Medical Malpractice Causes Loss of Hands and Feet: Victim Challenged NC Medmal Cap

Cases, Hospitals, Infections, Medical Malpractice Mistakes, Surgery

Medical malpractice caps are against noneconomic damages, or damages that are for the pain and suffering that a patient endures from the medical malpractice.  This is what a person suffers.  The agony.  The physical and emotional drama.  The true suffering due to medical malpractice.

In North Carolina, a mother who suffered catastrophic medical malpractice is challenging North Carolina’s medical malpractice cap after she lost her hands and feet in a negligent surgery.

How negligent?

Well, she went in to have her fallopian tube removed after having an ectopic pregnancy.  And ectopic pregnancy is when the fetus attached to the fallopian tube (the tube connecting the ovaries where the eggs come from to the uterus where the baby develops prior to birth).  The improper attachment to the fallopian tube during a pregnancy is life threatening to the baby and the mother.

She underwent this surgery which was a “success.”

However, days later she became septic.  This is a massive, widespread infection in the body which permeates to the blood causing it to be infected too.  The infection was so severe and came on so fast, there there was nothing to do to save her hands and feet which were incredibly damaged.

It turns out that during her fallopian tube surgery, a doctor punctured her small intestine by mistake.  This was not observed or detected.  This means that the victim had a continuous leak of bile and bacteria-full fluids into her abdominal cavity.  This is what caused the massive infection and sepsis, which it is lucky it did not kill her.  But now she has no hands and feet.

Yet, North Carolina only has a $500,00 cap on medical malpractice.  So this mother of three with no hands or feet to care for her family, who now has no independence, who is now on dependent of help, who now lost the ability to live a normal life and care for her children, this victim of extreme medical malpractice will only be compensated $500,000

Oh, she also won’t be able to properly digest food by mouth—called eating—either.

There was no information about her age, but she is very young and her youngest child is 2 or 3 years old.  If she is in her 40s, her life expectancy would have been almost another 45 years.  Now it may only be 20 years.  This means her income of $500,000 over 20 years is just $25,000 for her and her 3 children.  If she lives the full 45 years, it is just over $11,000 a year.  That’s below the poverty line.

But this is what the Legislature has decided in North Carolina!  As those doctors who have made those serious medical malpractice will continue to make their $200k, $300k, $400k, or even higher salary while this mother of three can barely feed her family—financially, as she will never be able to feed herself or her family again.

But what do you think?  I would love to hear from you!  Leave a comment or I also welcome your phone call on my toll-free cell at 1-866-889-6882 or you can drop me an e-mail at jfisher@fishermalpracticelaw.com.  You are always welcome to request my FREE book, The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Malpractice Victims, at the home page of my website at www.protectingpatientrights.com.

Reviews