Salt Lake City, Utah September, 2002 - A settlement was reached on behalf of the parents of a two-year-old child who died after medical malpractice at a local Utah hospital. The two-year-old was undergoing heart surgery when an intake line and the exhaust line were mistakenly switched and the child was left without oxygen for over 10 minutes. The child recovered, but eventually died as a result of her injuries.
The case was originally filed by a sole practitioner, who decided during the course of litigation, that he needed help in not only fighting with the hospital, but also in making claims against the manufacturer of the lines for not color-coding or otherwise identifying the hoses. The defendants had argued that the child's condition was not caused by this incident, and that they had acted within the standard of care for the local medical community.
A settlement of approximately $800,000 was reached after investigation showed that not only was the hospital negligent in switching the hoses, but that if they had been paying attention to the little girl's vital signs, they could have immediately corrected their mistake. As a result, a substantial settlement was reached.
"We are happy that we were able to obtain a financial award for this client, especially when he and his attorney found themselves in a difficult, almost overwhelming situation," noted Jeffrey Eisenberg, lead counsel for Eisenberg Gilchrist & Morton. "Although no compensation to the family will ever be enough for the loss of their child, we believe this settlement was a fair and reasonable way to bring closure on this part of the case for the family."
