An anticipated 3-to-4-week trial of a medical malpractice action against a Wichita pediatric cardiologist, a pediatric anesthesiologist, and a family practitioner, scheduled to begin April 5, 1994, was averted by policy-limits settlements with each of the defendants.
The action was on behalf of a 4-year-old girl, born in June of 1990, with an unusual chromosomal abnormality called Turners syndrome, which carries with it a high risk for certain heart abnormalities, most often coarctation (narrowing) of the aorta, and aortic valve stenosis (narrowing). Neither Turners syndrome nor these abnormalities are life-threatening if they are diagnosed and managed, but, in this case, the diagnosis of the babys heart problems was missed initially by the pediatric cardiologist and then, in turn, by the family practitioner and pediatric anesthesiologist.
As a result, in November 1990, at the age of 4 1/2 months, the plaintiff was taken to surgery for a hernia, put under a general anesthetic, and had a cardiac arrest with profound heart failure, resulting in brain injury and permanent motor impairment. Our firms investigation revealed that when the plaintiff was 6 weeks old, she had a precautionary EKG taken because of murmurs which had been heard on routine examinations. This test, done three months before the hernia surgery, suggested that her underlying cardiac abnormalities had produced observable EKG changes indicating that the heart muscle had begun to hypertrophy or thicken as a result of over work from the flow obstruction. The significance of this test was not appreciated by the cardiologist, and not made known to the other defendants.
The family practitioner, however, did have information about plaintiffs evolving symptoms, like a significant persistent unexplained murmur, a failure to thrive and gain weight, and symptoms consistent with heart failure, all prior to the surgery, which were not followed up.
The pediatric anesthesiologist documented in the record that the plaintiff had a history of a heart murmur and coarctation of the aorta, even though nobody had previously made that diagnosis. He then failed to act properly on this information. The plaintiff's position was that, where there was unevaluated coarctation of the aorta and the hernia surgery was elective, the underlying heart problems should have been attended to first. The failure to do that subjected the plaintiff to a general anesthetic using a powerful cardiac depressant drug, and put her into dramatic heart failure, from which she was resuscitated but not entirely spared.
As a result of this insult to plaintiff's cardiovascular system and the traumatic interruption of her normal blood flow, the plaintiff sustained significant neurological injury to her brain and has permanent and significant motor impairment and associated developmental delay.
Each of the defendants had $1,000,000.00 in insurance coverage, for a total of $3,000,000.00, all of which will be paid in settlement of this complicated case. Vic Bergman handled the case for the firm, and utilized experts in the fields of pediatric cardiology, pediatric anesthesiology, pediatrics/neonatology, pediatric neurology, life-care planning, and medical economics.
