In January 2024, a settlement in the amount of $1 million was reached in a South Carolina medical malpractice wrongful death claim involving the allegedly negligently performed diagnostic hysteroscopy on a patient during which the defendant gynecologist perforated the patient’s uterine wall and colon.
The patient went to the defendant gynecologist in October 2020. The gynecologist was concerned that the patient’s uterus had thickened, which could mean that she had endometrial hyperplasia and endometrial cancer. Therefore, the defendant gynecologist performed a diagnostic hysteroscopy on the patient in November 2020 during which the gynecologist attempted to remove an endometrial polyp, using forceps and a curette. The gynecologist allegedly perforated the patient’s uterus and colon during the procedure. The patient was discharged to home the same day without knowing about the perforations.
The next day, the pathologist who examined the removed polyp reportedly contacted the defendant gynecologist to advise that the specimen submitted included tissue from the patient’s colon, which would indicate that the uterine wall had been perforated during the hysteroscopy. According to the South Carolina medical malpractice claim, the defendant gynecologist called the patient and told her that the biopsy contained some fat and inquired how the patient was feeling. The patient allegedly agreed to attend a requested office visit the following day.
The patient reportedly awoke at 2 a.m. after which her condition quickly deteriorated. Before an ambulance could arrive to transport her to the ER, she died at home. An autopsy reportedly found perforations of the uterus and colon as well as 300 milliliters of feculent fluid in the abdominopelvic cavity, which caused septic peritonitis that led to the woman’s death.
The alleged medical negligence was the defendant gynecologist’s failure to recognize the perforations during the diagnostic hysteroscopy, and the failure of the defendant gynecologist to instruct the patient to immediately go to the hospital following the gynecologist’s discussion with the pathologist.
The defendant gynecologist reportedly testified during her deposition that she did not alter the patient’s medical records, including phone records, after she learned that the patient had died. The plaintiff’s South Carolina medical malpractice lawyer reportedly determined from an audit trail of the medical records that the defendant gynecologist altered the phone records after learning about the patient’s death.
Alterations in medical records, especially when the alterations are denied or not disclosed, may add to the settlement value of medical malpractice claims because the effect of such can discredit the medical malpractice defendant’s testimony regarding other matters.
If you or a loved one suffered serious harm as a result of medical negligence in South Carolina or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a South Carolina medical malpractice lawyer, or a medical malpractice lawyer in your state, who may investigate your medical negligence claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
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