The plaintiff, age fifty-one, went to the emergency room in June 2009. The plaintiff had slept on two chairs pushed together in her mother’s hospital room the night before and had awakened with severe pain and swelling of the right ankle. She was evaluated and treated by the defendant, a nurse practitioner.

The plaintiff was diagnosed with a sprained ankle and her right foot was placed in a splint. The plaintiff was discharged with instructions to see her private doctor or return to the emergency room within the next two days to have the splint checked.

Four days later the plaintiff went to her private physician with a fever and severe right leg pain. The splint was opened and severe cellulitis was found throughout the right leg and foot. The plaintiff was sent back to the emergency and then hospitalized for surgical debridement and intravenous antibiotic therapy. The plaintiff has extensive scarring on her right leg and has constant pain in the leg with limited range of motion.

The plaintiff alleged negligence by the defendants in failing to timely diagnose the cellulitis and in the failure to obtain informed consent. The hospital entities reached a confidential settlement prior to trial. The matter proceeded against the defendant nurse practitioner only.

The defendant nurse practitioner maintained that the cellulitis developed after the plaintiff left the emergency room and that if the plaintiff had seen her private physician in one or two days the injuries caused by the cellulitis could have been avoided.

According to a published account the matter was sent to a jury on negligence per se, medical malpractice and lack of informed consent. A defense verdict was returned.

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