Medical Malpractice Case Summary

Introduction:
The case before us is interesting on several aspects. One, the patient is a minor who was treated for 3 days, successfully, before his parents could be contacted. Most importantly, this case is interesting because the causative agent was ultimately found to be a toothpick, identification of which was very difficult because a toothpick does not show on standard diagnostic imaging techniques such as MRI and CT scans. The patient’s family has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the hospital. For malpractice to occur there are 4 conditions that must be met. The plantiff will have to show that Dr. Foreman had a duty to his patient. They need to show that Dr. Foreman breached his duty to that patient. They need to show that his breach of duty caused injury to his patient and lastly, they need to show what damages were incurred as a result of this breach of duty. I will prove why Dr. Foreman is
Pt. has no past history of asthma or allergies and no known medical conditions. The pt does have a recent history of a trip that involved sitting in a truck for a long period of time during the past few weeks. There are no obvious signs of trauma and in the ER he had a normal EKG and echocardiogram, however a bloody pleural effusion was found during the ER workup. A CBC with differential shows no abnormal blood counts. Tuberculosis was ruled out by a CT scan and ACE level testing of his sputum. Multiple standard diagnostic imaging studies did not show any obvious abnormalities. The patient’s spleen ruptured and in surgery to remove the spleen, Wegener’s disease was ruled out by microscopic study of a tissue sample of the spleen when it was normal. Signs/symptoms that presented were a cough, pain that changed locations as treatment progressed, complaints of feeling like an anvil is sitting on his chest, a penile bleed and ruptured