Sommers Schwartz attorneys Matthew Curtis and Michael McCullough II secured a confidential $600,000 settlement in a medical malpractice case alleging the defendants failed to perform a CT scan with contrast on a baby born with a pulmonary artery sling (PAS).

The plaintiff claimed the defendants were negligent by not ordering a CT scan with contrast, which would have revealed the PAS. Instead, the defendants ordered a CT scan without contrast and an echocardiogram that did not show the PAS. A CT scan with contrast is the accepted standard for diagnosing a newborn with respiratory difficulties that would require surgery.

Because of the defendants’ negligence, the baby suffered severe respiratory distress and was kept on a ventilator and tracheal support while in the hospital for many months. During that time, the defendants performed two lobectomy surgeries to remove 40% of his lung capacity. The resulting decreased lung capacity caused the child to tire easily. The child also had to undergo a tracheal reconstruction.

The lobectomy surgeries would have been unnecessary if the defendants had ordered a CT scan with contrast that would have revealed the PAS. Had the PAS been discovered, the baby could have had the proper surgery to repair the sling and would have had a good prognosis. He would have been taken off the ventilator and released from the hospital much earlier and would have avoided the two lobectomies and tracheal reconstruction surgery.