Case Update: COPD Arrest After Central Line [Verdict for Defense]
Case #129 Update
A case I covered back in October has now reached its final conclusion.
A 70-year-old man was intubated in the ED for a severe COPD exacerbation.
The next morning, the ICU doctor placed a central line.
Shortly thereafter, the patient coded and died.
The plaintiff’s attorney claimed that there was a pneumothorax on the post-central line x-ray.
They allege that the ICU physician should have done a needle compression.
The defense hired a radiologist and pulmonology/critical care physician to counter these claims.
The jury returned a verdict for the defense.
The defense attorneys disclosed their payments to the experts.
This is the radiologist’s bill:
This is the pulmonology/critical care physician’s bill:
Sneak preview:
This week’s case for paying subscribers will be released in a few hours.
It’s about a 58-year-old man with polycystic kidney disease and coronary artery disease.
He called his PCP several times and reported shortness of breath.
The PCP did not see him in person, simply prescribed antibiotics via phone.
By the time the patient went to the ED, he had concerning vitals:
BP 80/50
HR 62bpm
90% on room air
Temp 97.5 F
He decompensated over the next 2 days.
The patient went into a fib with RVR.
He had a cardiac arrest and died.
The plaintiffs sued his PCP (for not seeing him in person), the nephrologists (for not starting dialysis the same day he was admitted), and the ICU doctor (for not starting rate control for his a fib, allegedly leading to rate-related ischemia and a fatal arrhythmia).
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