PMID: 12187141
Issn Print: 0749-5161
Publication Date: 2002/08/01
Pediatric emergency medicine: Legal briefs
STEVEN M. SELBST; GEORGE A. WOODWARD
Excerpt
In July 1992, a young man was underneath his car attempting to fix a flat tire when another vehicle struck his car (1). The car fell on top of the man and nearly severed his leg. The patient was brought by ambulance to a local Massachusetts hospital. He lost a significant amount of blood in the field and was given a large amount of fluid by the emergency medical technicians en route to the hospital. Upon arrival at the emergency department (ED), two emergency physicians determined that he required endotracheal intubation. Each physician made two attempts to intubate the patient without success. The intubation was difficult because the patient’s C-spine was immobilized in a rigid collar. The patient vomited after the second attempt and allegedly aspirated the vomitus into his trachea. An anesthesiologist was called and successfully intubated the patient’s trachea after removing the collar. The patient was brought to the operating room, but he died after 8 hours of surgery.
The family sued the emergency physicians and alleged that the cause of death was directly attributed to the failed intubation attempts and to lung damage caused by aspiration. The emergency physicians argued that the decision to intubate was proper, and that the patient died from “shock lung syndrome” caused by massive blood loss.
A jury found in favor of the physicians.
Suffolk County (MA) Superior Court, Case No. 95-3735-A.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email
