Sommers Schwartz attorneys Matthew Turner and Mickey McCullough settled a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the estate of a woman who died from complications stemming from a negligently performed electrophysiology (EP) study/PVC ablation.

The decedent sought treatment by the defendants, complaining of dizziness. A stress test and EKG revealed abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmia), including premature ventricular contractions (PVCs). Along with causing discomfort, PVCs can lead to more serious issues, including impairment of the heart’s ability to pump blood. 

Doctors commonly prescribe anti-arrhythmia medication as the first-line treatment for PVCs. If the medication is not effective or causes unwanted side effects, doctors may recommend a surgical procedure called a cardiac ablation.

Among the defendants’ many failures to properly treat and manage the decedent’s condition, they did not attempt more conservative and less risky treatments, such as anti-arrhythmia medication, before recommending she undergo a cardiac ablation.

In this procedure, surgeons first perform an EP study. This test measures the heart’s electrical activity, pinpointing which areas of tissue are causing the PVCs. Once doctors identify the problematic cell clusters, they pass catheters through the patient’s veins into the heart and destroy the targeted cells with radiofrequency energy.

In this case, the physicians negligently placed a catheter while performing a left heart catheterization. The improper placement of the catheter caused the decedent to suffer a cardiac arrest. She was resuscitated and taken to the cath lab, where a stent and an intra-aortic balloon pump were placed to keep the vein open and help the heart pump more blood.

Over the next five days, the defendants failed to adequately treat the decedent’s ongoing bleeding and heart dysfunction. This hospital malpractice led to another cardiac arrest, which caused her death. The patient died as a direct consequence of multiple acts of medical malpractice before, during, and after the EP/ablation procedure.

Had the defendants followed the standard of care and first attempted conservative medical therapy, they likely would not have needed to perform the ablation at all. Their negligence in performing the surgery, surgical errors, and substandard post-operative care cost the patient her life. The Sommers Schwartz medical malpractice team recovered $622,500 for her estate and surviving family members.