A family, whose daughter died as a result of an untreated brain aneurysm, recently has settled their wrongful death lawsuit against a medical group comprised of more than 400 doctors, prior to the case going to trial.
More details of the case can be found here.
For years, the woman suffered from frequent migraine headaches and had been receiving treatment from a particular medical group. In December 2006, the woman visited another medical center complaining of an unusually severe headache. She received a pain shot and was sent home from the medical center shortly after. Over the next several days, the woman visited doctors at both the medical group and the medical center and was treated with medication for a sinus infection and given additional pain shots. At no time during these visits did she receive any radiographic studies or undergo any further tests to determine if a more serious condition may have been involved. Several days later, the woman was rushed to the hospital where she was diagnosed with an untreated aneurysm. Tragically, six days later, she died as a result of bleeding in her brain.
The woman’s lawsuit alleged that she did not receive the medical care she needed and deserved from the treating physicians and staff. As a result, the woman lost the opportunity to receive the necessary medical treatment due to the misdiagnosis. The medical malpractice wrongful death suit recently settled for $3.25 million.
While certainly no one intended to miss the aneurysm and ultimately this tragedy to happen, physicians and hospital staff are held to a certain standard of care for all of their patients. This level of care must be maintained, since a mistake of any kind or any bit of negligence on behalf of the hospital or a physician may result in unfortunate consequences, such as causing a patient’s injury to be worse than what they came in with, or sometimes even death. Certainly, no amount of money can take the place of a healthy family member, or make up for a family’s terrible loss, but the individuals who made these negligent mistakes must be held accountable for their actions, and the families affected deserve some type of financial compensation for their loss.
In tragic cases such as these, where a person is injured or killed as a result of someone else’s medical negligence, the family of the victim may be able to file a medical malpractice claim or lawsuit for wrongful death on behalf of their family member affected by the physician’s negligent act. Wrongful death actions allow the family to hold the person accountable for their negligent actions, even though the party bringing the suit was not the one injured by the physician’s negligent act.
If you have a loved one that was injured or killed as a result of a physician’s negligent actions, please contact one of our medical malpractice attorneys to discuss what legal options may be available to you and your family. Our experienced medical malpractice attorneys have helped many families hold negligent physicians and hospital staff liable for their wrongful actions that resulted in death or injury of a loved one.