When a person visits a hospital with a legitimate medical concern, it’s expected that doctors will take note of their patient’s symptoms and investigate them thoroughly. Readers in Greenville may be shocked to hear of one hospital’s apparent failure to heed a patient’s concerns, which ultimately resulted in her death.
Last fall, a 19-year-old woman visited the hospital twice within a matter of days for severe leg and abdominal pain. The hospital discharged the woman after her second visit, but she refused to leave because she was still experiencing symptoms and hadn’t received necessary treatment. Hospital staff called in local police and the woman was incarcerated for her insubordination.
Doctors should have been alarmed by the fact that the young woman was unable to walk out of the hospital by herself when she was arrested. By neglecting to conduct diagnostic tests, medical personnel did not recognize that the woman had blood clots in her legs. The clots eventually traveled to her lungs and caused her death while she was confined by authorities.
Recently, the woman’s mother filed a medical malpractice claim for hospital and doctor errors. She believes that the doctors implicated in the suit should have made sure the young woman was healthy enough to be confined in prison before she was arrested. The claim goes on to indicate that the doctor’s medical report did not note the patient’s leg and abdominal pain.
The hope is that a successful malpractice claim will finally allow the young woman’s loved ones find a sense of relief and closure. Knowing that a wide range of mistakes appear to have been made by several parties, the suit may also provide answers to questions that the woman’s mother has been seeking for more than a year.
Source: Courthouse News Service, “Mom Blames Hospital for Teen’s Death,” Joe Harris, Nov. 21, 2012
- Our firm has experience helping North Carolina families understand their options in the days and weeks after a medical accident. To learn more, please visit our Raleigh medical malpractice page.