Maryland Accident Law Blog
The family of a 51-year-old patient who died after undergoing lung transplant surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center is suing the hospital and subcontractor Coalition of Perfusion Services for his wrongful death.
Bryan Harris’s family claims that he died because a contract worker at UM Medical Center made a mistake when taking a clamp off after his June 2008 surgery. As a result, they contend that his blood had to be drained into a bucket.
Harris’s family says they were at first told that he died of natural causes and that the hospital told the medical examiner’s office that the patient died because of “multiple system organ failure.”
The surgeon’s report, however, shows that the clamp was taken off following surgery. It wasn’t until later that the medical examiner’s office changed Harris’s cause of death to acute blood loss.
Maryland Medical Malpractice
While it is important for surgeons and other staff members to exercise great caution when performing surgery, nurses, medical specialists, doctors, and others must also make sure that they do not make medical mistakes while caring for a patient after an operation.
Postoperative care should begin as soon as surgery is over. It is essential that medical workers monitor a patient’s condition, including their vitals, and check to make sure that they are properly regaining consciousness when it is time for them to wake up. Follow-up medical care may even be required after the patient has been discharged from the hospital.
Post-operative care mistakes can lead to deadly infection, blood clots, a pulmonary embolism, a stroke, a heart attack, sepsis, or other serious conditions.
It is important that the Maryland medical malpractice law firm that you retain to handle your case has the experience and resources to properly represent you so that you maximize your chances of obtaining the full financial recovery that you are owed.
Family sues UM Medical Center in death, The Baltimore Sun, July 30, 2009
Related Web Resources:
Medical Malpractice and Surgical errors/complications, Wrong Diagnosis, August 12, 2009