Painter Law Firm attorney Robert Painter recently settled a Houston medical malpractice lawsuit for $3,925,000. We cannot identify the defendants because of a confidentiality agreement.
We represented a teenager who sustained a permanent, severely-disabling brain injury at a hospital after she developed hyponatremia while in the hospital.
Hyponatremia is a condition where a person develops a low serum sodium level. It is fairly common among runners who get dehydrated. In a hospital setting, it can be life-threatening. This is especially true when a patient has had neurosurgery or has experienced a head trauma because it causes brain swelling.
Thus, nurses need to be trained to look out for the classic signs and symptoms, which include, among other things, altered mental status and level of consciousness. As soon as the nurses observe these critical signs and symptoms, they need to notify a physician immediately. Most often, the treatment is giving an IV of hypertonic saline.
In the case that our law firm just settled, the nurses either did not recognize these signs and symptoms, or ignored them. As a result, it delayed action by the physicians and sadly resulted in this young lady's brain swelling to the point it caused extensive permanent damage.
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