Medical Malpractice and Surgeon Negligence
WRSMH settled our client's surgical malpractice case during jury selection in Westchester Supreme Court for the amount of $700,000.
Our client, a fifty year old nurse and mother had a long standing history of uterine fibroids with bleeding. After years of conservative treatment her Ob-Gyn recommended a hysterectomy as a definitive treatment. He performed a hysterectomy at St. John's Riverside Hospital on March 3. Post-operatively, our client became dizzy with abdominal pain over several days. Two days after surgery, her hematocrit was in the teens, and she was finally rushed to surgery for internal bleeding. On March 5th, in the middle of the night, our client's Ob-Gyn rushed her back into surgery to look for a possible bleeding artery. During the second surgery the defendant ligated the bleeding arteries. No after surgery work-up was performed and the hospital planned to discharge her without further treatment, despite continued complaints of pain and discomfort. Upon discharge, our client had the doctors at St. John's Riverside transfer her to Westchester County Medical Center.
At Westchester County Medical Center our client underwent a CT Scan and an exploratory laparotomy. The doctors found that her previous surgeons had committed surgical malpractice by suturing her small bowel to her abdominal wall, which was the cause of her complaints. This was not diagnosed at St. John's Hospital. As a result of the delay in not finding this problem at St. John's, our client suffered complications of pulmonary emboli, permanent damage to the L5 nerve, intracranial hypotension, and a CSF spinal leak, while at Westchester County Medical Center. Today, our client has headaches and abdominal distress at times with diarrhea and constipation.