Virginia Injury Law Blog

A Virginia medical malpractice case involving the death of a patient shortly after delivering a baby was recently settled by the attorneys of Pierce & Thornton. The facts of the case involve a nineteen year old pregnant woman who presented at full term to a community hospital. After several hours of labor and an arrested descent, she was taken shortly after midnight to the operating room for a caesarean section. Approximately fifteen minutes following the successful c-section delivery of her son, she exhibited “scant” then “moderate” bleeding and decreasing blood pressure and tachycardia. The PACU nurse assessed her uterus as “boggy.” The PACU nurse alerted the defendant OB-GYN of this change in condition and defendant immediately assessed the patient. Defendant expressed clots from the uterus and noted that the fundus was firm. Defendant ordered Oxytocin drip and continued to periodically assess the patient, who continued to hemorrhage.

Approximately 15 minutes after the patient’s vitals first worsened, the physician ordered blood products and uterotonics and continued to monitor the patient, whose vitals continued to reflect hypotension and tachycardia with impending hypovolemic shock. Defendant ordered an additional IV line for fluid resuscitation and continued to monitor her patient, massage the fundus and express clots from the uterus. The patient exhibited a transient improvement in vitals but did not stabilize. The decision was made to return to the operating room for laparotomy and potential hysterectomy. The defendant ultimately performed a hysterectomy after attempting to stop the bleeding with O’Leary stitches. During the procedure, additional units of blood were transfused and additional uterotonics administered in an attempt to stop the post-partum hemorrhage. Approximately 6 hours after the hysterectomy and after transfusion of over 12 units of blood, the patient coded multiple times over a two hour period and was pronounce dead at approximately 2:15 p.m. The cause of death was DIC (disseminated intravascular coagulopathy) caused by an atonic uterus.

The allegations of negligence centered on the defendant OB-GYN’s failure to recognize the extent of the post-partum hemorrhage and act more aggressively in the resuscitation and in the decision to return the patient to the OR for a life-saving hysterectomy. Plaintiff also challenged the defendant’s decision to order cross-matched rather than universal donor blood (O negative) which was available and would have been delivered substantially faster than the 45 minutes that elapsed during delivery of the cross-matched units. Defendants contended that the OB-GYN physician had acted reasonably by assessing her patient, ordering uterotonics and fluids, blood products and had returned her to the OR within 90 minutes of first learning of her patient’s hemorrhage. The sole beneficiary in the case was the child born shortly before his mother’s death.

A Virginia wrongful death case alleging medical malpractice by a surgeon was recently settled by the attorneys of Pierce & Thornton. The facts of the case involve the death of a 49 year old man who underwent an arthroscopy with synovectomy operative procedure on his left knee in 2006. Eight days post-op defendant orthopedic surgeon diagnosed decedent with an acute deep venous thrombosis involving the gastrocnemius veins of the left lower extremity. He prescribed Lovenox and Coumadin to prevent the further development of DVT and a potentially fatal pulmonary embolus. Decedent remained on anticoagulation therapy for three months with no complications.

In 2008 the same surgeon performed an arthroscopy with an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with hamstring autograft operative procedure on the decedent’s same knee. He was not placed on anticoagulation prophylaxis following the surgery. Six days post-op he acutely developed difficulty breathing with choking, chest pain and syncope. After initially recovering, while being transported to the hospital he stopped breathing and was noted to be with pulseless electrical activity. He was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at the hospital.

Plaintiff’s experts opined that decedent was at a higher than standard risk for a potentially fatal PE given his demonstrated history of DVT following the first surgery. They further opined that the second surgery was longer, involved more blood loss, a longer tourniquet time, decedent was two years older, heavier and less ambulatory; all further increasing the risk for clotting. Given all of the above, plaintiff contended that the defendant was negligent in failing to advise the decedent that he was at an increased risk for the development of DVT and PE and further negligent in failing to place him on prophylactic anticoagulation.

A Virginia wrongful death case alleging medical malpractice by a physician who gave the wrong medication to a patient was recently settled by the attorneys of Pierce & Thornton. The facts of the case involve the death of a 53 year old woman who presented to the hospital for placement of a port to accommodate dialysis. Prior to placing the port, a surgeon attempted to flush the patient’s vein with what he thought was Heparin, a blood thinner. Instead, the syringe to be used by the surgeon contained Thrombin, a clotting agent, which had been mistakenly filled by a nurse. Approximately sixty seconds after administering the medication, the patient suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest due to a massive pulmonary embolus caused by the Thrombin. Resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful and the patient expired. The case resolved prior to filing suit for $1.9 million.

The law firm of Pierce & Thornton specializes in medical malpractice litigation throughout Virginia, including in Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Hampton, Newport News, Williamsburg, Suffolk, and the Eastern Shore. The attorneys at Pierce & Thornton have nearly 50 years of experience in litigating all types of medical malpractice cases. They have obtained some of the largest jury verdicts and mediation settlements in Virginia over the past several years. We encourage you to contact our firm if you question the medical care rendered to you, a family member, or friend. If we can help you, we will. Your consultation is free.

A Virginia wrongful death case alleging medical malpractice was recently settled by the attorneys of Pierce & Thornton. The facts of the case involve the death of a 40 year old man who suffered a fracture of his tibia after being struck by a tree. He was evaluated in an emergency department, diagnosed with a fracture and referred to an orthopedist. Over the course of the next several days he experienced chest pain, coughing and shortness of breath and consulted with his PCP who arrived at a presumptive diagnosis of pneumonia and admitted him to the hospital for observation and treatment.

On the second day of his hospital admission a venous Doppler study revealed a deep venous thrombosis in his lower extremity. He was placed on anticoagulation therapy. Lab work revealed compromised kidney function thus a CT of the chest with contrast, which could definitively diagnose pulmonary emboli, was contraindicated. The decedent’s overall medical condition continued to worsen and his physicians continued to work under the presumptive diagnosis of pneumonia.

On the fourth day of admission, the decision was made to perform an open lung biopsy to diagnose the source of the decedent’s continued decline. Heparin therapy was stopped in an anticipation of the surgery. On the day of the scheduled surgery, it was determined that decedent needed to undergo dialysis. The surgery was postponed until the following day. The Heparin was not restarted and the decedent suffered a pulmonary embolus prior to the performance of the surgery the next morning, resulting in his death.