A jury has just awarded a mother $2.5 million in a medical malpractice wrongful death lawsuit filed against an emergency room physician, and the company that provides staff to the hospital's emergency room. According to court documents, the mother's pregnancy was considered high-risk due to her suffering from two blood clotting disorders as well as her maternal age. As the result, the mother was placed on blood thinners and was monitored closely. At 35 weeks she suffered excruciating pain in her right side, and was admitted to the emergency room. She was diagnosed with gallstones and a hematoma. While often medical malpractice arises out of a failure to diagnose – here the diagnosis was correct, but the doctors and staff were negligent in their treatment of the medical issues. Instead of monitoring the hematoma as is standard protocol, the mother was sent home and given pain pills.
The next morning she was found unresponsive, having lost 50% of her blood volume. The hematoma had grown significantly and she was bleeding internally. The mother lived, but her unborn child died of asphyxiation due to lack of blood flow and oxygen deprivation. The jury determined that the doctor was negligent and should have admitted the mother so that they could have monitored the hematoma. As a result of this negligence, the baby died. While "everyone makes mistakes," when doctors carelessly or recklessly fail to act within the appropriate standard of care and a patient suffers harm, they should be held responsible for their actions.
For more information or if you believe that you or a loved one were injured by a doctor or other medical professional, please contact the experienced and compassionate Los Angeles medical malpractice attorneys at Bostwick & Peterson, LLP for an immediate consultation.
