MOBILE JURY RETURNS $15 MILLION VERDICT FOR WRONGFUL DEATH AT SPRINGHILL MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
Jun 28, 2012
Mobile, Ala. – On June 25, 2012, a Mobile, Alabama, state court jury
returned a $15 million verdict against Springhill Memorial Hospital for
the wrongful death of a 45-year-old married mother of three who walked
into the hospital under her own power on November 7, 2008 for diagnostic
work, and who later underwent successful cardiac bypass surgery that same
morning. That evening, 24 minutes following the administration of an overdose
of a powerful anesthetic medication, Theresa Oden suffered a cardiac arrest
and was pronounced dead 18 minutes later.
The jury of twelve unanimously determined after a two-week trial that
the hospital was liable for placing Mrs. Oden’s care in the hands
of an inappropriately trained and unqualified nurse. The nurse, who had
come on duty in relief of Mrs. Oden’s primary post-op care team
only 25 minutes prior to administering the drug, made numerous medical
errors while administering Propofol (aka Diprivan) – the same drug
implicated in the death of Michael Jackson.
According to Joseph M. (“Buddy”) Brown, Jr., and J. Brian
Duncan, Jr., of Mobile’s Cunningham Bounds, the trial evidence
established that Mrs. Oden was an “ideal” “low risk”
candidate who underwent the triple bypass surgery without a hitch. That
afternoon, her recovery in Springhill’s Cardiac Recovery Unit (CRU)
proceeded for over 6 hours without complications and just as hoped for
until the nurse, a newcomer to the CRU’s staff, administered the
overdose of Propofol, causing the patient to immediately fall into a coma
accompanied by descending and unarrestable blood pressures. Brown stated,
“The heart surgeon, Dr. Terry Stelly, did a perfect job in completing
Theresa’s three-vessel bypass surgery, and confirmed the success
of his revascularization of her heart by a post-surgery Doppler flow study.
Following her death, an autopsy confirmed the surgery’s success
and the belief that the bypass team had indeed given Theresa what should
have been a new lease on life.” Dr. Stelly testified that he was
“devastated” to learn the morning following the surgery that
his patient had died following the surgery.
Duncan explained that the case also involved proof of cover-up and destruction
of medical evidence. “The nurse made numerous changes to Theresa’s
vital signs, ventilator settings, and other critical evidence in an effort
to hide her wrongdoing. The leftover Propofol and the computer memory
from the pump allegedly used to administer the medication to Theresa were
discarded or destroyed following her death ... all in violation of the
hospital’s policies and procedures governing medication-related
deaths. The evidence also suggested that Springhill was an active participant
in the cover-up. In fact, when David Oden went to the hospital shortly
after his wife passed away to obtain a copy of his deceased wife’s
medical records, he was given a set of records by Springhill that had
many entries altogether different from the records produced to us by the
hospital once the lawsuit was filed. It took us over three years, and
three separate trips to the Supreme Court of Alabama, before we were finally
able to present the jury with the real truth about what happened to Theresa
Oden that evening.”
With the help of Mobile County’s former Chief Medical Examiner,
Dr. Leroy Riddick, Jr., who served as one of plaintiff’s expert
witnesses, the jury determined that Mrs. Oden was given an anesthetic
dose of Propofol, rather than the “light sedation” ordered
by her physician, while being left without the protection of a ventilator.
As a consequence, Mrs. Oden lapsed into a deep coma from which she never
recovered. Dr. Riddick explained that the incorrect administration of
Propofol was “the only plausible explanation” for Mrs. Oden’s
untimely and unnecessary death.
Testimony from another of plaintiff’s expert witnesses, internationally
renowned anesthesiologist and critical care specialist, Dr. John Downs,
of Dunnellon, Florida, also zeroed in on the nurse’s improper administration
of Propofol while not providing mechanical ventilation for a patient being
treated with the powerful, fast-acting, and potentially deadly anesthetic
medication. Dr. Downs explained that there was a direct causal relationship
between the improper administration of the Propofol and Theresa’s
demise. He described how she lapsed immediately into a coma, accompanied
by respiratory depression and plummeting blood pressures, while the nurse
failed for twenty-five minutes to call a physician or anyone else for help.
The Oden family’s nursing expert witness, Kim Smith, R.N., of Phoenix,
Arizona, described numerous breaches of the applicable standard of care,
including:
- Springhill’s employment of a nurse in its Cardiac Recovery Unit who had none of the required paperwork establishing that she had been appropriately trained, preceptored, and tested in order to be given the responsibility for monitoring and caring for recovering heart bypass patients;
- Springhill’s employment records demonstrating that its nurse had virtually no experience in providing care to post-cardiac bypass surgery patients and no proficiency in administration of the dangerous anesthetic, Propofol;
- Springhill ‘s nurse’s repeated failure to follow physicians’ orders, coupled with her “practicing” on that evening beyond the scope of her competency while left unsupervised by the hospital;
- The nurse’s admission that she observed profound neurological and blood pressure changes in her patient which she recognized were directly related to the Propofol administration, but never called for help from any physician or from her own hospital’s Rapid Response Team as required;
- The nurse’s administration of Propofol without first ensuring that the patient was protected by a mechanical ventilator, and then failing to respond correctly and immediately once she realized her mistake;
- The hospital’s loss, destruction, and deletion of critical medical records. “Failing to keep timely and accurate patient records is a clear violation of Alabama law, stated hospital policy, and the requirements for continuing certification as a licensed hospital,” she said.
Duncan argued that the case was about much more than just Theresa Oden’s
wrongful death. “It is about the rights of patients at hospitals
in Mobile and throughout Alabama to be cared for by well-trained and competent
nursing personnel. It’s also about the right of physicians and surgeons
to be able to expect that their patients will be cared for by qualified
nurses. And it’s also about putting a stop to the destruction and
withholding of evidence when medical errors occur. The jury obviously
decided that these practices were unacceptable for a hospital in Mobile
County, or for any hospital in Alabama for that matter.”
Brown concluded, “Alabama’s Wrongful Death Act was passed
by our Legislature 160 years ago in recognition of the fact that all human
life is precious and worthy of preservation, no matter whether you are
an executive, a schoolteacher, a homemaker, or a child. To ensure that
we protect everyone’s life without discrimination, Alabama law provides
that a jury in a wrongful death case must assess the conduct of the alleged
wrongdoer, and if the wrongdoer has been shown to be legally responsible
for the death, then the amount of the verdict should seek to accomplish
two purposes: first, the rendering of a judgment which is commensurate
with the enormity of the wrongdoing as demonstrated by the evidence in
the case; and second, the delivery of a solemn warning to both the defendant
and to others similarly situated that conduct of the same or similar nature
in the future will be met with similar results. In this case, the Mobile
County jury, which was comprised of twelve intelligent, interested, involved,
concerned and honest citizens from all walks of life, unanimously determined
that a substantial verdict was necessary in order for Springhill Hospital
and other hospitals to understand not only that patients deserve and are
entitled to truly quality medical care and medical care providers who
have been appropriately trained and tested, but also that honesty and
integrity form a foundation of trust and a bond which is at the center
of every hospital-patient relationship. That bond between the patient
and the hospital cannot be broken by the hospital without consequences.
Patients choose their hospital based on trust. Trust that the hospital
will provide competent nurses and other personnel to be the eyes and ears
of their physicians; and trust that if something goes wrong, that their
hospital will level with them and tell them the truth. This verdict is
a reflection of what happens when a health care provider violates that
trust.”