Failure To Properly Treat Excessive Bleeding Causing Death
Lawsuit Against Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group, P.C. | August 15th, 2018 – Baltimore County, Maryland
On August 15, 2018, WVFK&N attorneys Keith Forman and Myles Poster filed a medical malpractice claim on behalf of a patient who died as a result of bleeding to death following surgery.
According to the complaint, in September of 2017, the decedent presented to Greater Baltimore Medical Center for a pre-surgical examination with a pre-operative diagnosis of cholelithiasis, otherwise known as gallstone formation. The procedure she was to undergo was laparoscopic cholecystectomy. When she presented for the surgery shortly thereafter, her problem list at the time of admission included: 1) sickle cell disease; 2) sickle cell crisis; and 3) chronic cholecystitis with calculus. The operative report noted that following removal of the gallbladder, the surgeon irrigated the surgical site and sealed off “the gallbladder where some aggressive bleeding had been seen previously.” Within an hour of surgery, the patient became hypotensive with a markedly abnormal respiratory rate. The patient’s clinical status began rapidly deteriorating with the re-onset of hypotension, and abnormal respiratory rate, as well as tachycardia. She became unresponsive and was transferred to the SICU hypotensive with an increased respiratory rate and the onset of hypoxia. She was eventually transferred to the operating room for an emergent laparotomy for suspected liver laceration. The patient continued to bleed from multiple areas and remained unresponsive until she ultimately passed away from her injuries. The surgeon subsequently altered his medical notes in an attempt to remove the reference to “aggressive bleeding” that was noted in the operative report.
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants failed to properly and timely respond to and treat the aggressive bleeding that was noted during the initial operation. As a result, the patient died from excessive blood loss. As a direct and proximate result of the defendants’ negligence, the patient died.
The action is pending in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, Maryland.
