Kaiser – Fatal Administration of Antithrombolytic Agent / Wrongful Death

Walkup’s Kaiser team obtained a settlement of $350,000 for the wrongful death of a woman who died due to the administration of a drug contrary to Kaiser policies and protocols. At age fifty the deceased suffered a minor heart attack and was sent to the Kaiser Santa Clara emergency room. Two hours after her episode she was acting normally and barely felt any pain. Despite this, the on-call doctor, a kidney specialist, decided to administer the antithrombolytic agent tPA (tissue plasminogen activator), a blood clot dissolver used to prevent permanent heart damage immediately following a severe heart attack. According to FDA labeling and Kaiser’s own guidelines and policies for its administration, tPA must be administered within four hours of the onset of symptoms and should only be used to treat an acute heart attack. Bleeding, including intracranial bleeding, is a well-known and dangerous side effect of the drug. The house doctor, without informing the patient about the time parameters for administration of the drug, administered the drug over six hours after her symptoms began. This drug therapy caused a massive fatal cerebral hemorrhage.