Nash & Associates: Case Under Investigation
DVT (deep vein thrombosis) – failure to timely diagnose
Case Facts: Our client is herself a clinical nurse. During the course of a long drive back to her home state, she began experience swelling in her leg. By the time she got to her home, she began experiencing pain in that same leg and some moderate shortness of breath. Believing that she may have developed a clot in her leg (DVT), she immediately sought help at a local area hospital.
The client advised the attending health care providers that she was concerned she may have a DVT. The attending health care provider dismissed her self-diagnosis when she advised this could not be the case because the client was simply “too young.” Nevertheless, the client requested and received a Doppler examination of her extremity. Our investigation currently reveals that while this Doppler was reported as negative for a clot, it was performed in an improper manner, leading to a false negative result.
After being discharged from the emergency room with pain medications, the client continued to suffer. She then sought out her primary care physician, who referred her to his company’s outpatient urgent care facility. Our client immediately went there for diagnosis and help. After taking a history for the client and learning that she had just undergone a ‘negative Doppler,’ she was again told that she did not have a DVT. Further medications were ordered for pain relief and she was discharged.
Believing that she had some sort of muscular problem, not a DVT, the client then returned by plane to her job, as a nurse, in another state. At the end of her first shift, she was feeling such discomfort that she proceeded to remove her pants to examine her leg. It was now grossly swollen and turning blue. She immediately cried out for help. The doctors in the unit responded and immediately placed her in the ICU. Testing was done – this time properly – and the diagnosis of DVT was finally made.
The client required extensive hospitalizations, treatment and suffered continued disability. As a result of the proper diagnosis having been made, she is now under the care of qualified specialists for her ongoing care. She has sustained substantial medical expenses, loss of earnings and now suffers the ill-effects of this delayed intervention.
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Again, the above ‘cases under investigation’ are just that – under investigation. At Nash & Associates, we recognize that bad results can occur even when the medical care is totally proper. We believe it is our ethical duty to our clients to totally and properly investigate these matters to identify those cases in which tragic outcomes are the result of negligence. While we attempt to initially screen incoming matters to determine which may have merit, the final determination to proceed to a lawsuit is not made unless and until we are satisfied, through proper investigation and qualified expert consultation. that a valid malpractice case exists. Of course, the ultimate determination of the validity of a case lies with the jurors who must unanimously agree that our assessment was correct.
We provide the above information to give you, the visitors to our sight, information as to a sampling of the nature of our practice and insight into the expertise we possess in this area of the law. We do not simply market, collect cases and refer them to other lawyers, who specialize in this area of the law. We are the ones who handle these matters with our many years of highly successful experience in the evaluation, settlement and, when necessary, litigation of medical malpractice and catastrophic injury cases.
