A Pennsylvania medical malpractice wrongful death lawsuit filed on February 6, 2017 alleges that a woman’s medical providers in the local hospital in which she was treated relied on an outdated laboratory value when adjusting the dosage of her intravenous heparin, leading to her suffer a subarachnoid hemorrhage caused by receiving too much heparin, resulting in her death.
The Alleged Underlying Facts
The Pennsylvania medical malpractice complaint alleges that the plaintiff’s wife was experiencing lightheadedness along with generalized aches and fever when she went to the defendant hospital’s emergency room on August 28, 2016. She was prescribed heparin several days after she was admitted to the hospital.
The plaintiff’s Pennsylvania medical malpractice wrongful death lawsuit alleges that around 10 a.m. on September 3, 2016, one of the defendant physicians ordered that the woman receive 5,000 units of heparin by injectable syringe every eight hours, which was administered to the woman about fifteen minutes later. On September 4, 2016, the woman was found unresponsive in her hospital bed and it was subsequently determined that she had suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage.
The woman was intubated and transferred to the defendant hospital’s Neurology Intensive Care Unit where her condition continued to deteriorate. The results of a repeat CT scan of her head showed a new right frontal hemorrhage that resulted in an order for palliative care. The woman’s family had a series of family meetings with the hospital after which they made the difficult decision to stop medical care and to transfer her to hospice care, where she died on September 10, 2016.
The death certificate reportedly listed subarachnoid hemorrhage as the immediate cause of the woman’s death.
The Pennsylvania medical malpractice wrongful death lawsuit alleges that the family later learned from the defendant hospital that an outdated laboratory value was inadvertently referenced when adjusting the intravenous dosage of heparin administered to the woman, dismissing as erroneous abnormal PTT values. As a result, the incorrect dosage of heparin was ordered and administered, resulting in the subarachnoid hemorrhage and leading to the woman’s death.
The plaintiff’s Pennsylvania medical malpractice wrongful death lawsuit alleges that the woman suffered persistent head and neck pain, subarachnoid hemorrhage, right frontal hemorrhage, neurological devastation, requirement for intubation, and death as a result of the defendants’ medical negligence. The plaintiff seeks both compensatory and punitive damages on behalf of himself and his wife’s estate in excess of $50,000.00.
Heparin can be a life-saving drug when properly used but can be a dangerous drug if used improperly. It is imperative that routine blood testing be ordered to monitor the levels of blood thinning in patients who are on heparin for therapeutic purposes.
If you or a loved one suffered serious injury (or worse) as a result of heparin in Pennsylvania or elsewhere in the United States, you should promptly find a Pennsylvania medical malpractice lawyer, or a medical malpractice lawyer in your state, who may investigate your heparin claim for you and represent you in a medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
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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