In Patient v.Same Day Surgery Center (Central California Sup. Ct.), Valerie Rose and Mike Kelly secured a $2,400,000 settlement for a 57-year-old man who sustained neurologic injury during a routine hip replacement, secondary to administration of the wrong drug during anesthesia. Instead of an anesthetic agent, he was mistakenly injected with tranexamic acid, which caused seizures, respiratory failure, and prolonged ICU hospitalization. He survived but was left with permanent cognitive and neurological deficits. The claim was brought against both the anesthesiologist and surgery center that failed to prevent a known “look-alike, sound-alike” medication risk where TXA and mepivacaine were packaged in nearly identical vials, yet the facility had no policies requiring labeling, segregation, or double verification.
