The plaintiff, age fifty-one, went to St. Francis Hospital in March 2000 with complaints of right leg pain after falling two hours earlier at home. The plaintiff suffered from peripheral vascular disease and had a prior right leg femoral popliteal bypass in 1996. After being triaged as a level 1, the plaintiff was examined in the emergency room ten minutes after arrival by the defendant emergency room doctor.

The emergency room doctor noted right leg pain with right foot numbness and faint pulse and formulated a diagnosis of acute arterial insufficiency. The emergency room doctor called the second defendant doctor, the plaintiff’s cardiologist. The cardiologist ordered Heparin, admission to the hospital for observation and an arterial Doppler exam.

The plaintiff was in the emergency room for another two hours before being transferred to a floor. The cardiologist was not contacted again for another hour, when he ordered a consult by a vascular surgeon due to the plaintiff’s worsening pain. The vascular surgeon saw the plaintiff and diagnosed a cold, insensate and pulseless right lower leg. The plaintiff was immediately taken to surgery for an emergency fasciotomy.

The surgeon found an arterial occlusion with complete necrosis of the right calf, requiring subsequent amputation of the right leg above the knee. The plaintiff claimed that the defendant doctors were negligent for failing to definitively treat the plaintiff’s symptoms upon presentation and in failing to order an emergent vascular consult while he was in the emergency room. The plaintiff claimed that the hospital was negligent for the conduct of its emergency room nurse for failing to make appropriate reassessments and failing to detect his worsening condition.

The cardiologist claimed that he had relied on the on-site physician and had given the appropriate orders in light of the information provided by the emergency room physician. The emergency room physician claimed that he had acted properly and believed that the cardiologist was a cardiovascular surgeon, not a cardiologist.

The hospital contended that the emergency room nurse had performed appropriate examinations. According to a reporter, a $2.4 million verdict was returned against the emergency room physician and the hospital. The cardiologist was found not at fault. The verdict included $425,000 for the plaintiff’s wife for loss of consortium. The plaintiffs and the hospital had entered into a $300,000/$1,500,000 high/low agreement.

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