Sommers Schwartz attorney Matthew Turner obtained a confidential settlement for the estate of a 33-year-old man who died from cardiac arrest while being treated in the defendant hospital. The wrongful death lawsuit alleged that the cardiologist and medical staff were negligent in failing to diagnose and treat the decedent’s pheochromocytoma (PHEO), a condition that causes the adrenal gland to produce too many hormones.

After the decedent presented to the hospital complaining of heart issues and symptoms, tests were performed to determine the patient’s catecholamine level. The patient had an underlying genetic disorder called multiple endocrine neoplasia, type 2A (MEN 2A), increasing the likelihood that he was suffering from PHEO. Instead, the defendants continued to administer multiple beta blockers rather than alpha blockers, causing undue stress to his heart and sending him into cardiac arrest, from which he could not be resuscitated.