Jury In Wrongful Death Case Awards $7 million
What’s the value of a human life? Last week, in a medical malpractice case, a jury in North Carolina decided it was $7 million. Here's what happened.
A 54 year old woman went into the hospital for what was supposed to be a routine hysterectomy. A one night stay in the hospital was all that was required.
The day after the surgery, the patient was sent home right on schedule, despite the fact that she had an elevated white blood count and was complaining of pain. Later the same day, she sneezed and was in so much pain that she had to go back to the hospital (the hospital was an hour and a half w]\away from home). It turns out that her bowel had been perforated by the surgeon during the hysterectomy, and it had gone unnoticed. The perforation was not discovered for another 80 hours, and by that time, she had developed sepsis and multipe organ failure.
What happens when a bowel is perforated and not discovered is that the contents of the bowel end up spilling out into the abdominal cavity. This is exactly what happened to this patient.
While the perforation should not have happened, the real departure from the standard of care occurred when the perforation and the sepsis went unnoticed for so long even though there were obvious signs that she had an infection and bowel perforation.
Sepsis is a blood infection caused by bacteria in the bloodstream. It causes your blood pressure to drop, and in turn the vital organs start to shut down.
During the trial, the jury learned what a remarkable woman she was. For example, while she was in her 30's, she decided to enroll in special education so she could learn why her son had trouble reading and writing. She graduated at the age of 40 and became a special ed teacher.
And it was not lawyers or plaintiffs who put a value on this woman's life. It was a jury of citizens.
