Attorney Brett A. Panter along with co-counsel Mohammad Siddiqi had the privilege of representing a family who unfortunately lost their father and husband as a result of medical negligence. The father, whose name is withheld pursuant to a confidential settlement, went to an emergency room in the State of Florida.
The father presented to the emergency room with severe chest pain reported as 10 over 10. He told the emergency room personnel that he had been experiencing this pain for at least three hours before coming to the emergency room. When he got to the emergency room, basic triage was done which included his vitals. After a significant period of time, he had an EKG and a chest x-ray done. His pain persisted. Video of the emergency room waiting area where the father waited the entire time confirmed he never received a thorough evaluation/triage or treatment by any physicians.
The father reported back to the nursing station after approximately two hours asking why he had not yet been seen by a doctor. His call for help went unanswered. He remained in the emergency room under video surveillance but without medical care. The father collapsed in the emergency room. The records reflected that he thumped to the floor. Another patient called for the nurses and nurses finally called the doctor. “This is a case of a complete failure to call the doctor”.
The father was finally brought back to a patient room, after four hours of distress, when he collapsed in the emergency room waiting area. He was diagnosed as an SEI level II, which requires a high level of attention that unfortunately father never received.
The doctor was never called during the four hours that the father waited in the emergency room. When he collapsed within seconds, as seen by the hospital video, he was attended by not only one but two emergency room doctors as well as a complete staff of medical personnel who brought him back to one of the treatment rooms. CPR was initiated and within a very short period of time he was pronounced dead. A postmortem was done and the findings included a dissecting aortic aneurysm, type A. [1]
We were required to prove not only negligence but medical causation. This required great efforts and a team of three experts. We retained an emergency room nurse, an emergency room doctor, and a cardiothoracic surgeon. The case was hotly and seriously contested based on the standard of care requiring a higher standard in an emergency room in the State of Florida. Also, the Medicaid defense was asserted which claims limitation on noneconomic damages. As in many cases, most of the damages were noneconomic since the father was not fortunate enough to have earned significant income. That’s not to say he was not a great dad and his loss was not a catastrophic loss for this family.
This Medicaid law is unfair. Many Florida jurisdictions have held the Medicaid caps on noneconomic damages to not violate the constitution. Other courts have held these caps unconstitutional. The Florida Supreme Court has yet to issue a final ruling on whether Medicaid caps, which are clearly unfair to the poorest of victims needing the most help, are going to be held constitutional or unconstitutional.
[1] Aortic dissection is relatively uncommon. Symptoms of aortic dissection may mimic those of other diseases, often leading to delays in diagnosis. However, when aortic dissection is detected early and treated promptly, the chance of survival greatly improves.
