Dallas Jury Awards $7 Million in Medical Malpractice Case
Posted on Dec 23, 2008 12:39pm PST
In Dallas, Texas, a jury recently awarded $7 million to a family who filed a
medical malpractice lawsuit against Westchester County Medical Center. The family filed the lawsuit after Theresa Capwell, a mother of three children, suffered severe
brain damage and
died after physicians failed to diagnose conditions such as her inflamed pancreas.
The family's attorney, Judith Livingston, claims that after the medical professionals failed to diagnose Capwell, they still had several chances to prevent her death. Livingston alleges that Capwell went to the hospital and was admitted with distinguishable symptoms that would be indicative of pancreatitis. However, doctors overlooked the symptoms and started to look for cancer for a time period of 2 weeks. Capwell continued to grow weak and was placed on a breathing machine, which caused a buildup of air in her lungs, and prevented her lungs from functioning normally. Eventually, the breathing machine prevented Capwell from receiving sufgficient oxygen as her lungs could not expand or contract correctly.
Several doctors attending to Capwell had requested that she receive a chest tube to aid her breathing, but the requests were never fulfilled. Due to the lack of treatment, Capwell went into cardiac arrest. During that time, her brain was without oxygen for 12 minutes, which led to her incurring serious brain damage. A year after the incident, Capwell died after living in a comatose-like state.
A jury returned a verdict against Westchester County Medical Center to the Supreme Court Justice presiding over the case, Nicholas Colabella, after they deliberated for 24 hours and went through a 3 week medical malpractice trial. The jury awarded $3 million to Capwell's 3 daughters and awarded $4 million to her husband.
Westchester County Medical Center informed the public that they plan to appeal the $7 million verdict and that they will file a motion in the near future.
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