Recent Patient Dumping Medical Malpractice Settlements

By Rasansky McKenzie

This week, we’ve been discussing patient dumping – an abhorrent and illegal act of medical malpractice in which hospitals refuse to treat patients who they believe cannot afford medical help or who may incur large medical costs.
Let’s take a look at some of the recent patient-dumping medical malpractice settlements taken from the headlines from across the country in 2011:

• $50,000 settlement: Dallas County Hospital did not perform an EKG on a cardiac diabetic patient who came to the emergency room asking for an examination. The patient died of a heart attack.
• $48,000 settlement: A hospital allegedly failed to screen and stabilize a transfer patient who was diagnosed with abnormal hemoglobin and internal bleeding. He sat in the waiting room for seven hours and died in the ER.
• $42,500 settlement: Two different hospitals located on the same property failed to screen and treat a patient with a serious wrist laceration. The patient was finally sent to a third hospital without being stabilized.
• $50,000 settlement: A patient diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis by her family doctor waited in an ER waiting room for 8 hours without receiving treatment. When she finally traveled to a different hospital, she was diagnosed with DVT and pulmonary embolism.
• $170,000 settlement: A medical center failed to provide care to four different emergency room patients, including patients who suffered from brain hemorrhaging and spinal fractures.

Patient dumping is an extremely important matter—both on a legal and a moral level. If you or a family member was a victim of patient dumping in Texas, speak with a Dallas TX medical malpractice attorney at Rasansky | McKenzie Law today. We can help you better understand your case and get you the compensation you deserve.

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