Family Awarded $2 Million for Hospital's Failure to Administer Pneumococcal Vaccine
Medical Malpractice Case Summary:
Amount: $2,000,000Court: Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court
Date: December 2001
Plaintiff's Counsel: Ellen M. McCarthy
Medical Malpractice Plaintiff had ITP, necessitating splenectomy. Primary doctor ordered pneumococcal vaccine which nurse failed to give. Following splenectomy, surgeon ordered pneumococcal vaccine, recognizing plaintiff had not received it as first ordered. Vaccine was not given by the nursing staff. Several years later, plaintiff died of pneumococcal sepsis. Defendants claimed it was given but they could provide no verification. Defendants also claimed that even if the vaccine had been given, it was not probable that she would have survived the sepsis.
