Wednesday, January 21, 2004
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Wednesday, January 21, 2004 |
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Hospital sued after man’s death By JOHN MUNFORD A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against Fayette Community Hospital and an emergency room doctor for several alleged errors that contributed to the death of a 28-year-old man in 2002. In the suit, Jill Y. Daniel claims her husband Brian C. Daniel was sent home after being treated for chest pains in the hospital’s emergency room in the early morning hours of Aug. 28, 2002. Two hours later, a radiologist for the hospital reviewed Brian Daniel’s chest X-ray and caught something the emergency room doctor missed, according to the suit: “an enlarged heart with increased markings” which was “unusual” for a 28-year-old patient. Although that radiologist contacted another emergency room doctor to call Daniel back in for more tests, the suit claims Daniel never received a phone call from the hospital. He died later that afternoon, approximately eight hours after the alleged error was caught by the radiologist, the suit contends. A lawsuit generally represents one side of a particular issue. The hospital is expected to file a formal response to the lawsuit in coming weeks. Although hospital officials declined to comment about the suit, they did indicate while radiologists are not on site, they are available on an on-call basis. In addition to misdiagnosing the X-ray, the suit contends Dr. James V. Robinson also failed to take a complete medical history on Daniel and failed to order more extensive tests to properly diagnose the problem. The suit, filed last week in Fayette County Superior Court, also alleges the hospital should have had a certified radiologist at the hospital when Daniel was treated. Mrs. Daniel is seeking financial damages to compensate for the loss of her husband in an amount to be proven at trial in excess of $10,000. An autopsy determined that Brian Daniel died of “aortic dissection with associated massive cardiac tamponade and right hemothorax,” the suit states.
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