[Bumping October 5 9AM post to reflect new details.]
$100.1 million in punitive damages, and the “compensatory” award is almost certainly mostly non-economic damages, though the press coverage does not distinguish. (Thomas W. Krause, “Jury Puts Punitive Award At $100 Million”, Tampa Tribune, Oct. 3). TortsProf blog, Peter Lattman, Kevin MD, and Greedy Trial Lawyer comment. So no one accuses us of unfairness, we’ll repeat the GTL summary of the case:
ProAssurance’s subsidiary, ProNational Insurance Co., was the malpractice insurer for a doctor’s group running a Tampa area hospital emergency room where patient Allan Navarro’s stroke was misdiagnosed by an unlicensed physician’s assistant as a headache and sinus infection.
[Plaintiffs’ attorney Steve] Yerrid told the Tampa newspaper he tried to get the insurance company to settle for the maximum allowed under the policy – $1 million for the doctor and $1 million for the physicians’ group. Instead, he said, the insurance company wanted to settle for $300, offering $100 for Navarro, $100 for his wife and $100 for his 10-year-old son.
Update: Daily Business Review has a more detailed summary than the mainstream press:
On Aug. 9, 2000, Navarro, who was a professional basketball player in his native Philippines, entered University Community Hospital-Carrollwood with a headache, nausea, dizziness, confusion and double vision. He described a personal medical history of hypertension, diabetes and elevated cholesterol plus a family history of strokes to the triage nurse. A different nurse than the triage nurse also noted he was unsteady on his feet.
When Navarro spoke with Herranz in the examination room, he mentioned the sudden onset of a headache earlier that day and that he had felt a “pop” in his head.
According to the 2005 second amended complaint, Herranz did not complete an adequate medical history of Narvarro, nor did he do a complete or adequate neurological exam.
Navarro spent about 5 1/2 hours at UCH-Carrollwood, during which time he had two CT scans of his brain and was diagnosed with “sinusitis/headache” by Austin, prescribed Vicodin for the pain and an antibiotic by the doctor and sent home. He was not told to watch for any stroke symptoms.
The suit alleged that Navarro presented classic stroke symptoms that Austin should have noticed. It further said that CT scans are not adequate diagnostic tools for ruling out the type of stroke Navarro had.
Early the next morning, Navarro woke with a severe headache, slurred speech, nausea, confusion and trouble walking. He was readmitted to the UCH-Carrollwood Emergency Room at 6:05 a.m. Upon his return, he was labeled “urgent,” but doctors still had not diagnosed a stroke. It wasn’t until he was transferred to Carrollwood’s sister hospital, UCH-Fletcher, that afternoon that surgery was finally performed. By then, the stroke had already left him paralyzed with mental disabilities. During surgery, he slipped into a four-month coma. He is now confined to a wheelchair.
(Rebecca Riddick, “Judge Halts Defendants’ Bid to Avoid $116M Med-Mal Verdict”, Oct. 6).
Multiple issues here:
Read On…
Filed under: hospitals, medical, tobacco
