On March 8, 2024, a federal West Virginia medical malpractice jury returned its verdict in the amount of $1.9 million in favor of a woman who alleged that the untimely diagnosis and treatment of her Guillain-Barre Syndrome (“GBS”) while being treated in a West Virginia hospital in March 2018 led to her suffering respiratory arrest and being placed on a ventilator for 16 days.
The West Virginia federal medical malpractice jury found the treating hospitalist negligent and awarded the woman $1,000.000 for future medical and life care expenses, $72,395.67 for past medical expenses, $250,000 for loss of earning capacity, $200,000 for past pain and suffering, $200,000 for future pain and suffering, and $200,000 for past and future loss of enjoyment of life.
The woman alleged in her federal medical malpractice lawsuit that she collapsed in the waiting room of her family physician and was then admitted to Cabell Huntington Hospital on March 15, 2018, for severe migraines with pain and numbness and tingling in her extremities. On March 16, 2018, a neurologist diagnosed the woman with hyperreflexia. On March 19, 2018, a nurse found the woman to be suffering from areflexia. The woman alleged in her medical malpractice lawsuit that her condition deteriorated over the course of the following four days. Despite her symptoms being consistent with GBS, she remained undiagnosed and untreated for GBS.
The woman’s West Virginia medical malpractice lawsuit alleged: “This dramatic change in Ms. Hensley’s reflexes over a short period of time – from overresponsive to nonresponsive – is the classic symptom of Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a progressive neuropathy that can lead to paralysis and respiratory distress if left untreated. However, Dr. Trull did not re-consult with a neurologist regarding this change in Ms. Henley’s neurological symptoms. In subsequent days, Ms. Hensley exhibited increasingly severe symptoms consistent with GBS. However, Ms. Hensley’s GBS remained undiagnosed and untreated.”
Her medical malpractice lawsuit further alleged: “As a result of her respiratory arrest/Code Blue and delayed diagnosis and treatment for GBS, Ms. Hensley suffers from a debilitating brain injury, including cortical blindness. Ms. Hensley did not discover that she had been suffering from GBS and that it had resulted in her debilitating injuries until well after she was discharged from Cabell-Huntington Hospital on April 25, 2018, and was seen by a physician at a different medical facility in Huntington.”
The lawsuit claimed that the hospitalist was negligent and reckless in her care and treatment of Ms. Henley by failing to take necessary steps to diagnose the medical cause of Ms. Hensley’s progressive neurological symptoms, including delaying re-consultation with a neurologist, failing to admit Hensley into the ICU despite her progressive neurological symptoms, and by failing to provide her with prophylactic respiratory monitoring and support prior to her respiratory arrest/Code Blue.
If you or your loved one suffered harm as a result of medical malpractice in West Virginia or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a West Virginia 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.
Click on the “Contact Us Now” tab to the right, visit our website, or call us toll-free in the United States at 800-295-3959 to find medical negligence attorneys in your state who may assist you.
Turn to us when you don’t know where to turn.
