$1.2 Million settlement for failure to diagnose dissecting aortic aneurysm

April, 2003

An 8 year old girl arrived at the defendant hospital emergency department with a complaint of a sudden onset of severe chest pain, with one episode of vomiting. Although x-rays revealed an enlarged heart which was noted by both the emergency physician and adult cardiologist who was asked to look at the x-ray, the child was not admitted nor was she sent to a nearby children’s hospital for evaluation. The cardiologist agreed that the x-ray represented a “heart condition” for her, but he and the emergency physician decided to speak to her primary physician and have her evaluated the next day in his office by echocardiogram. The child was discharged with a diagnosis of viral gastroenteritis. The primary physician declined to see her the next day, relying on the diagnosis of gastroenteritis, despite a history of continuing chest pain. The child was scheduled to see him the next day, more than 48 hours after her original visit. While preparing to go to the doctor’s office, she screamed and collapsed. Despite emergency efforts to revive her, the little girl died of an undiagnosed dissecting aortic aneurysm, a surgically curable lesion which is very rare in a child.

The defendants contended that the rarity of the condition was an excuse for missing it and vigorously defended the case. Feldman Shepherd attorney Carol Nelson Shepherd aggressively pursued the case on the theory that while this was itself an unusual condition, it was below the standard of care, given her diagnosis and x-ray findings to fail to do an emergent echocardiogram, or to transfer this child to a nearby children’s hospital for cardiac evaluation. The failure of all defendants to pursue this avenue effectively destroyed the child’s more than 90% chance of surviving this treatable condition. After protracted litigation and after jury selection, the case was settled for $1,200,000.