There are some situations in life in which there are no winners. One example of this truism: a medical malpractice lawsuit. The doctors and hospitals that are ordered to pay victims harmed by their negligence certainly aren’t winners, and the victims themselves have sustained serious damage as a result of substandard treatment.
We read recently of such a case. While a judge approved a $6.5 million settlement in the medical malpractice suit, the bottom line for the victim – an infant girl – sustained permanent injury to her brain in surgery.
Born in April 2012, the girl was brought in July of that year to a New Jersey hospital for an operation to repair an inguinal hernia. A week after the hernia surgery, her parents brought their infant to the ER for treatment of a bulge. She was intubated (a tube is placed in the patient’s airway to assist in breathing while anesthesia is administered) in preparation for surgery the next morning.
The baby sustained a brain injury, her parents stated in their lawsuit, because the anesthesiologist and staff were negligent in intubation and in their failure to properly monitor breathing and oxygen levels.
Is there a winner in this case? Of course not. The little girl – now seven years old – sustained a permanent injury to her brain. But the settlement will enable her to receive the care she will need as a result of the negligence and substandard care.
Her parents are to be commended for seeing the fight for justice through. Part of that battle is the selection of an attorney experienced in medical malpractice litigation.
If you or a loved one has been harmed by a negligent doctor or hospital anywhere in Georgia, please contact our Rome office to schedule a consultation.