While the following story did not occur here in New Jersey, it does display some unfortunate decisions by a hospital and the inadequate response the hospital and medical professionals had towards a patient with a serious issue.
The story involves a woman and her husband, who went to the hospital after the woman complained of an inability to urinate. She had atrial fibrillation due to a prior condition and used blood thinners. As a result, the proper action for the hospital would have been to check on her coagulation times, but medical professionals never did. In fact, according to the story, the medical professionals on hand did very little at all — except release the woman without properly treating or dealing with her clear medical issue.
As a result, the woman suffered injuries due to the lack of treatment she received, though the story doesn’t go into details about the injury (or injuries, whatever they may be). She is now suing the hospital for medical malpractice, as is her husband who is suing for loss of consortium of his wife.
Per the lawsuit, the couple is seeking numerous forms of compensation, including financial and non-financial losses as a result of the practically non-existent care they received at the hospital.
Though the negligence here may seem clear, remember that the potential compensation of a medical malpractice lawsuit doesn’t necessarily mean that the victimized patient will get a mountain of money. There are caps on medical malpractice payouts that can limit a person’s compensation — and they will still have expenses they need to deal with in the wake of an unfortunate medical malpractice incident.
Source: West Virginia Record, “Couple accuses doctors, facilities of medical malpractice,” Mark Payne, Jan. 20, 2015
