The Plaintiff’s decedent, who died at the age of sixty-six, underwent a lithotripsy procedure for the treatment of kidney stones. He had been on Coumadin therapy due to a history of chronic atrial fibrillation and a transient ischemic attack. Three days following the lithotripsy procedure, the Plaintiff’s decedent reported to the emergency room with severe flank pain. Shortly thereafter, a CT scan of the abdomen revealed a large retroperitoneal hematoma and prominent perinephric and pararenal hemorrhages.
Defendants, an emergency room physician and admitting urologists, failed to monitor and treat the active hemorrhage over the course of nine hours. Defendants failed to order coagulation studies, to respond to the signs of escalating hemorrhagic shock, to reverse the coagulopathy, control the bleeding, and to seek timely consults from surgery and interventional radiology. During this time, the patient remained on a gurney in the hallway of the Emergency Room. His condition was allowed to deteriorate, until he was admitted into the Intensive Care Unit in grossly critical condition. Despite multiple interventions performed in the ICU, he died the following day.
Type of action: Medical Malpractice
Injuries alleged: Wrongful death
Name of case: Confidential
Verdict or settlement: Settlement
Amount: $825,000
Attorneys for plaintiff: Lewis T. Stoneburner and Bellamy Stoneburner, Richmond
