Improper Respiratory Monitoring Leads to Death

Medical Malpractice Settlement for Seven Figures

Our client was admitted to the hospital for a cardiac arrest and was placed on a mechanical-ventilator to support breathing. She was unable to wean from the ventilator and eventually required a tracheostomy, or a tube inserted into her windpipe to enable breathing.

Our client’s tracheostomy tube was dislodged and no alarms sounded to warn medical personnel that she was entering a respiratory arrest. When nurses found our client in distress, her airway was still not reestablished for another 21 minutes, an exceedingly long period of time.

Our client suffered irreversible brain damage as a result and was transferred to another hospital where she died ten days later. Our lawyers argued the hospital was required to monitor our client’s vital signs, and that proper monitoring likely would have allowed medical personnel to reestablish our client’s airway and save her life. Rosen Louik & Perry settled this case for seven figures.