Pre-Suit Wrongful Death Claim Settled

Senior partner Willie Gary and partner Maria Sperando obtained a confidential settlement from a hospital for the negligence of its residents and nurses which caused the death of a 41-year-old West Palm Beach man. The firm took on the case on behalf of the man’s wife. The couple had been together for 23 years.

The case involved a man who went to the hospital complaining of frequent urination and elevated blood sugar levels. After being placed on a monitor and being held for observation, he suddenly began to experience shortness of breath, elevated respiratory rates, an irregular heart rhythm, and crushing chest pain. All are classic signs or symptoms indicating blood clots, a potentially life-threatening condition. However, notwithstanding this overwhelming evidence of blood clots, the physicians treating the man failed to diagnose him with blood clots, and they ordered no treatment for the condition even though they suspected it.

Gary and Sperando argued that the man’s death was caused by the negligence of the hospital and the doctors and nurses who cared for him, and specifically that had he been given heparin and properly anticoagulated, the man probably would have survived. Gary and Sperando also contended that during the critical period of time when the man’s life depended on the doctors and nurses who were caring for him to quickly recognize this very serious problem and treat it, his care was left in the hands of inexperienced interns. Not once did an attending physician see the man, and never did the nurses request that an attending physician see him or use the chain of command to get him the help that he desperately needed.

Sperando noted that “although we, of course, can’t bring her husband back, we are very happy to have gotten for our client the justice that she deserved.”