In this case, our client was a Pierce County infant and his family. Although clinic personnel at the clinic the mother went to for pregnancy care recognized her as a high-risk patient, her care was transferred to an unlicensed third-year family medicine resident whose labor and delivery experience consisted of ten weeks of training at [...]

Linda, a 38-year old single mom and longtime IRS employee living in Issaquah, began acting increasingly erratically.  Her friends thought she had a substance abuse problem, but she was also slowly going blind.  When she was driving with her son one day and suddenly couldn’t see the road anymore, she agreed to see an ophthalmologist, [...]

We represented the family of a respected member of a Northwest Native American tribe, who died from uncontrolled blood loss in the hospital following routine, elective back surgery. The surgeon documented significant, prolonged bleeding during the surgery and, although the surgeon believed he had stanched the bleeding by the end of the operation, his patient [...]

We represented the wife and children of a 40-year old man who died three days after neck surgery. A well-recognized risk of the particular procedure is postoperative swelling/edema and hemorrhage, which can compromise the airway. Given that risk, the hospital nursing staff was required to watch for signs and symptoms of these complications and react [...]

Heparin is an anti-coagulant drug commonly used in patients at risk for a blood clot. It is widely known to have a “paradoxical” (reverse) effect in some patients—causing widespread clotting in the blood stream instead of protecting against clots. This dangerous condition is called heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) or heparin-induced thrombocytopenia with thrombosis (HITT). Upon any [...]

Our client sustained a severe brain injury when she reacted adversely to a drug given to her by a nurse in the recovery room following a cesarean delivery. The nurse administered what was believed to be Demerol to control post-operative shivering. Within moments, our client became completely non-responsive and had trouble breathing. The nurse applied [...]