Jury Finds No Negligence in Cardiothoracic Post-Operative Wrongful Death Case

After six and a half years of litigation, our attorneys secured a defense verdict on behalf of a cardiothoracic surgeon in a wrongful death medical malpractice case.

The plaintiff was the widow of a middle-aged man with a significant cardiac history who had undergone a quadruple bypass procedure. Several weeks after surgery, the patient fainted while driving to a medical appointment and was treated emergently at an outside facility, where a pericardial effusion (fluid around the heart) was identified.

He was transferred to the hospital where the CABG procedure had been performed and admitted to the ICU for overnight monitoring. A follow-up echocardiogram the next morning showed a large pericardial effusion, which the plaintiff claimed was acutely enlarging. At that time, however, there was no evidence of cardiac tamponade, a condition in which fluid around the heart impairs its ability to pump sufficient blood.

The day after ICU admission, the patient experienced a sudden decline in cardiac output, resulting in loss of consciousness and cardiovascular collapse. A Code Blue was initiated, and despite CPR efforts, the patient passed away in the ICU.

The lawsuit alleged that the cardiothoracic surgeon was negligent in not draining the pericardial effusion prior to the Code Blue and in failing to open the patient’s chest during the code. The plaintiffs sought more than $1,500,000 in combined economic and non-economic damages.