Medical Malpractice

Hydrochloric Acid Treatment Misses Vein, Goes Into Tissue - Patient Dies When Tissue Eaten by Acid - $2.35 Million Settlement

Brief Statement of Claim: Patient receiving hydrochloric acid treatment for alkalosis dies following use of faulty intravenous infusion of acid into tissue rather than her vein.

Principal injuries: Wrongful death of 54-year-old woman

Tried or settled: Settled

Case name and number: Confidential

Date concluded: April 2003

Amount: $2,350,000

Attorneys for plaintiffs: Joseph T. Edwards of Edwards and Edwards, L.L.P., Greenville; C. Mark Holt of Kirby and Holt, L.L.P., Raleigh

Other useful information: Plaintiff, 54, was admitted to the hospital with gallstone pancreatitis. The next day, she went into acute renal failure. She was started on dialysis, but developed metabolic alkalosis. As treatment, she was started on an intravenous drip of hydrochloric acid. She was taken off the treatment, but she became alkalotic again, and a quadruple lumen catheter was placed. Hydrochloric acid was administered through the new catheter and increased over the next three days. The patient began sloughing off skin and tissue in her chest, and eventually the problem was discovered. The patient lost large amounts of tissue as it became necrotic until she died 6 weeks later.

» From the January 19, 2004 North Carolina Lawyers Weekly.

Note: Each individual case is unique with its own set of facts and complexities. These reported cases cannot be used as a basis for predicting results in future cases because each case must be evaluated and judged on its own particular set of facts and circumstances.