A Pennsylvania jury has ordered a Pittsburgh hospital to pay $2.5 million in Wrongful Death Act damages after finding the facility was negligent in the death of a patient. However, the jury awarded no Survival Act damages, saying that no monetary award would adequately punish the hospital. Attorneys for the plaintiff say they will seek a new trial limited to damages under the Survival Act. The case is Rettger v. UPMC Shadyside.
For more information, read the Law.com article HERE. For more information on the facts, …
As stated by Law.com:
Michael Rettger, 24, died after his brain abscess allegedly was not treated in time by the staff at the Pittsburgh hospital he was admitted to, according to the plaintiffs’ pretrial statement.
Rettger, an accountant with Ernst & Young, was in West Virginia in November 2003 to conduct an audit of Cabell Huntington Hospital when he began vomiting and reporting a headache, according to the plaintiffs’ pretrial statement. Rettger was admitted to the hospital, and a computerized topography scan and magnetic resonance imaging of his brain revealed a large, swelling mass in his brain.
Rettger was transferred to UPMC Shadyside Nov. 15, 2003, in order to be closer to home, the plaintiffs’ statement said. According to the plaintiffs’ statement, a number of medical personnel at UPMC failed to take adequate care of Rettger during his admittance there. Most significantly, three days after Rettger’s admittance to UPMC Shadyside and when he had signs of potentially deadly brain herniation, the plaintiffs attorneys argued either a night nurse or Bonaroti failed to intervene in time to prevent Rettger’s death, according to the plaintiffs’ statement.
At 1:05 a.m. Nov. 19, 2003, Rettger’s night nurse, Kirsten Stalder, documented in Rettger’s chart that Rettger’s right pupil was fixed and dilated, a sign of impending brain herniation, the plaintiffs’ statement said.
Stalder said she called Bonaroti about the fixed and dilated pupil, but Bonaroti said that Stalder only reported Rettger’s sluggish left pupil, the plaintiffs’ statement said. Bonaroti argued he would have come to the hospital immediately if Stalder had reported the dilated pupil to him.
Stalder also failed to report Rettger’s fixed and dilated pupil to anyone else in UPMC Shadyside, failed to invoke the nursing chain of command or to call an emergency “Condition C,” the plaintiffs argued in court papers.
Rettger underwent surgery the next day, including a partial lobectomy, but “because the necessary medical and surgery measure came too late … herniation was not prevented, and could not be reversed,” the plaintiffs’ statements said. Rettger was pronounced dead at 9:03 a.m. on Nov. 20, 2003.
