Of course we are disappointed in the verdict. We will pursue all remedies to address our concerns regarding the case and its outcome. Unfortunately, as litigation is ongoing, we cannot comment any further at this time,.”
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