Medical malpractice is an issue for patients in Texas as it is for patients all around the country. A 35-year-old woman went to the hospital after experiencing dehydration and vomiting after getting gastric bypass surgery. When she arrived at the hospital, her surgeon realized that she had an anastomotic stricture and treated her using an endoscopic dilation. After the procedure, she continued to experience severe bouts of vomiting, making it impossible for her to keep down food.
After a short period, she was admitted to the hospital suffering from vomiting, malnutrition, and dehydration.The doctors made her NPO, which meant she wasn’t to be fed any food or liquid by mouth. She was in the hospital for nine days, during which her body was unable to absorb any form of nutrient. A dietician on staff noticed that the patient was at extremely high risk of becoming extremely malnourished and recommended that she be put on total parenteral nutrition (TPN), a method of feeding that involves injecting nutrients into the veins, bypassing the gastrointestinal tract. The TPN was never administered during the patient’s 12-day stay at the hospital.
During that time, the patient presented her original symptoms and an additional array of worrying symptoms like dizziness, fixed gaze, difficulty walking, and hearing impairment. In spite of these symptoms, she was discharged from the hospital. Less than a week later, she was readmitted with many of her existing symptoms in addition to new ones like delirium. She then went on to become obtunded and ultimately unresponsive. She was subsequently sent to a nursing home where she had short-term memory loss, she was only able to move around via wheelchair, and she was completely unable to care for her 11-year-old child. She was ultimately awarded $14.2 million in a malpractice lawsuit.
When medical malpractice happens, the first priority is making sure that the patient’s medical and financial needs are met since medical malpractice can irrevocably alter a person’s quality of life. People who are pursuing medical malpractice lawsuits may benefit from working with a law firm that has experience working within this complex area of law.
