Connecticut residents depend on their healthcare providers for diligent and informed care. They expect to receive assistance from a doctor and hospital in treating a disease or other ailment. In fact, the very last thing any individual would expect upon entering a hospital for care is to be somehow harmed by the visit itself. But, this may be exactly the case for an individual who went to a doctor for shortness of breath issues recently.
The 68-year-old man went to the emergency room after experiencing shortness of breath one evening in February 2009. The doctor attending to him sent the man home after an examination and tests. Two days later, the man was being brought into the hospital again, this time by ambulance, when he died. The deceased’s family recently brought a medical malpractice claim against the hospital and the attending doctor.
Usually, at the heart of any medical malpractice claim is the question of whether the care delivered to the patient met the standard of care as measured against what would be expected from other professionals in the field. That’s the question that is now before an eight-person jury in connection with this case out of Iowa.
The deceased man’s loved ones’ claim of negligence is backed by their argument that the doctor who first saw him in the ER should have been more thorough in his examination and analysis of the man. They say if he had been, the man would not have died. The defense argues that the doctor did all he could to care for the man.
At the time this post was written, the jury had reportedly deliberated for three hourswithout coming to a verdict. Deliberations were due to continue the following day, but it’s not known whether the case has been resolved.
Source: The Hawk Eye, “Jurors ponder verdict in medical malpractice suit,” Andy Hoffman, Oct. 2, 2012.
