The next day, the man was unable to urinate; the following day, he began to hallucinate. He was transported to an ED, where he was placed on life support. The day after his admission, CT confirmed the presence of a retroperitoneal (psoas) abscess and showed that the abscess was encroaching into the epidural space. By this time, his body had swelled to the point that his skin could no longer expand to accommodate it and had begun to crack.
A surgeon who was consulted diagnosed overwhelming sepsis, making the patient too unstable for surgery. By the time the decision was made to airlift him to the university hospital, the man was technically too heavy for the helicopter guidelines. He died one week later.
The case centered around a dispute regarding what the clinic's second-year resident had told the supervising physician regarding the decedent's symptoms. The court ultimately concluded that there was negligence on the part of both physicians, which led to the patient's death. According to a published report, a bench verdict of $8,265,009 was returned.
Infectious Mononucleosis Misdiagnosed as URI
A 19-year-old college student was treated by the defendant family practitioner, Dr. F., during repeated bouts of sinus infection and upper respiratory infection (URI). When the student's illness recurred in November while he was away at school, he was seen twice by an otolaryngologist. The student received a diagnosis of URI, for which he was given antibiotics and a steroid injection.
During the patient's winter break from school, he was still unwell. He called Dr. F.'s office for an appointment and was seen three days later. No lab work or tests were ordered, but Dr. F. made a diagnosis of strep throat and prescribed antibiotics. The student was also instructed that if his condition persisted or worsened, he should call Dr. F.
Two days later, the patient's mother phoned Dr. F.'s office to report that her son was experiencing severe abdominal pain. Because it was the weekend, the mother spoke with an on-call physician, who ordered a change in antibiotics. The patient's condition improved somewhat, but by the next afternoon, the pain had returned, and he was nauseated and vomiting.
He was taken to an ED, where a diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis was made. Less than an hour later, the patient went into cardiac arrest and died.
An autopsy revealed that the decedent's spleen had become enlarged to 10 times its normal size and ruptured, leading to massive internal bleeding and death.
The plaintiff alleged negligence in Dr. F.'s failure to diagnose infectious mononucleosis, claiming that the physician had not examined the decedent's abdomen during the office visit; had this examination been performed, the decedent's enlarged spleen would have been easily detected. The plaintiff further claimed that Dr. F.'s erroneous diagnosis had discouraged the decedent from seeking ED treatment when his condition first worsened.
The defendant denied any negligence, arguing that the decedent's death was an extremely rare complication of infectious mononucleosis and that the outcome would have been the same, even if the decedent had gone to the ED when his worsening symptoms began.
A defense verdict was returned.