$8.35M for Brain Damage, medication overdose
A Cumberland County jury awarded $8.35M on Thursday to a 63 year old Vineland woman and her husband for brain damage caused by an excessive dosage of a painkiller. Sandra Terris was admitted to Newcomb Hospital in Vineland on May 26, 1999. She suffered a fractured pelvis and ribs in a car crash three days earlier and, following examination at another hospital, had been sent home. But Terris, a diabetic, was suffering from dehydration and low blood sugar, according to the suit.
As Terris was still in pain from her injuries, a Newcomb orthopedist, with the approval of her attending physician, Alan Cohen, prescribed a 4mg dosage of the painkiller Dilaudid. A nurse, Christine Roller, administered the drug at noon on May 27 but failed to mark it on Terris' chart. A few hours later, a physical therapist came to Terris' room, found her asleep, was unable to rouse her and reported her findings in written reports to Roller and Cohen.
Terris woke up that evening but ate nothing and her vital signs were deteriorating. At midnight, nurse Mary Ann Harris gave Terris a second dosage of Dilaudid. At 12:54 am, a monitor attached to Terris went off, signaling she was in respiratory arrest. Terris suffered severe brain damage due to loss of oxygen, according to the suit.
(This information was obtained from the New Jersey Law Journal)
Terris, formerly the manager of a Jiffy Lube, now lives in a nursing home, is unable to walk or speak and has the mental capacity of a child. The complaint charged that Cohen was negligent for prescribing 4 mg of Dilaudid when the standard first dosage is 2 mg and that he failed to alert the nurses to watch for shallow respiration, a known side effect of the drug.
The complaint charged Roller with negligence for failure to mark the first dosage on Terris' chart and that Roller and Cohen were both negligent for failing to recognize that terris was suffering from shallow respiration when they were unable to rouse her. The complaint also claimed both Roller and Harris failed to monitor Terris' vital signs adequately.
The defense claimed that the Dilaudid dosage was within the standard of care, that the inability to rouse terris was not a serious problem and that her brain damage was more likely caused by a blood clot. The jury apportioned 70 percent of liability to Cohen, 30 percent to Roller and none to Harris. The jury awarded Terris $4 million for pain and suffering, $2.7 million for future medical expenses, $300,000 for past medical expenses and $350,000 for lost wages. The jury also awarded her husband, Elliot, $1 million for loss of consortium.
- Charles Toutant, New Jersey Law Journal
