Jury Awards $1.25 Million For Failure to Test Dialysis Patient for Excessive Potassium

A $1.25 million  jury award was handed down in a Tennessee medical malpractice / medical negligence / medical error case involving the failure of several health care providers to check a 34 year old dialysis patient's potassium levels prior to discharge from an emergency room.  The patient suffered from end-stage renal disease requiring dialysis.  A day after he missed a dialysis session due to a hospital emergency room visit, the patient's mother called the patient's treating nephrologist and inquired whether it would be necessary to make up the missed session and whether the patient need to have his potassium level checked.  The nephrologist told the patient's mother that the patient could wait until the next day.  He died that evening following a heart stoppage resulting from hyperkalemia  - excessive potassium in the blood.  The patient's mother sued the nephrologist, an emergency room physician, the hospital, a nurse and unknown hospital employee, alleging they failed to communicate with with each other negligently allowed the patient to leave the hospital without checking his potassium level after the missed dialysis session.  In fact, it was discovered that a proper blood test had been ordered in the emergency room, but that an unknown hospital employee had cancelled it. 

The lawyers at STSW have successfully handled many similar cases in and around the Baltimore / Washington D.C. area.  Although each case's facts are different, the key to these cases is obtaining all of the medical records from each health care provider and determining where the communication broke down.  If you believe you or a loved one have been injured as a result of a lack of communication between physicians or a hospital error / hospital negligence in Maryland or Washington D.C., call the lawyers at STSW for a free consultation.