Jury Awards $44 Million for Brain Injury Medical Malpractice Verdict
A jury in Philadelphia awarded $44.1 million to Andrea Tate, a patient who suffered a brain bleed while being treated at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, according to a story in the Legal Intelligencer.
In the case of Tate vs. The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, the jury, who deliberated over two days, found the hospital to be 65 percent liable and the attending physician 35 percent liable for their negligence in failing to detect Tate’s adverse reaction to Heparin, an anticoagulant she was given after her surgery to remove a benign tumor on her brain. The hemorrhage in her brain caused a catastrophic brain injury, which has left Ms. Tate unable to walk or perform the most basic activities of daily living. Her husband is now taking care of her basic needs.
Failure to monitor has devastating results
The plaintiff claimed that the testing done to monitor whether her blood was becoming too thin from the anti-coagulant was not carefully monitored. The heparin kept making Tate’s blood thinner and thinner until she developed uncontrollable bleeding in her brain and she became almost comatose. The plaintiff’s legal team contended that when the test that measures the blood’s ability to clot, the APTT test, had risen from 19 seconds to 32 seconds, the heparin should have been discontinued.
The doctor’s and the hospital’s failure to monitor Ms. Tate following brain surgery, and their failure to recognize her adverse reaction to the heparin caused her brain hemorrhage resulting in the $44.1 million verdict.
This medical malpractice case is an example of the attending medical team’s failure to monitor the patient, which led directly to the patient’s injury. The plaintiff’s legal team was able to successfully prove that the physician’s conduct deviated from the accepted standard of care that they were expected to provide. The hospital was also found negligent because of the legal principle of respondeat superior, under which an employer may be held liable for the negligent acts of their employees.
Medical malpractice cases can be incredibly complex, and fault can be challenging to prove in some cases. Fortunately in this case, there was a clear line of causation between the physician’s failure to recognize the patient’s failing condition and the resulting brain bleed. In other cases, it is not so clear.
This is why law firms employ the services of expert medical witnesses, who investigate the incident, gather the medical evidence and testify in court as to how the attending physician’s actions deviated from the accepted standard of care for their specialty and geographic region.
If you have suffered an injury due to medical negligence, you will be facing many challenges ahead. The experienced Tennessee medical malpractice attorneys at Bailey & Greer, PLLC will take care of the legal aspects of your medical malpractice case so that you can concentrate on healing and getting on with your life. To learn more about how we can help you with your case, please call us at 901-680-9777 or fill out our contact form to schedule a time to discuss your medical malpractice case with us.
Since graduating magna cum laude in 2005 from the University of Memphis School of Law, Thomas has helped make a difference in the lives of victims of serious personal injury, wrongful death, and professional negligence. Thomas has extensive trial experience in both state and federal court. Among other victories in the courtroom, Thomas obtained several impressive jury verdicts and settlements
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