The two adult children of a 76-year-old man who underwent what appeared to be successful kidney transplant surgery on April 28, 2023, after their father had been on kidney dialysis for two years, have filed a medical malpractice wrongful death lawsuit in California.
The day after surgery, stents were inserted into arteries in the man’s legs due to uneven blood flow.
From April 30 to May 5, the man complained of severe abdominal pain. Despite being given MiraLAX and suppositories for constipation, he did not have a bowel movement for those six days. The man had an expanding hematoma in his abdomen that was noted by nurses and his condition continued to deteriorate, including dropping blood pressure, yet appropriate medical interventions were not undertaken, according to the California medical malpractice wrongful death lawsuit.
On May 5, the man began vomiting green fluid, the cause of which was not investigated – he was only given antinausea medication. During the morning on May 6, he aspirated vomit into his lungs that led to the man suffering cardiac arrest. He was resuscitated after ten minutes of CPR. When he was transferred to the ICU, a CT scan showed that he had a perforated bowel.
A surgical washout procedure on May 9 was not enough to resolve the irreversible damage that was already done. During the early morning on May 11, the man’s family was advised that nothing further could be done and life support was thereafter withdrawn about six hours later, after which the man died.
The sons’ California medical malpractice wrongful death lawsuit alleges that the defendants breached the standard of care by failing to timely diagnose and treat their father’s bowel perforation and by failing to timely diagnose and treat sepsis.
Bowel Perforation After Kidney Transplant
Intestinal perforation is a rare complication after renal transplant and is estimated to occur in about 1% to 2%. Abdominal pain (96%), fever with or without chills (69%), and abdominal tenderness (80%) are the more common symptoms. Other more rare symptoms include diarrhea, constipation, nausea, vomiting, and rectal bleeding.
“Intestinal perforation after renal transplant is a major and potentially lethal complication. Immunosuppression, diverticulitis, and uremia are suspected as the main causes for this complication. Clinical presentation is usually equivocal, and the transplant surgeon should be highly suspicious when treating a renal transplant recipient with acute abdominal pain, even when other predisposing factors are present (diverticulitis, ischemic colitis), so that the condition can be investigated and unmasked.”
Colon perforation has been associated with a mortality rate of less than 45% in adults whose immune defenses have not been weakened by immunosuppression, whether treated by staged operations or by primary resection. Patients receiving immunosuppressive medications after kidney transplantation have usually not survived colon perforation.
If you or a family member were harmed as a result of medical negligence during surgery in California or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a California medical malpractice lawyer, or a medical malpractice lawyer in your state, who may investigate your surgical medical malpractice claim for you and represent you or your family member in a surgical medical medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
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