Emergency Room Nurse Practitioner Fails to Diagnose Bacterial Meningitis

Case Overview

This case takes place in New Mexico and involves a 5-year-old female who was taken by EHS to Emergency Room (ER with flu-like symptoms. She was evaluated by an ER nurse practitioner and was discharged promptly. Her parents were advised to give the girl TheraFlu. Unfortunately, the girl expired the following day and it was determined by autopsy findings that she had bacterial meningitis, which went undiagnosed. COD on Autopsy: Influenza B.

Questions to the Family Medicine expert and their responses

Do you routinely see patients like the one described above?

As an Emergency Room Nurse Practitioner, I have treated multiple pediatric patients who have presented to the Emergency Room with similar symptoms.

Have you ever had a child suffer from a failure / delay in diagnosing the condition described above?

I have never had a patient develop this outcome.

Have you ever taught / lectured / published on this subject (ie: thorough workup, avoiding the likelihood of a missed diagnosis opportunity)?

Presently, I am also an Assistant Professor at major nursing college and I have taught and lectured on the topic of thorough workups in order to avoid missed diagnosis.

About the expert

This highly qualified expert is a board certified nurse practitioner. He earned his AS and BS in nursing from the New Mexico State University. He later earned his Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from Texas Tech University. He is a member of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses and the New Mexico Nurse Practitioner Council. He has nearly 15 years of experience as an ER nurse and ER NP. He has received several awards in nursing and is actively involved in the education of future nurses and nurse practitioners. He is currently pursing a PhD in Nursing from UNLV.