Kaiser – Medication Overdose

Our medical malpractice attorneys negotiated a major confidential settlement on behalf of a young man who was left in a permanent vegetative state after Kaiser Hospital physicians and nurses failed to treat worsening sepsis and pneumonia and overdosed him with intravenous tranquilizers, causing ischemic brain damage. The plaintiff, a 27-year-old restaurant worker, presented to the Emergency Room with vomiting, shortness of breath, and chest pain. Blood tests and a chest CT scan proved consistent with sepsis and pneumonia. The ER physician started intravenous antibiotics and transferred the patient to the ICU, but no ICU physician assumed responsibility for his care. The patient became obtunded and his breathing slowed. The physician who finally arrived at the bedside lacked the ICU skills to place a breathing tube to connect the patient to a ventilator.