Eisenberg Winkler Jeck Schwartz Schoenhaus & Sherry, P.C. attorneys Frederic Eisenberg and Brian Hall recently secured a confidential arbitration verdict for $1,775,000 in a medical malpractice case that cost our client her life.
Our client was 23 years old, with a good job at a local utility, who was working toward her business degree in night school. She lived with a form of sickle cell disease that becomes symptomatic in adulthood. These pain crises, if not treated, can be deadly.
One day, our client developed sudden head and neck pain, and sought treatment for it at a local hospital. The specialist who saw her there knew about her underlying condition but decided she was recovering and discharged her home with instructions to follow-up as an outpatient within thirty days.
Two days after discharge, our client was in a full sickle cell pain crisis and was admitted to a different hospital. Tragically, despite treatment there, she died.
Fred and Brian argued at arbitration that, given that the specialist knew their client had sickle cell disease, the specialist should have suspected a pain crisis and ordered a blood test to confirm that was the case. Fred and Brian contended that had the test been done, it would have been abnormal, our client would have been kept in the hospital for observation and treatment, and she would have survived.
“This was a preventable tragedy,” said Fred. “As we explained during the arbitration—which the arbitrators agreed with given their ruling in our favor—the only thing that prevented our client from being alive today was the negligent medical care she received.”
“Though we couldn’t have given our client a second chance at life, we hopefully brought her family a sense of justice,” said Brian. “Losing a loved one to medical malpractice is heartbreaking, but at least our client’s family knows the people responsible for her death were held accountable for their actions.
