Legal Question in Medical Malpractice in Massachusetts
Knee replacement taht caused heat attack
My father was 64 years old and always had pain in the knee. He waited to get a knee replacement for many years. He had the operation at one hospital, and had a heart attack in recovery. They then tried to stabilize him and drove him to another hospital to fix his heart. In the course of trying to clean out the clots, they perforated an artery. They then shipped him (again by ground) to another hospital as they didn't have a stent that could close the perforation. He had the knee heart attack at around 10:00am. They didn't get him to Beth Israel in Boston until 5:00pm. There were questions about his EKG by the anethesiologist before the operation, which was ok'd by his primary care doctor. My question is, Is there a case for malpractice in this instance as his primary care doc approved the operation, without giving him a stress test or that he was not flown instead of driven. There was too much time between the heart attack and getting him to a place where they could handle his condition. They knew he was a higher risk patient and did not take precautions in case he had complications. He never regained consciousness and died two weeks later.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Knee replacement taht caused heat attack
I am very sorry to hear about that loss of yours. I would be happy to speak to you (free of charge), in order for me to learn more information about the case, at your convenience. Thank you.
Chris Earley
Re: Knee replacement taht caused heat attack
Under the facts you presented, there is a possibility that there was some medical or nursing malpractice and in my judgment you are warranted in further investigating the issue. It sounds like your father was a normal healthy person who opted to have elective surgery. I would want to find out more about his health upon being admitted. When a normal healthy patient dies following elective surgery, I presume there is malpractice. Normal healthy patients should rarely if ever enter the hospital voluntarily and die. the Hippocratic Oath, taken by doctors, provides: "above all, do no harm." Surgery of the sort you mentioned increases a person's risk of a heart attack and blot clots lodging the in the pulmonary artery. It is important to gather all the facts and to understand as best as possible what occured in your father's treatment that led to his death. There is an article on my web site dealing with medical malpractice in the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary embolism that might have some relevance to your father's case. I specialize in cases involving wrongful death and have some experience with wrongful death cases in involving medical malpractice.
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