Failure To Check Patient’s Name And Date Of Birth Results In Death And A $550,000 Settlement

Medical malpractice attorney, Elizabeth Montesano, Esq., represented the four adult children of a 54-year-old man who died because of an egregious medical error when two different medical facilities failed to confirm his identity before administering an unnecessary dialysis treatment.

Despite a number of medical conditions, the decedent maintained an independent and active lifestyle and was a significant part of his children’s lives.  As a result of medications, his kidney functions deteriorated and he began hemodialysis treatments.  His hemodialysis was administered three days per week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

A blood infection resulted in a hospitalization where at discharge he was transferred to a rehabilitation center for physical therapy to restore his prior state of health and activity. He was doing very well and scheduled to be discharged in a few days.  His regularly scheduled dialysis treatments were given that week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  However, because the facility failed to check his name and date of birth or heed his protests, he was transferred for additional dialysis on Saturday morning.  Apparently, the facility had another patient with the same name.  This other patient though was almost 20 years older.

To make matters worse, the dialysis center that received him never checked his identity or date of birth and administered treatment that was intended for another patient.

The error was identified that afternoon when he was transferred back to the rehabilitation center.  Despite complaints of pain, feeling ill, weak, cold, short of breath, and exhibiting abnormal vital signs, no medical treatment was rendered to him and he was never transferred to a hospital.  Later that night, his breathing difficulties worsened leading to a cardiac arrest.  Unfortunately, he was not able to recover and died several days later.  A recovery was obtained for this family in the sum of $550,000 in the form of a pretrial settlement.

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