Sommers Schwartz attorney Kenneth Watkins negotiated a $1.7 million settlement in a claim for the wrongful death of an 8-year-old girl who presented to the emergency room complaining of constipation, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain.

The physicians and hospital staff assigned to manage the girl’s emergency care failed to properly communicate, consult, diagnose, and treat the patient’s fecal impaction. After administering an unsuccessful enema, the care team failed to perform appropriate examinations, ignored the patient’s elevated heart rate and other signs of distress, and administered a second enema.

The treatments they used exacerbated her conditions, leading to the development of abdominal compartment syndrome, multi-system organ failure, and septic shock. Hospital staff ignored warning signs indicating complications following the second enema and negligently delayed surgical intervention until it was too late.

The doctors, nurses, and medical support staff failed to meet the standard of care in multiple ways that constituted medical malpractice and negligence, directly causing this young patient’s avoidable death. She is survived by her parents, siblings, and grandparents.