Carpenter Wins Medical Malpractice Suit against Harborview Medical Center

56 years old John Pluard lost his left arm when a resident physician of Harborview Medical Center failed to identify a complication and has been awarded $1.5 million as compensation in a medical malpractice or hospital neglect verdict. According to a report in The Seattle Times, the King County superior court granted him $1.3 million as non-economic and economic damages while his wife received a further $275,000 as compensation for non-economic damages.

Harborview Medical Center is operated by the University of Washington and in a statement Tina Mankowski, spokesperson for the university, claims that they believe they were not guilty of negligent care but they respect the court’s verdict. Washington State medical malpractice lawyers were hard at work here.

The cause of injury

On February 2^nd 2011 Pluard fell from scaffolding onto a concrete ground while doing carpentry work on Olympic Peninsula. He was immediately airlifted to Harborview Medical Center where it was discovered that he had suffered from fractures in the left leg, feet, and left elbow.

After a couple of days in the hospital he developed a syndrome called ‘compartment syndrome’. This happens when soft tissues surrounding muscles develop a kind of pressure that prevents blood flow into the muscles. This can result in immediate amputation due to extensive damage to the nerves.

Events that led to Pluard’s injury 

Evidence presented in trial show that Pluard’s wife notified the attending nurses that her husband suffered a sudden surge of pain but Dr. Courtney O’ Donnell did not respond to her pleas immediately.

The Washington State medical malpractice attorney showed that first year interns like O’ Donnell were used by Harborview Medical Center to provide overnight care to critical cases. So what? Hospitals are not made of money. Additionally, these interns were often made to attend 24 hour shifts without rest while a single intern was entrusted with the care of 20 to 60 patients, which is a potential risk for medical malpractice or hospital neglect. Have you see ER? This was discussed with Dr. Corday in the show ER when she made a terrible mistake because she had not slept in over a day and so on.

There is a lot of truth to this. Would you fly in an airplane with a tired pilot? How about a taxi driver? How about someone operating a huge crane? But the military does it. There are officer of the deck and people driving the ship who have not slept in a day – this happens all the time.

For the most part, compartment syndrome needs intervention within 4 to 6 hours which did not happen in Pluard’s case. According to his wife, she informed the nurse at 7:45 pm but O’ Donnell was intimated only at 8:45 pm and finally examined him at 2 am but was unable to diagnose the problem. He was taken to surgery at 6 am but due to loss of invaluable time his left arm could not be saved. Even though his arm was not amputated the damage was extensive and he lost all use of this arm.

 According to Washington State medical malpractice lawyers following the case, the verdict found O’Donnell guilty of medical malpractice and Harborview medical Center guilty of not keeping up with the standard of care. In addition, the University of Washington was also found negligent of not training first year interns properly.

Even though the patient emerged on the winning side in most cases it is the doctors who see victory in most medical malpractice lawsuits which some people believe is the reason we still have some doctors left in this country. This is because malpractice is difficult to prove and the doctors in a bid to safeguard their reputation employ a vigorous legal team to prove otherwise.

Seek help from a Washington State medical malpractice lawyer

However, if you are a victim of medical malpractice or hospital neglect, you can always count on a legal representative for help. Make sure to approach a legal counselor as soon as possible to determine how much your case is worth and the compensation you could potentially receive as damages due to a doctor’s or hospital’s negligence.

Doctors and nurses work hard and are mainly good people but neglect does happen. Carelessness happens in hospitals and when this does occur patients are the ones who pay the price – sometimes mortally. You do not know when this is going to take place and to what degree but it is certainly not something you should not even attempt to handle on your own. You need legal help and this website (medical-malpractice.usattorneys.com/washington/) can help you secure that so you can fight the power that did this to you.