Jamie Hood, a partner at Hood Law Firm, LLC, obtained a defense verdict following a week-long medical malpractice trial in Charleston County, South Carolina. Plaintiff alleged that the Defendants were negligent by failing to adequately convey appropriate discharge instructions to the Decedent and by resuming blood thinners too soon after surgery. The Decedent passed away five days after undergoing an adenotonsillectomy. The cause of death was determined to be hypovolemic shock and asphyxia due to a tonsillectomy resection margin bleed.
The Defendant physician instructed the Decedent to stop taking the blood thinner a week prior to the surgery. After two days of postoperative observation in the hospital with no sign of bleeding, the Decedent was discharged with instructions to resume the blood thinner. Plaintiff argued that the Defendant physician failed to adequately convey to the Decedent instructions for managing a postoperative bleed. Plaintiff’s expert opined that if the Defendant physician had consulted with the Decedent’s cardiologist regarding the anticoagulants and had conveyed appropriate discharge instructions, the Decedent would not have passed away from a surgical site bleed.
The defense proved that care and treatment was appropriate and within the standard of care and that the surgical site bleed experienced was a rare, but well-known, complication of an adenotonsillectomy. The jury returned a defense verdict.