A recent verdict in a New Jersey medical malpractice case has me shaking my head in bewilderment. Here’s the setup:
A 2 month old infant was brought to the ER. Mother reported that the child was unable to straighten his leg and would cry when the leg was touched. An x-ray was ordered which the radiologist interpreted as ‘negative’. The child was discharged home (the radiologist was off-site and the mother’s attorney reportedly told the jury that viewing the x-ray remotely on a home computer was “like looking through a dirty window”. Spoiler alert: the radiologist was NOT named in the lawsuit.
The hospital’s own radiologist over-read the x-ray the next day and reported a possible fracture. He/she recommended further x-rays – this recommendation was given to a second ER physician. This physician would later report that he/she never received this report of an x-ray discrepancy.
About one month later the child was brought back by chance to the same hospital with altered mental status and seizures. The infant was diagnosed with a skull fracture, intracranial bleed, and the femur fracture. A few days later, while being questioned by police, the father admitted to throwing the child into his crib and causing a head injury. Re: the femur fracture, he said that the child’s leg had become entangled in the spindles of the crib and was thus injured.
Attorneys for the doctors argued that they had not deviated from standard of care and that it was unreasonable for them to know about the father’s abuse of the child when the child’s own mother was unaware.
The child is now 12 years old and has brain damage with severe cognitive deficits. The father was ultimately sentenced to 8 years in jail. The jury awarded $45 million and [here’s the shocking part] assigned liability as follows:
60% father ($27 million)
5% ER physician 1 ($2.25 million)
35% ER physician 2 ($15.75 million)
To summarize: the first ER physician discharged home a patient after the radiologist reported the x-ray was normal, and for failing to detect child abuse was punished with a $2.25 million fine. Simply baffling.
