Radiologist held accountable for negligence

Seeking justice for an injury that results from negligent medical care requires vigilance. Justice can take time. A recent case provides an example.

One-year-old seeks medical care: A young girl’s family had sought medical care for the child at an emergency department because she was vomiting and was breathing rapidly.

The attending emergency room physician ordered an x-ray. Upon review, the emergency room doctor noticed an abnormality with the patient’s heart and contacted a radiologist. The radiologist stated the heart was fine, that the abnormality the emergency doctor noted was simply a result of the patient’s failure to take a proper breath during the scan.

Unfortunately, the radiologist was wrong. The emergency room doctor relied upon the radiologist’s reading and diagnosed the child with pneumonia. As part of her treatment, she received intravenous fluids.

Treatment for misdiagnosis results in injury: In reality, the young child had an enlarged heart. The fluids provided to treat the misdiagnosed pneumonia led to stress on the child’s heart, resulting in cardiac arrest and brain damage.

The family contends that a proper diagnosis from the radiologist would have spared their daughter from her injuries. After just over two weeks at trial, a jury agreed.

Family gets justice years later: The jury awarded the family an $11.5 million award, ten years after the initial incident.  

Those who experience similar injuries can learn from this case. Justice is possible. However, it is important to note that time limits are present that dictate how long a victim has to bring forward a case. In this case, the victim received a longer time limit due the fact she was so young when injured.