Articles Posted in Pulmonary Embolism Malpractice

A Georgia jury has awarded more than $6 million in medical malpractice / wrongful death case on behalf of a husband and his deceased wife’s estate after she developed blood clots and died shortly after undergoing outpatient knee surgery. The woman had knee pain and went to an orthopedic surgeon who ordered an MRI of the knee. That MRI showed something behind the knee which resulted in the the orthopedic surgeon performing outpatient arthroscopic surgery on the woman. The next day, the woman was found dead at home. An autopsy showed that deep venous thromboids had formed at the site of the surgery, and then traveled to the lung causing a pulmonary embolism. Apparently, the orthopedic surgeon ignored several risk factors that should have indicated that blood clotting could be a problem, such as obesity and birth control pills.

A Plaintiff recently lost a medical malpractice case in which it was alleged that there was a failure to properly place a patient on anti-coagulants after orthopedic surgery, which caused blood clots to form and kill the patient (pulmonary embolism). Apparently, a 54-year-old former pastor died three weeks after undergoing surgery on his leg. He developed difficulty breathing that day and was taken to a hospital where he died. An autopsy found that his death was caused by a blood clot in his lungs that originated in his leg. The patient claimed in the suit that the doctor should have prescribed medications to reduce the chance of blood clots after the surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon. A copy of the article regarding the case can be found here.