$1M

Case Details

Our client underwent a nine-hour open-heart surgery, successfully performed by the defendant’s surgeon. In the early morning hours after the surgery, Mark began to develop symptoms of pain, numbness, and swelling in his right hand. The surgeon, nurses, and physician’s assistants at the hospital felt that the symptoms were routine post-surgical symptoms. One physician’s assistant ordered a consult with a hand specialist in the early morning to rule out anything more serious. However, the surgeon canceled that order because he felt it was unnecessary. During the course of the day, our client’s swelling became worse, to the point where he could not move his hand. Unfortunately, this information was not conveyed to the surgeon. Finally, when the surgeon examined Mark in the evening after he had completed surgery on another patient, he ordered an immediate hand consult. Mark was diagnosed with “compartment syndrome” of the right hand, a rare complication of being on the heart bypass machine during surgery. Despite emergency hand surgery, Mark was left with a permanent partial loss of function of the right hand. The defense contended that the delay in diagnosing the condition had no effect on his ultimate outcome.

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