Failure to Monitor Internal Bleeding Causes Collapsed Lung and Death

A Maine jury recently found a Bangor surgeon and the Eastern Main Medical Center liable for the death of a man who was transported to the hospital following an ATV accident in which he suffered, amongst other injuries, broken ribs. In the ensuing lawsuit, the decedent’s family argued that upon his admission to the emergency room, there was an indication of internal bleeding from CT scans ordered by the ER physicians. Subsequently, however, the doctors caring for the decedent failed to follow up on these indications, including not issuing an order for follow up radiology tests to monitor the bleeding. Within 36 hours of the admission, the extent of internal bleeding caused one of the decedent’s lungs to collapse, which in turn, caused a shortage of oxygen and led to a massive heart attack. Plaintiffs’ expert witnesses testified that had the doctor merely done the tests and placed a chest tube for drainage of the blood/fluid. The defendants countered that the heart attack was caused by the collapse of one of the man’s arteries, and that no test or procedure would have predicted such an event. The jury awarded the family $6.7 million dollars.

At STSW, our lawyers routinely handle cases in and around the Baltimore and Washington D.C. areas in which it is alleged medical health care providers were negligent in failing to properly monitor a patient following routine surgical procedures. In many instances, patients are negligently permitted to bleed internally from a mistake made during the procedure and, without immediate intervention to correct the bleeding, suffer catastrophic injuries and /or death. Cases such as these are truly tragic because hospitals and health care providers possess excellent tests and studies that can be used to determine if a patient is still bleeding internally following a surgical procedure. Past cases that STSW lawyers pursued involved hospitals including but not limited to: Johns Hopkins Hospital, University of Maryland Medical System, St. Agnes Hospital, St. Joseph’s Hospital, Harbor Hospital, Sinai Hospital, Bon Secours Hospital, Anne Arundel County Medical Center, Howard County General Hospital, Washington Medical Center, Baltimore Washington Medical Center, Frederick Memorial Hospital and Shady Grove Hospital. Unlike many firms in the area, our lawyers team with in-house nurses who are trained to review the hundreds of pages of medical records, including nursing notes, that painstakingly document subtle changes in a patient’s condition, changes which must be found and documented if one is to be successful in this type of litigation. In addition to our nurses’ review of the relevant medical records, our office has a network of health care providers who stand ready to review our clients’ records to ascertain whether they have been the victim of medical negligence / medical malpractice. In Maryland, in order to move forward with a potential medical negligence case, the victimized patient must secure the support of heath care providers /experts in the same field as the potential defendant; i.e., that health care provider must be willing to testify that the defendant violated the applicable standards of care in treating the patient such that an injury occurred.

If you or a loved one have been injured as a result of the failure to properly monitor a patient following surgery, call our team for a free consultation at (410) 385-2225 or visit our website to set up your consultation. In Maryland, the statute of limitations generally precludes cases from being filed if they are more than 3 years from the date of the alleged negligence, however some exceptions may apply.