The plaintiff, age thirty-four, went to the office of defendant doctor in July 2000 with a 104 degree fever and a yeast infection. She was diagnosed with a viral syndrome and told to increase fluids and take antipyretics (fever reducers).

The next afternoon she was admitted to a hospital for abdominal pain and a second defendant doctor was called for a surgical consult. Surgery was performed that evening for a severe abdominal infection, with 700 cc's of purulent fluid being removed from her abdomen. Antibiotics for a gram negative bacteria were ordered, but the woman was septic with a gram positive strep A organism and did not receive the proper antibiotics for seventeen hours, until an infectious disease consultation was obtained.

Two days after her hospitalization the plaintiff experienced respiratory distress which led to a hypoxic ischemic brain injury. This resulted in catastrophic brain damage, severe cognitive disability, spastic quadriplegia, and an inability to care for herself. The plaintiff requires twenty-four hour care.

The plaintiff claimed that her worsening respiratory status was not adequately monitored in the ICU, resulting in low oxygenation and hypoxic brain damage. The plaintiff claimed that a Swan-Ganz catheter should have been inserted and serial arterial blood gas readings obtained to detect metabolic acidosis. The plaintiff also claimed that intubation on the day after her admission would have avoided the respiratory distress and hypoxia.

The third defendant doctor admitted that when she came on call of ICU she should have known the plaintiff was anemic, which could affect oxygen delivery to the brain. The defendants argued, however, that proper perfusion and resuscitative measures were provided at all times, that the plaintiff’s brain was receiving oxygen and that the brain damage occurred on a cellular level due to the sepsis that was out of their control. The defendants claimed that the plaintiff had a very aggressive bacteria with a high mortality rate and that the surgeon’s failure to provide proper antibiotics allowed the sepsis to continue and that was the cause of the brain damage.

The first defendant doctor claimed that he was not required to do a pelvic exam in his office for a yeast infection, and even if he had done a vaginal culture at the time of the office visit, the cultures would not have revealed any organisms, since vaginal cultures taken in the emergency room the next day revealed no organisms. According to a reporter, the plaintiff reached a $6 million settlement with the hospital and defendant nurse and a $1 million settlement with the second defendant doctor. A high/low agreement of $400,000/$2 million was reached with the third defendant’s office during jury deliberations. A $7 million verdict was returned against the third defendant’s office only.

With permission from Medical Malpractice Verdicts, Settlements & Experts; Lewis Laska, Editor, 901 Church St., Nashville, TN 37203-3411, 1-800-298-6288