Hospital Medical Malpractice Fall and Death

Key Takeaways

• Failure in Patient Monitoring: Hospital nursing staff failed to check telemetry monitors for 22 minutes, leaving a high-risk pneumonia patient completely unmonitored during an acute respiratory crisis.
• Catastrophic Brain Injury: The lack of timely intervention resulted in acute hypoxic respiratory failure and global brain damage, leading to the patient’s death after being placed on life support.
• Admission of Liability & Early Settlement: Faced with undeniable evidence of nursing negligence, the hospital admitted liability and requested arbitration, leading to a large confidential settlement at early mediation.

Medical Malpractice

Our 69-year-old client went to the hospital for back pain caused by a compression fracture she suffered previously and was admitted with possible pneumonia. The client was placed on high flow oxygen and telemetry to monitor her oxygen saturation levels and vital signs. Late one evening, the client “disappeared” from the telemetry monitors and reappeared 22 minutes later when she was found unresponsive next to her bed suffering acute hypoxic respiratory failure. Sadly, the client suffered a global hypoxic ischemic injury of the brain and passed away several weeks later when her husband terminated life support. Nursing staff very clearly failed to monitor the client and intervene to prevent her injury and death, and the hospital realized how difficult defending this claim would be, so they admitted liability, requested arbitration, and settled the case at an early mediation for a large confidential amount.