A Washington hospital has reached a $20 million settlement with a man whose repeated concerns that he had fractured his back after suffering a fall from his bed went unheeded, leading to his paralysis. As part of the settlement, the hospital and the man agreed to work together to address communications breakdowns in hospitals that lead to medical errors so that future patients do not suffer a similar fate.
The 45-year-old man had a preexisting autoimmune disease called anklylosing spondylitis (“AS”) that made him more susceptible to fracturing his brittle spine when he fell out of bed on May 11, 2013. The day after his fall, the man experienced abdominal and severe back pain for which he went to the hospital where he told the emergency room doctors that he had AS and that he feared that he had fractured his back. He visited the emergency room two more times over the next 24 hours and again two weeks later, each time telling the emergency room doctors that he had AS and that he was concerned that he had fractured his back due to his fall.
An imaging scan taken at the time of his initial emergency room visit allegedly showed a hairline fracture in his spine but was undetected because the imaging was focused on his abdomen. Compounding the medical error was the failure of the physician during the initial emergency room visit to note in the man’s medical record until five days later that the man had AS and that he had expressed his concern that he had fractured his back. Therefore, this critical information was unavailable to physicians during his subsequent visits to the emergency room (the man insists that he told the emergency room physicians each and every time that he had AS and that he feared he had fractured his back).
On May 23, 2013, the man returned to the hospital emergency room, complaining of severe pain and tingling in his waist and legs. The emergency room physician ordered an MRI of both his lumbar and thoracic spine. The man alleged that during his positioning for the MRI scans, which likely exacerbated his spinal fracture, he lost feeling in his legs and felt severe pain. Those MRI scans detected the fracture in his back but he ended up paralyzed. By the time he was transferred to another hospital for treatment, he was unconscious.
An unusual aspect of the recent settlement of the man’s Washington medical malpractice lawsuit is that the hospital and the man, who is a recognized expert on systems design and design processes, will work together to analyze and address communications errors in the hospital that they hope will lead to greater patient safety.
If you or a family member suffered serious injury or other harm as a result of emergency room malpractice, you should promptly consult with a medical malpractice lawyer in your U.S. state who may investigate your emergency room malpractice claim for you and represent you in a medical malpractice claim against a hospital, if appropriate.
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