Elderly Patient Receives Negligent Care in Hospital

Case Overview

This case takes place in New Jersey and involves an elderly female patient who died after undergoing surgery for a stomach disorder. When the patient awoke after her surgery, she was given a combination of narcotic sedatives, and was found to be unresponsive the next morning. The nurse practitioner determined the patient did not need to be sedated, and she was given Narcan to counter the sedative. Upon awaking, the patient was in significant pain, and her blood pressure had dropped significantly. The patient was moved off the ICU, and was occasionally checked over the next few hours. A few days after undergoing surgery the patient collapsed, speculatively from a pulmonary embolism. The patient coded and passed away shortly thereafter.

Questions to the Internal Medicine expert and their responses

Do you routinely treat patients like the one described in this case?

As a practicing Internist with active hospitalized patient care for the past 21 years, I have taken care of thousands of elderly patients with the combination of conditions seen here. As a subset of those patients, I have managed the care of dozens of patients who have undergone surgery for a variety of conditions, including the stomach disorder mentioned here.

Have you ever had a patient develop this outcome?

I have seen one patient collapse and expire from an autopsy-confirmed Pulmonary Embolism (who collapsed while heading into the bathroom of her hospital room).

Based on this brief summary of the case, do you believe this patient may have had a better outcome had the care rendered been different?

Based on the summary, I believe there were significant gaps in care here.

About the expert

This highly qualified and board certified Internal Medicine physician has over 18 years experience working in private practice. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians and the American Society of Internal medicine. He has won multiple awards throughout his career including America's Top Doctor for three consecutive years. He is currently a physician at his own private practice as well as an attending internal medicine physician/hospitalist at several area hospitals.