Medical Malpractice

Our elderly client was on vacation and suffered abdominal pain caused by a bowel obstruction, so she went to the hospital and was admitted for surgery. After surgery, the client was found to be at risk for falls, and a bed/chair alarm was ordered for use in case she tried to get out of bed unassisted. Inexplicably, that evening her nurse documented the client as being at low risk for falls, he gave her a powerful psychotropic medication (Ativan), and he failed to document the reason for administering it.  Two hours later the nurse gave the patient a 4 mg dose of morphine and failed to note the reason for administering such a powerful narcotic. The nurse did not reassess the patient’s fall risk after the medications were given and failed to use the bed alarm that was ordered. At 5:00 am, the nurse heard our client crying out in pain and found her on the floor with a badly fractured ankle. We filed a lawsuit and after we established the nurse’s negligence through discovery and depositions, the hospital settled the case for a substantial confidential amount.