Attorney Jeffrey Catalano assisted in obtaining a $1,000,000 settlement for a 49-year-old woman who suffered an excruciating death involving severe sepsis and peritonitis with necrotizing fasciitis due to a perforated bowel following an ovarian-cyst oophorectomy six days earlier.
A 49-year-old woman died on August 18, 2009, due to a perforated bowel, a complication resulting from an ovarian-cyst oophorectomy six days earlier.
The plaintiff alleged that the defendant physicians failed to diagnose her perforated bowel in a timely manner and failed to arrange for her to be returned promptly to the operating room for surgical repair.
The patient had returned to the hospital via ambulance the evening of the oophorectomy, and the question of a bowel injury was raised the next morning. Over several days, she allegedly displayed classic signs and symptoms of a bowel perforation, including constant severe abdominal pain, persistent tachycardia, and a discolored, swollen, and hot right flank. In addition, a CT scan demonstrated free air and fluid in the abdomen. However, she did not have an elevated white blood cell count or a fever.
The patient suffered an excruciating death involving severe sepsis and peritonitis with necrotizing fasciitis.
Plaintiff’s counsel retained an expert general surgeon who concluded that the defendants deviated from accepted standards of care in failing to appreciate the numerous signs and symptoms of a bowel perforation and in failing to order, recommend, and/or arrange for her to be taken back to the operating room urgently so that her bowel could be evaluated and surgically repaired or resected.
The decedent was a retired EMT with a history of numerous medical ailments, including multiple bowel surgeries and Hodgkin’s lymphoma requiring spleen resection and bilateral mastectomies. She also had an extensive history of small bowel obstructions.
The case settled after a pre-suit 93A/176D demand.
