When a 75-year-old man arrived by ambulance at a suburban hospital’s ER with complaints of acute-onset back pain radiating into the groin, and when a pulsating abdominal mass was felt by the resident ER physician, a diagnosis of abdominal aortic aneurysm — a potentially life-threatening condition involving a weakening of the wall of the aorta — should have been made. However, the AAA was not diagnosed for several hours, and then there was an additional delay in treating the AAA (which required emergency vascular surgery). Due to these unreasonable emergency medicine and hospital delays, our client sat in the hospital with a large, symptomatic AAA, which was essentially a ticking time-bomb. Tragically, the AAA ruptured before surgery was to begin, and he bled to death.
Passen & Powell represented the adult children in their action against the suburban hospital for medical negligence and wrongful death, and were able to secure a $2.5 million settlement after several years of litigation.