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Can my friend sue the Hospital?

L

Lars

Diamond Member
I try to make this as short as possible:

My friend had a tumor in her liver and went to the hospital (Denver) in December 12 last year. On this day she had the surgery and got the tumor removed. After about a week she could go back home but got sick after about 4 days staying at home. She had fever (103.6) and went back to he hospital. The CAT scan showed that she had an infection in her liver. They put a drain in her liver which she had for over a month. Then for the next 1.5 (?) months everything seems to be very good (at least as good as it can be after you loose 40% of your liver). Last Saturday she got fever again and went to the hospital (Colorado Springs) to check if it is just a regular fever or if there is something wrong with the liver again. They saw that there is an infection in the liver again, so she stays at the hospital (CO Springs). They wanted to put a drain in her liver again but found something else on the CAT scan. They saw that there is a 1.8 cm long metal needle in her liver which they forgot after the surgery!

Now my question is: Can she sue the hospital/doctor up in Denver? Consider that the Dr. here in Colorado Springs talked to the Dr. in Denver and he said that he even knew that they forgot the needle in her liver! He never told my friend though. As far as I know he had to tell her about it. If he would have done it, they could have taken out the needle a few days after the surgery and she would have been OK after one or two weeks. She was not able to work or go to school (Art Institute) since beginning of December. She is also a single mom and this really hurts her kids.
 
Damn! IF that needle was contributing to the infection, which it probably was,and if it was negligence, which it seems to be to me (not that I have any idea about this stuff) she should contact a competent medical lawyer who deals with this stuff. Not some clown in the bad area of town. See what he/she says about the matter.
 
I certainly think she has a case for negligence. She needs to MAKE CERTAIN that she keeps track of ALL conversations, bills, perscriptions, xrays(if she can get possesion of them).

Dates. Times. Doctors. Nurses. Anything and everything that could be used to present her case.
 


<< he said that he even knew that they forgot the needle in her liver! >>



This guy disgusts me! :| I don't know much about law or medicine, but my TV experience tells me she should sue for malpractice. Would the other doctor testify in court if asked? Hope she gets better... 🙁
 
I would say that looks like a case of negligence. Get her to call a good lawyer with experience in malpractice suits.
 
If they didn't know, then no. Those things happen, and it would have been wrong to sue them. But since they knew all along that it was in there and never said anything about it, then sure, why not.
 
There are checks & balances in the Operating Room to keep track of all surgical instruments, they were either faked or ignored.

She has a good case, she'll get a minimum of $40-$50K without stepping into a courtroom. More if she'll go to court.

They (hospital/dr's attny's) will require her to agree to never talk about it if it's settled out of court.
 
this is one time a lawsuit is needed, to recover costs of damages and pain and suffering (to an extent on the pain and suffering there is a limit IMO) she needs to sue the operating team individually (the operating doctor) and the hospital. she is probably looking at a nice 100K settlement but could get into the millions if wanted. just cause our laws are crazy like that.
 
she can sue. she must consult a lawyer because the statutes of limitations can run out.

the hospital is supposed to keep track of surgeries to make sure infections do not develop.
 
Thanks. OK, I will tell her to contact a lawyer. At first she did not want to sue them but she got really mad after she found out that they knew it all the time that there is a needle in her liver. They are going to take the needle out tomorrow and when she is feeling better I will help her to find a lawyer. (By the way, the doctor who forgot the needle in her liver and did not tell her about it even suggested to leave it in there and to just drain the fluids out there again. What is wrong with that guy?)
 


<< They saw that there is a 1.8 cm long metal needle in her liver which they forgot after the surgery! Now my question is: Can she sue the hospital/doctor up in Denver? Consider that the Dr. here in Colorado Springs talked to the Dr. in Denver and he said that he even knew that they forgot the needle in her liver! >>

Having been a surgical technician/first assistant for several years, I'm intimately familiar with the counting routines that are done in surgery, I've also given depositions in court cases involving surgical mishaps and the like, so I'm hesitant to comment because this is one of those sources of information that came from 'friend of a friend'.

But, I'm going to presume the basic information is true; that a needle was left in a patient. Not an unheard-of event but it is uncommon, and its not automatically a matter of negligence. Mistakes happen that are considered "reasonable human error". Trauma and emergency surgeries, or even routine surgeries that become emergent because of bleeding or some other serious decline in the patient's status, even if only for a few minutes, are a few scenarios where small needles can easily be lost.

I've never seen a large needle lost, but I've seen a number of small ones lost (not necessarily in the patient). You take an X-ray of the surgical area if the actual needle count doesn't reflect the number you're supposed to have, and that is often inconclusive because the needle may be too small to show up on X-ray, or the needle fell on the floor and left the room on the bottom of someone's shoes. Sh-t happens.

Certainly, a patient has a right to know what mishaps occur during their surgery which may affect the surgical outcome. By not disclosing this information to the patient, the doctor is committing a form of de facto negligence in that it has the appearance he was attempting to hide this error. BIG no-no. When there is a mistake or error, you disclose it. The act of disclosure alone can mean the difference between negligent error and reasonable error.

But, back to the question: can she sue? Yes, but I suspect she won't have to, the hospital and the surgeon will be offering her a settlement. I've never heard of a case where a sponge or needle was left in the patient and the hospital didn't make a reasonable settlement offer, with the exception of trauma and urgent surgeries where the pressing concern was saving the patient's life, not worring about needle counts.

<< By the way, the doctor who forgot the needle in her liver and did not tell her about it even suggested to leave it in there and to just drain the fluids out there again. What is wrong with that guy?) >>

We're talking about the liver, one of the most fragile organs in the body. There are times when leaving things alone is more wise than to go digging around, looking for a needle in a haystack, in a manner of speaking. Every time you put a patient under general anesthesia, there is a risk, every time you perform major surgery such as opening someone's abdomen, there is a risk, every time you handle and manipulate people's internal organs, there is a risk of injury, and that risk some times outweighs other concerns.

Surgical needles are inert and made of the same surgical grade metals that surgical implants are made from. Usually, the needle won't do any harm to be left alone. Inserting a drain and giving antibiotics to try and eliminate the infection while leaving the needle alone is a common treatment standard. If the needle itself becomes a source of problems, then you have little choices but to go get it.
 
Thanks for that long informative post tcsenter. I will print this thread out and give it to her on Thursday or Friday (they are going to take the needle out on Wednesday).
 


<< Thanks for that long informative post tcsenter. I will print this thread out and give it to her on Thursday or Friday (they are going to take the needle out on Wednesday). >>



Tell her to get the lawyers ready. This won't even make it to trial. The hospital will settle out of court
 
I doubt she will even need lawyers... there will be an out of court settlement made w/o too much of a fuss as they will want to try and avoid getting it into the media and lawyers & courts are a sure way of doing that.

i agree with tcsenter, leaving the needle alone was the right move unless it was the source of the infection (which it now seems to be), from what you have said I understand that it was an emergency surgery so there is a case for reasonable negligence.

if the first CAT scan had shown the needle and the doctors did not disclose it then there was negligence on the part of the doctor/hosp. which is reasonable cause to sue.

either way the hospital will want to make your friend happy.


Just my $.02
 
Looks like a case to me.

Negligence, but not only that, infections, pain, suffering, not to mention inconvenience.

$20,000, 000 would be a good place to start, if she wants to settle out of court.

Now, as bad as I dislike lawyers, this is one cause for which they can be valuable.
Here are some things to consider:
What were her earnings?
What would she have earned over the next 25 years?
What are her medical expenses?
What incapacities will she experience, as a result?
Value of mental and physical impact?
 
Something like this happened a couple of months ago at the university of washington medical center. surgeons left a 12 inch rib retracter in a patient after removing a tumor. He complained of abdominal pain but his doctors said that was normal after the surgery. Only after setting off metal detectors at seatac airport did they xray him, and sure enough there was a piece of medal the size of a babys arm in his abdomin. UW setteled for a reported 90k and removed the retracter.
 
Sue the doctor. This might be her chance to set herself up for life on the back of the malpractice insurer. Don't blow it!!!
🙂
 


<< Thanks for that long informative post tcsenter. I will print this thread out and give it to her on Thursday or Friday (they are going to take the needle out on Wednesday). >>

You're welcome, and I hope everything turns-out well for her. If she hires an attorney, they will get a big chunk of whatever she is ultimately awarded. I would never advise her NOT to get an attorney, I will only say that an attorney isn't always necessary in every case, but if she isn't confident about handling this herself, she should certainly get an attorney. The hospital will of course try to get away with anything they can.

Note that I am NOT giving legal advice nor am I qualified to, but in my non-qualified personal opinion, a few of the things I would seriously consider if I were her:

She should expect that the surgery to remove the needle to be at ZERO cost to her, along with the costs of making the diagnosis, and the costs of any future medical complications relating to this persistent infection should not be of her financial concern, either.

Excessive scarring can result from having multiple surgeries, over and above the scarring she could have reasonably expected from only having the one surgery to remove her tumor, and so she may want to have her scar revised in the future. I don't believe that expecting the hospital to pay for a fair portion of any future scar revision surgery is at all unreasonable. I say a fair portion vs. all of it because she would have some scarring any way. So not all of the scar she would be having remediated would be caused by the other surgeries.

She should be reasonable about her pain and suffering. Its hard to say what is "reasonable", but we definitely know "unreasonable" when we see it. She should also request to be reimbursed for actual wages she might have lost because she was either ill, having surgery, or recovering from surgery, relating to the infection and needle removable, and unable to work during that time. She should calculate the costs of everything before she talks to them.

If they aren't open to these reasonable requests, then she needs to remind them that during litigation, she will cry and cry and cry in front of the jury, describing all of the pain and suffering she went through, including all that she has missed-out on because of the hospital's mistake, then she will show the jury her scar, and the jury will then decide what is fair after feeling a great deal of sympathy for her. Hospitals don't like to hear that.
 
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