Sommers Schwartz attorney Matthew Turner negotiated a medical malpractice settlement for the estate of a woman who died after undergoing a laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy.

The decedent presented to the defendant hospital for bariatric surgery. During the procedure, an internal injury led to postoperative internal bleeding that went undiagnosed and untreated for several hours. Because of the delay, the decedent’s blood volume decreased, causing hemorrhagic shock, multiple cardiac arrests, multi-organ failure, and eventual brain death.

The lawsuit claimed that the defendant hospital, general surgeon, and nurses failed to properly monitor the patient after the surgery and communicate her status with one another, failed to recognize her hypotensive state, failed to recognize the patient was suffering from a postoperative bleed and transfer her to the ICU or return her to the operating room, and failed to aggressively resuscitate her in a timely manner.

The plaintiff claimed that had the defendants exercised reasonable care in treating the decedent, they would have detected the internal bleed and taken appropriate and timely action to address the bleed and prevent her death.