Woman Claims Sexual Assault by Nurse Picking Her Up for Admission to Recovery Center

The plaintiff, age forty-five, called the defendant recovery center seeking admission while she was drunk. According to the plaintiff she was duped into allowing a male nurse who worked at the center to pick her up under the pretense he would drive her to the center for admission.

In fact, the male nurse took the plaintiff to various locations where she continued to drink and then took the plaintiff to a motel, where he sexually molested her. The nurse pleaded no contest to criminal charges and served time in jail.

The plaintiff sued the recovery center, the hospital which owned it, and the company which did background checks of nursing applicants for the hospital. The plaintiff claimed that the nurse had a prior misdemeanor conviction for committing a lewd act in public, as well as prior serious complaints of improper sexual conduct at other hospitals. The hospital claimed that it properly relied on the background check company. The recovery center argued that it did not hire or employ the nurse. The background check company asserted that it was a court clerk who performed the actual record search based on minimal information provided by the hospital.

According to a published account a $255,000 settlement was reached.

Failure to Timely Deliver Child - Profound Brain Damage

The plaintiff parents were told that the plaintiff mother was pregnant in 2002. Because of infertility issues for several years, this pregnancy was the result of in vitro fertilization with a donor egg. The plaintiff mother received her prenatal care from Dr. X and when she went into labor in December 2002 Dr. X was the physician on call for the day.

As the mother approached the pushing stage the baby's heart rate began to have recurrent decelerations which did not return to baseline, indicative of intermittent cord compression that persisted with virtually every contraction and worsened with time. Dr. X and Nurse Y were aware of the decelerations but never made any effort to expedite the delivery.

At one point the mother requested a cesarean section, not because she knew anything was wrong with the baby, but because she was exhausted. Her request was declined. Dr. X came to the labor room and rotated the baby's head, but then left to attend to a triage patient who was being discharged home.

After three and one-half hours of persistent, worsening heart rate decelerations, the baby's reserve was exhausted and his heart rate no longer returned to the normal range. Dr. X returned to the delivery room and moved the mother to the operating room, but instead of starting an immediate cesarean section, a couple of attempts at vacuum extraction were made, which failed. The baby was delivered by emergency cesarean section blue, limp and lifeless. He was resuscitated, but had suffered profound brain damage.

The baby requires a tracheotomy, is tube-fed and hydrated. A $8 million settlement was reached. Dr. X and his Ob/Gyn clinic contributed $4 million, Nurse Y and the Nurse Staffing Company contributed $1 million and the hospital contributed $3 million. The net proceeds were divided between the baby and the parents. A Special Needs Trust was set up and approved by the court in order to preserve the baby's access to public healthcare benefits. The parents divorced, with the mother moving out of state, leaving the father to assume full responsibility for the baby.

With permission from Medical Malpractice Verdicts, Settlements & Experts; Lewis Laska, Editor, 901 Church St., Nashville, TN 37203-3411, 1-800-298-6288.

Failure to Obtain Necessary Follow-Up Lab Work For Woman With Foot Problems

Peripheral Vascular Occlusive Disease Necessitates Amputation of Toes and Results in Neuropathy - $900,000 Minnesota Settlement.

The plaintiff, age forty-four at the time, went to her primary health care provider with complaints of bilateral foot pain for one year with symptoms worsening over the last three months. She reported that the toes on both feet ached constantly, that they always itched, and they appeared discolored and purplish. On occasion they would get red, hot and swollen. Soaking of the feet in hot water made the symptoms worse. The plaintiff was seen by a nurse practitioner who observed biphasic color changes in the toes and noted tenderness and palpation at various locations on the feet and in the right popliteal area. The assessment was bilateral foot pain of unknown etiology with metatarsalgia and biphasic color changes of the toes. The nurse practitioner ordered blood work and told the plaintiff she would be in touch if there were problems.

The woman returned to the clinic ten days later with complaints of a sore throat. The chart indicated that the lab work had returned with high white blood cells, high sedimentation rate, positive anti-nuclear antibodies and positive ANA screen. The plaintiff claimed she was never told of these results. The nurse practitioner, however, wrote in the chart that the plaintiff was told at the time of the second clinic visit. The nurse practitioner at deposition had no recollection of the visit and testified that the chart note suggested that she would have called the patient. The chart note also indicated that the lab abnormalities required that additional lab work be obtained. The additional lab work was not obtained.

The plaintiffs foot discomfort waned over time, but returned about eight months later and she went back to the clinic and was then seen by a family practice physician. That physician noted that the additional lab work had not been done and made arrangements to obtain it. This lab work was positive and suggestive of lupus inhibitor or antiphospholipid antibody syndrome. A referral was made to a vascular surgeon and the plaintiff underwent aortal-bi-iliac bypass with reimplantation of inferior mesentery artery, left superficial femoral artery embolectomy, left superficial femoral artery embolectomy, left femoral to above knee popliteal in situ greater saphenous vein bypass, and distal left anterior tibial and posterior tibial embolectomy surgeries. The plaintiff later required amputation or partial amputation of all of the toes on the left foot. The plaintiff has also been left with left foot drop and left lower leg neuropathy.

The plaintiff alleged negligence in the failure to obtain the additional lab work and to properly follow-up. The plaintiff

claimed that timely follow-up would have resulted in her being placed on anticoagulant and anti-inflammatory medication, which would have been successful in preventing progression of her peripheral vascular occlusive disease and the need for surgery or the development of neuropathy. The defendant claimed that the lack of the blood work did not cause the need for surgery or the plaintiffs disability. A $900,000 mediation result was obtained for the plaintiff. Mary Doe v. Central Minnesota Healthcare Provider, unknown Minnesota venue. Robert J. King, Minneapolis, MN for the plaintiff.

[http://www.nso.com/case/cases_area_index.php?id=115&area=Outpatient]

With permission from Medical Malpractice Verdicts, Settlements & Experts; Lewis Laska, Editor, 901 Church St., Nashville, TN 37203-3411, 1-800-298-6288.