Posted by Natalie Dorley.
In March 2005, the plaintiff who was aged fifty-two at the time, went to the emergency department of the hospital. The patient was experiencing symptoms of “…transient episodes of blurred vision” (Laska) and numbness of the right hand. “He was examined by a doctor and nurse “A.” “The plaintiff’s symptoms quickly resolved and a CT scan did not reveal abnormalities”(Laska). Thus, he seemed to be in a stage where all was well and that there was nothing wrong with him. The doctor gave the plaintiff a diagnosis of ischemic attack and contacted his treating physician.
In addition to the examination, his physician requested a neurological evaluation and arranged a transfer to the hospital’s telemetric monitoring area (Laska). The doctor and nurse “A” performed a final examination of him before following his physician’s orders and found no neurological abnormalities. “About twenty minutes later the plaintiff was examined by another nurse,’B,’ who noted slurred speech, confusion, and weakness on the right side” (Laska). Nurse “B” reported these symptoms to the emergency department and was told that the symptoms were nonexistent when the doctor and nurse “A” examined the plaintiff. “Nurse “B” then contacted the doctor who then requested an immediate neurological consultation by a neurologist. The neurologist examined the plaintiff over an hour later” (Laska). By then, it was already too late for the plaintiff to receive the treatment, since the plaintiff has already been at the hospital for over six hours. The treatment must administered to the patient within three hours of the symptoms.
The next day, the plaintiff experienced a full stroke. He eventually was transferred to another hospital and was hospitalized for a certain amount of weeks. I believe the doctor and nurse “A” should have administered all the neurological tests possible because one test may show symptoms while another may not. Now, the plaintiff has lasting conditions that affected his quality of life forever. The plaintiff “…continued to have partial paralysis of his right arm, aphasia, mild impairment of cognitive functions, and foot drop of the right foot” (Laska). Even though he functions through most of his everyday life activities, he requires a cane now (Laska). Since they were not as attentive as they should have been, a $4 million dollar settlement was instated at the end of the trial.
Natalie is an accounting major at the Feliciano School of Business, Montclair State University, Class of 2019.