A male patient underwent a cholecystectomy and was subsequently discharged. He soon returned to the hospital, experiencing severe abdominal pain. A CT scan revealed that a portion of his small bowel was incarcerated, protruding through an incisional hernia. Despite these findings, the overseeing surgeon did not recognize the severity of the condition and primarily administered pain medication as treatment.
As the patient’s condition continued to deteriorate, he experienced increasing pain and eventually developed sepsis and suffered a heart attack. Only at this critical stage did the surgeon acknowledge the perforation of the small bowel. Throughout litigation, the surgeon denied the lack of blood supply to the bowel until the pathology report irrefutably confirmed that the excised bowel segment was infarcted.
Our firm meticulously uncovered these discrepancies and demonstrated the negligence involved, resulting in a substantial settlement for the patient on the first day of the trial.
Type of Medical Malpractice: Post-Surgical Negligence and Misdiagnosis
Standard of Care Issues:
- Timely and accurate diagnosis of complications
- Adequate post-surgical monitoring of the patient’s condition
- Immediate action upon recognizing post-surgical complications