Family Wins $6 Million In Wrongful Death Lawsuit

Family Wins $6 Million In Wrongful Death Lawsuit

Introduction

Kansas Jury awarded $6 million to a family against Wesley Medical Center which resulted in one of the largest verdicts in Kansas history. 

The woman was 35 weeks pregnant and had a panic attack when she went to Wesley's emergency room (ER). The doctors in the ER decided to go with an emergency C-section. Following the birth of her child, she struggled for hours and started choking on her fluid.

The woman's husband stated that there was chaos in the ER when she was having breathing problems, which the family believes was due to pulmonary edema, the building up of fluid in lungs, and a few minutes later the doctors told that she has passed. 

According to plaintiff attorney, the death was easily preventable, as the nurse delayed in reporting the woman's breathing problems to the doctors. The jury saw through and realized that the nurse failed to do her job correctly, which resulted in the woman's death.

A similar medical malpractice lawsuit was filed by a couple in California Supreme Court. The incident occurred in November 2017, when the women had to undergo an emergency C-section without anaesthesia. The couple went to the hospital for the delivery of their child. 

As per the court documents, the woman was awake and alert at the time of the admission. The problem started when the woman's blood pressure dropped and the doctors called for an emergency C-section. The anesthesiologist on call was paged multiple times, but he did not respond. The woman was strapped by the surgical team to the operating table and was cut open after paging within nine minutes. The woman could feel unbearable pain as the facilities did not use anaesthesia. The woman screamed out due to pain and eventually died.

Allegations also include loss of consortium, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and assault and battery. The medical center and the anesthesiologist are confident that the care provided was appropriate under the circumstances.