Representative Cases

Jamie B. Stewart v. Vanderbilt University, Inc. (wrongful death)

CASE REPORT

RE: Failure to treat salicylate poisoning resulting in wrongful death

This is a wrongful death medical negligence action brought by the widow of a 41-year-old realtor and former Church of Christ minister. The decedent, after being in the real estate business about 3 years, began an extramarital affair with another realtor whom he had met at a seminar in Nashville. After a couple of months, the paramour terminated the affair. Despite great professional success, the decedent could not handle the rejection. At about the same time, his wife of 19 years became suspicious. In a desperate cry for help, the decedent drove to a parking lot at a local K-Mart and ingested copious amounts of aspirin. He had no history of previous suicide attempts, psy-chiatric/psychological counseling, or family history of mental disease.

Within an hour, the decedent called his wife from the parking lot and told her what he had done and that he did not want to die. The wife called 911 and emergency medical services dispatched an ambulance to transport her husband to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Upon arrival at VUMC the decedent was alert/oriented, relaxed and in no apparent distress. VUMC assigned him to a resident physician who had had no previous experience with aspirin poisoning (salicylate toxicity). Despite numerous attempts, the VUMC staff could not pump the patient's stomach with an ET-tube and activated charcoal. Nevertheless, the physicians would not abandon this failed mode of treatment. As hours passed, the patient's physical and mental condition deteriorated due to the steadily increasing concentration of salicylic acid in his bloodstream. By the time the physician elected to change the treatment plan, his fever had risen to 107 degrees. He began to experience respiratory failure and died shortly thereafter.

The plaintiff's experts testified that the physicians' insistence on continuing a patently unsuccessful mode of treat-ment to the exclusion of other modes available was negligent. Likewise, plaintiff's experts testified that hemodialysis (cleansing salicylate from the blood) should have been commenced long before it was ever considered. The mortality rate for salicylate poisoning in healthy adults given timely treatment is less than one percent. VUMC did not retain any experts, but alleged comparative fault based on the suicide attempt. The plaintiff widow and the decedent's four minor children alleged spousal and parental consortium losses in the complaint. Three days before trial, the parties settled for a non-disclosable sum.

Plaintiff's experts:
01. George M. Feldman, MD - nephrologist - Manakin VA
02. Rodney J. Folz, MD - pulmonary critical care - Durham NC
03. Frederick L. Glauser, MD - pulmonary critical care - Chesterfield VA
04. Holman Page McAdams, MD - radiologist - Durham NC
05. George R. Nichols, II, MD - pathologist - Louisville KY
06. George C. Rodgers, Jr., MD - critical care - Louisville KY
07. Andrew E. Slaby, MD - suicidologist - New York NY
08. Gilbert L. Mathis, PhD - economist - Murray KY
09. Harold E. Crye - realtor - Memphis TN