A now 22-year-old woman from Pennsylvania obtained a Pennsylvania medical malpractice jury verdict in her favor in the amount of $4,242,573 on October 26, 2018, eight years after she required a kidney transplant (her mother was the living donor) due to the defendant pediatrician’s failure to diagnose her worsening kidney failure.
The Pennsylvania medical malpractice jury trial lasted two weeks after which the jury deliberated for about five hours before returning its verdict in favor of the plaintiff. The total verdict included compensatory damages for past medical expenses as well as past and future noneconomic damages for the pain and suffering endured by the plaintiff. The Pennsylvania medical malpractice jury determined that the defendant physician was responsible for 85% of the verdict and the health care facility where the plaintiff was treated is responsible for 15% of the verdict.
The woman had been treated by the defendant pediatrician since she was 17 months old. During the years of medical care that the defendant physician provided to the plaintiff, the plaintiff was treated for recurring urinary tract infections. The defendant physician ordered blood tests that showed kidney impairment (the results would have been normal for an adult but for a child such as the plaintiff, the kidney function results were abnormal).
The plaintiff began being treated by a physician’s assistant at the defendant health care facility in March 2009. She had abnormal blood pressure readings on two occasions (high blood pressure can lead to kidney failure). Again in May 2010, her blood pressure reading was abnormally high. Despite the abnormally high blood pressure readings, no medical follow up treatment was arranged.
Two weeks after the May 2010 visit to the defendant health care facility, the plaintiff was flown to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she was diagnosed as being in end-stage kidney failure. The kidney transplant took place shortly thereafter.
Source
High Blood Pressure And Chronic Kidney Disease
According to the National Kidney Foundation, uncontrolled high blood pressure is the second leading cause of kidney failure in the United States, and severe high blood pressure can harm kidney function over a relatively short period of time (mild forms of high blood pressure can damage kidneys over several years).
In 2013, high blood pressure led to more than 33,000 new cases of kidney failure, making it the second leading cause of kidney failure behind diabetes.
More than 20% of people 20 years old and older who have hypertension also have chronic kidney disease.
The National Kidney Foundation recommends that regular blood pressure checkups should begin in childhood and continue throughout life.
If you or a loved one suffered undiagnosed or untreated high blood pressure that led to kidney failure in Pennsylvania or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a Pennsylvania medical malpractice lawyer, or a medical malpractice lawyer in your state, who may investigate your medical malpractice claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
Click on the “Contact Us Now” tab to the right, visit our website, or call us toll-free in the United States at 800-295-3959 to find medical malpractice attorneys in your state who may assist you.
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