Northside Hospital Forsyth complaint alleges a missed hypotension work-up before a fatal retroperitoneal bleed
The complaint alleges that a 78-year-old man on the anticoagulant Lovenox developed a retroperitoneal hematoma after a spinal procedure. Hospital staff allegedly did not investigate his falling blood pressure in time to prevent his death. His blood pressure dropped from 150/82 to 95/61 within four hours on November 7, 2022. A physician noted the reading without ordering a stat blood count, and a nurse later gave him a blood-pressure medication without alerting a doctor. Based on the records, his blood pressure was not measured again for more than seven hours, when it was 65/35. A CT scan then suggested a 12-by-19-centimeter hematoma with active bleeding, and he died the next day.
Overview
This page concerns a public complaint alleging that a hospital physician and a nurse did not investigate a patient’s dropping blood pressure. The delay allegedly kept a retroperitoneal bleed after a spinal procedure from being caught before his death.
Chronology
The complaint alleges as follows:
- A physician ordered the anticoagulant Lovenox for the patient every 12 hours beginning November 5, 2022, one day after a lumbar disc aspiration.
- His blood pressure fell from 150/82 at 7:48 a.m. on November 7, 2022 to 95/61 by 11:48 a.m.
- Hiren Patel, M.D. noted the 95/61 reading in a progress note at 11:56 a.m. that day but did not order a stat blood count.
- Betsy Sijo, a nurse, gave the patient a blood-pressure medication at 8:49 p.m. on November 7, 2022. She did not report his low blood pressure to a physician first.
- Based on the records, his blood pressure was not measured again until 4:07 a.m. on November 8, 2022, when it was 65/35. A manual check at 3:50 a.m. had failed.
- A CT scan at 5:25 a.m. suggested a 12-by-19-centimeter retroperitoneal hematoma with active arterial bleeding. Staff held his Lovenox and gave him protamine.
- He underwent coil embolization, received blood transfusions, went into cardiac arrest, and died on November 9, 2022.
Alleged failures
The complaint alleges the following failures:
- Dr. Patel did not order a stat blood count when he noted a blood pressure of 95/61, which the complaint calls significant relative hypotension.
- Nurse Sijo did not report the patient’s low blood pressure to a physician before giving him a blood-pressure medication.
- The complaint alleges that these failures delayed diagnosis of the hematoma and caused the patient’s death.
- The complaint pleads medical malpractice against Dr. Patel, Nurse Sijo, and Northside Hospital, Inc., seeking wrongful-death and estate damages. It attaches expert affidavits from a physician and a nurse under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-9.1.