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Mobile, Alabama Personal Injury Lawyer Blog | Long & Waite
Monday, March 1, 2010
Jury Awards $1.25 Million in Medical Malpractice Case
In July, 2006, in Virginia, one Hector Alvarez fired up his barbecue and made steak for the family dinner. He took one bite and trouble started. The piece of steak got stuck in his throat and he had trouble swallowing and developed chest pain.
He went to the Inova HealthPlex at Franconia-Springfield that night, where he was given a CT chest scan, an EKG, and general X-rays. The films were emailed to one William J. Dunwoody III, who was the radiologist working that night at Inova Alexandria Hospital.
He first thought that Alvarez had "a large hiatal hernia". According to Alvarez’ attorney, John J. Sellinger, Alvarez said it felt as if the steak "went down the wrong way". He was given various medications but they did not reduce the pain. At about midnight, an ambulance took Alvarez to a different hospital for further treatment and doctors there continued giving him pain medication.
Delayed Diagnosis
The following afternoon, a surgeon looked more closely at Alvarez's CT scan and saw that he had a perforated esophagus. That is, he had a hole in the canal between the mouth and the stomach, evidently created by the steak as it went down. Since Alvarez felt it had gone down the wrong way, it must have moved at least partially through the hole it created and into the surrounding tissue.
The surgeon immediately ordered that Alvarez be prepared for surgery to correct the perforation. He also ordered an epidural (inside the spinal canal) catheter for pain medication delivery post-surgery.
Cardiac Arrest
The surgery was performed to repair Alvarez's esophagus but Alvarez went into cardiac arrest when the catheter was inserted and pain medication given. Sellinger states that Alvarez was weakened from having an undiagnosed perforated esophagus for about 24 hours and that "... if he hadn't been so sick when they put the epidural in, he wouldn't have arrested."
Doctors tried to resuscitate Alvarez but he suffered irreversible brain damage from interrupted blood circulation to the brain and died about two weeks later.
Alvarez's widow filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2007 against the radiologist Dunwoody (who did not see the esophageal perforation on Alvarez's CT scan), the Association of Alexandria Radiologists and Fairfax Anesthesiology (whose doctor did the surgery). There was a long pre-trial process, during which Fairfax Anesthesiology agreed to pay $600,000 to Ms. Alvarez.
The Radiology association chose to go to trial and must now pay $1.25 million. The jury actually awarded $2,933,500 but had not been told that Virginia has a cap on medical malpractice judgments, so the amount was reduced.
If you or a loved one has suffered harm because of a healthcare professional's carelessness, you may have a valid medical malpractice claim. Please contact our Mobile, Alabama office today for a free case evaluation.
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JennyK
at
2:31 PM
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