When an injured car accident victim is taken to a hospital in Hawaii for treatment, it is sometimes determined that emergency surgery is necessary. Such seems to have been the case for a man in another state who was apparently hit by a car on his way home from work in September 2015. The man’s leg was injured and doctors at the hospital determined he needed urgent vascular surgery. The events that followed led to a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Because the hospital was not equipped to handle the situation, a call was reportedly placed to an emergency hot line at another facility. Protocol stated that the all calls coming through the line were to be answered within three rings. Those who made the call on behalf of the man say the phone was never answered and that they were forced to leave a message on an answering machine.
Subsequently, the man was transferred to the hospital. Doctors apparently would not perform surgery immediately due to complications in the transfer of CT scans from the other hospital. The Western Journal of Emergency Medicine states that vascular surgery of this type typically needs to take place within 6 to 8 hours of an injury; otherwise, a patient is in danger of losing the limb. The man’s surgery did not occur until at least 13 hours after he was injured.
He has filed a $24 million medical malpractice claim in federal court, alleging that leg amputation may have been avoided were it not for hospital negligence. Some doctors in Hawaii have been accused of similar negligence in the past. Many times, injured patients retain the help of personal injury attorneys who act on their behalves to seek monetary judgments against those deemed responsible for their suffering.
Source: New York Daily News, “Man who lost his leg blames Brooklyn hospital in a $24M medical malpractice lawsuit“, Dareh Gregorian, July 5, 2016