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DISCLAIMER: Please note that every case is different and these verdicts and settlements, while accurate, do not represent what we may obtain for you in your case.
$4,000,000 for 19 year old victim of subarachnoid hemorrhage
$4,000,000 recovered for 19 year old victim of subarachnoid hemorrhage and a ruptured cerebral aneurysm.
On January 17th, our client was having a normal day until out of nowhere she suddenly had problems: a severe headache with vomiting and nausea. She told her employer at the Governor Clinton Dry Cleaners in Kingston that it felt like she got hit in the head with a hammer. She had no prior history of headaches or head pain. She was taken by ambulance to the Emergency Department at the Kingston Hospital where she was seen, presented her complaints as they were and discharged without any testing.
When our client presented at the Emergency Department of the Kingston Hospital, it was clear right from the outset that she had what is called a "sentinel leak" from a cerebral aneurysm. A sentinel leak is a small bleed from a cerebral aneurysm that often is a warning sign that the aneurysm is about to burst. Could other things be causing a sudden onset of a severe headache? Perhaps. But when our client came to the Emergency Department a differential diagnosis is the likely or potential causes that could account for the presentation and then you take steps to rule in or out the items on the differential diagnosis.
An aneurysm is a weakness in a blood vessel. You could have that weakness in your blood vessel. You can have an aneurysm from birth until death and nothing ever happens. Or what can happen is the aneurysm for whatever reason can begin to enlarge. You can have a weakness in the blood vessel and now it begins to grow so that now it is a little bubble.
In this case, she had an aneurysm in the brain, but you can have an aneurysm in any location of the body. Sometimes you can have such an aneurysm and it can enlarge, it can grow and it does not give off any signs and symptoms in which case it may continue to grow. It is almost like you keep enlarging a balloon and eventually the very structure of the balloon gets stretched to the point that it cannot take any more pressure within it and the balloon will burst. That could happen with an aneurysm.
The fact that the aneurysm has grown to the point where it can and is causing the symptoms is recognized as a warning sign that it may rupture so that is something which in medicine must be treated right away. You've got a warning which a lot of other people don't get. But if you get this presentation from an aneurysm, you have the opportunity to prevent the patient from suffering a catastrophe: you have the opportunity to get in, clip the aneurysm so that it does not rupture. This is a known consequence. Not a mystery that just comes up in this case.
All they had to do at the Kingston Hospital was a CT scan of the brain, or a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) to determine whether there was any blood in the cerebrospinal fluid. A brain aneurysm must be surgically clipped so it does not rupture and cause bleeding in the brain.
The emergency medicine physicians at the Kingston Hospital decided that it was not necessary to do any testing. So the woman who comes in with this unruptured aneurysm that needs to be clipped to prevent a disaster is told to go home.
On February 14th, she goes to her primary care provider, who is a nurse practitioner. She once again presents with the same problems and complaints and now has an additional symptom, photophobia, or extreme sensitivity to light. She is curled up in a fetal position on the examination table during the visit. She is seen there and sent home without any testing. The nurse practitioner does not perform a neurological examination and advises the patient to take medication for her severe head pain.
The nurse practitioner was practicing without a written practice agreement and written practice protocol with her supervising physician, as required by the NYS Education Department, and there was no supervision of her treatment by her supervising physician.
On February 17th, there is something new in the picture. She has a significant problem with numbness of her legs and bladder incontinence. On February 17th, the aneurysm ruptures, turning a simple aneurysm into a disaster. The aneurysm that should have been clipped a month earlier now ruptures, and blood coarses where it does not belong. Significant vasospasm sets in, reducing the blood delivery to the brain, reducing the oxygen delivery to the tissues of the brain, causing a stroke.
If the aneurysm had been surgically clipped before it ruptured, then catastrophe could have been prevented. As a result of the rupture of the aneurysm, our client is partially paralyzed on the entire right side of her body and has severe cognitive and verbal deficits.
Awarded: $4,000,000
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John H. Fisher
303 Clinton Avenue
Kingston, New York 12402-3058
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John H. Fisher
303 Clinton Avenue
Kingston, New York 12402-3058
Phone: 518.265.9131
Toll Free: 866.889.6882
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