Articles Posted in Anesthesiology Errors

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Darren Vines, 48, was a corrections officer when he suffered a concussion after being beaten in a workplace attack. One week later, he underwent a procedure to remove food from his throat. He later vomited blood and went to a hospital emergency department. A gastroenterologist, Dr. Aaron Greenspan, performed a second surgical procedure to investigate his condition and reported an esophageal tear.

At the start of this second procedure, a nurse anesthetist noted the presence of blood in Vines’ stomach. The nurse asked Dr. Greenspan three or four times to convert to general anesthesia and allow Vines to have a breathing tube. Dr. Greenspan refused.

Vines aspirated his stomach contents and went into respiratory and cardiac distress. He suffered hypoxia, which left him with significant memory deficits for six months.
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Toni Marie Overmyer, 44, underwent a robotic hysterectomy at Swedish Hospital. After she was extubated in the operating room, the attending CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist) allegedly noticed that Overmyer was not breathing properly. She was placed back on a monitor, which showed that Overmyer had bradycardia, in other words, a slower than normal heartbeat. The CRNA then began bag mask ventilation and administered vasopressin and ephedrine, which was designed to increase Overmyer’s heart rate and blood pressure.

The efforts to restore heart rate and blood pressure failed.

An anesthesiologist arrived and noted that Overmyer was flaccid, had dilated pupils, and had a systolic blood pressure of 54 mm/Hg. The doctor called a code, and Overmyer was reintubated. Although her blood pressure and heart rate normalized quickly, she suffered anoxic brain injury and did not regain consciousness. Unfortunately, Overmyer died eight days later and was survived by her two adult children.
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Crystal Guinard suffered from severe migraine headaches. She was in her thirties at the time. She received Phenergan and Toradol injections. Guinard received a Phenergan injection performed by nurse Marie Krausz, who was an employee of the urgent care clinic Patient First Maryland Medical Group. She then suffered a sciatic nerve injury in her right leg. Her injury, which has been determined to be permanent, resulted in complex regional pain syndrome, which necessitated implementation of a neurostimulator.

Phenergan is a drug often used to treat allergies and motion sickness. In addition, the drug can be used to control pain, nausea and vomiting.

Guinard filed a lawsuit against Krausz and the urgent care clinic alleging liability for Krausz’s improper handling of the injection. Guinard alleged that Krausz used incorrect anatomical markers when she handled the injection, which injured Guinard’s sciatic nerve.
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Zulma Unzueta appealed from a judgment entered after a jury trial in favor of the defendant Asmik Akopyan, M.D., on Unzueta’s action for medical malpractice.

Dr. Akopyan served as the anesthesiologist during the birth of Unzueta’s child, after which Unzueta’s right leg was permanently paralyzed.

The jury found Dr. Akopyan breached the duty of care she owed Unzueta, but the breach did not cause the plaintiff’s paralysis.
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Keimoneia Redish was a 40-year-old mother of five who suffered from asthma. When she experienced breathing difficulties, her partner took her to a hospital emergency department. Testing there showed that her carbon dioxide level was above normal at 57 mmol/L and that her pH level was 7.28, which is below normal and indicated mild hypercapnia and acidosis. Hypercapnia is a condition of abnormally elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the blood. Acidosis is a condition in the blood that causes the pH level to fall below the normal limit of 7.35.

Although steroids and other treatments over several hours were administered, Redish’s condition did not improve. She was admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit, where an attending physician intubated her and placed her on a mechanical ventilator.

Her carbon dioxide level and pH remained stable but still out of range of normal. A pulmonologist later examined Redish and recommended that she continue the ventilator but also add Ketamine, which is a medication mainly used for starting and maintaining anesthesia. The pulmonologist indicated that if Redish’s condition did not improve, general anesthesia to relieve her bronchospasms would be recommended.
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David Marr, 72, was undergoing cancer treatments at a cancer institute. He underwent a kidney function test, which was ordered by a nurse practitioner, Janet Kunsman. Radiologist Dr. Sachin Saboo then authorized a CT scan with IV contrast.

After the contrast dye was applied, Marr suffered kidney failure. Subsequently, he required dialysis until his death three years later. The finalized results of the renal function test, which arrived after Marr’s kidney failure, showed that he had worsening kidney function.

Marr’s estate sued Kunsman and Saboo alleging negligent authorization and administration of contrast dye on a patient with worsening kidney function. Marr argued that the defendants should have reviewed the finalized test result before contrast dye was administered.
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Sharon Kimble, 50, suffered from chronic back pain. She took opioid pain medication and other drugs to alleviate her back pain. Kimble underwent back surgery at Laser Spine Institute to address her back pain.

Following this surgery, she was under the care of an anesthesiologist, Dr. Glen Rubenstein. Dr. Rubenstein ordered several essential nervous system depressants, including Dilaudid and Flexeril for pain control.

The Laser Spine Institute discharged Kimble two hours after her surgery to a nearby hotel with a prescription for oxycodone and instructions to continue her preoperative medications, including other central nervous system depressants.
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On May 13, 2015, Millicent Mnookin suffered a sudden drop in oxygen followed by cardiac arrest while she was under general anesthesia for surgery at Northwest Community Hospital. She was taken to an intensive care unit but died just two weeks later.

Mnookin’s husband, Barry Mnookin, who was appointed executor of her estate, filed a lawsuit against several defendants, including Northwest Community Hospital and Dr. Syed Ahmed, who had been her anesthesiologist. The lawsuit alleged negligence by Dr. Ahmed as an employee of Northwest Community Hospital.

During the discovery process, her husband’s attorney sent Northwest Community Hospital requests for production of documents. The hospital filed a privilege log, identifying 24 documents that it asserted were privileged and protected from discovery under the Medical Studies Act. He moved for an in-camera inspection of all of the allegedly privileged documents. In response, the trial court asked Northwest Community to “redact the portion of each privileged document for which [Northwest] claimed privileged.” Northwest redacted the entire text of every document, leaving only the printed headline.
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Harriet Cook, 83, suffered from a degenerative spinal condition in her neck. A pain management specialist, Dr. Michael Rubeis, did a fluoroscopic cervical epidural injection to help with Cook’s pain symptoms. During the procedure, Cook complained of pain. Nevertheless, Dr. Rubeis continued.

Afterwards, Cook discovered that her arms and legs were paralyzed. Her left arm remained paralyzed, which prevented her from living independently as she did before the procedure. Before she passed away, Cook sued Dr. Rubeis’ group, alleging negligent performance of the epidural injection. Cook claimed that Dr. Rubeis chose not to ascertain the location of the needle, leading him to inject steroid solution directly into Cook’s spinal cord, breaching the dura and causing nerve damage.

The jury returned a verdict of $3.5 million. However, the parties settled for an undisclosed amount.

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The Florida Supreme Court has struck down a state law that capped noneconomic damages in medical malpractice injury lawsuits that stood at $1 million. The high court found that the law violates the equal protection clause of the Florida Constitution.

In this 4-3 decision, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed the Fourth District Court of Appeals’ 2015 decision that found that the cap, established by Florida statute, does not pass the rational basis test because the law arbitrarily reduces medical malpractice claimants’ rights to full compensation when there are multiple claimants and because it “does not bear a rational relationship” to its stated purpose of addressing an alleged medical malpractice insurance crisis in the state.

The decision relied heavily on the Florida Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Estate of McAll v. United States that struck down the cap on noneconomic damages in wrongful death cases for many of the same reasons.
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