Utah Law Talk

Earlier this year, on April 30, Draper teenager Jessie Scott received a prescription for oxycodone hydrochloride from his doctor to help with intense pain in his mouth during a bout of strep throat. The prescription called for a 5 milligram dose. The Wal-Mart pharmacy, however, according to KSL.com, negligently failed to dilute the medication and he ended up with a prescription 20 times the strength it was supposed to be, or 100 milligrams per dose. Needless to say, a few hours after taking this lethal pain medication dose, Jessie’s organs began to fail and one of his lungs collapsed. He was placed on a ventilator and soon lapsed into a coma.

Jessie is now out of his coma, talking, but isn’t doing much else. Sadly, except for some limited movement in his left arm, the rest of Jamie’s body is not responding. One doctor treating him at HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital, told KSL that he thinks that Jessie can get to a point where he is able to operate a power wheelchair with a modified control system, such as a chin or mouth control.

Jessie, who is just beginning to realize what has happened to him said: “I’m furious that the pharmacy did this to me.” Along with extremely limited movement, Jessie experiences chronic pain in multiple areas of his body. He reports that he can’t even sit through a movie because of intense, stabbing pain in his buttocks and in both of his legs. His metabolism is also out of wack. He is frequently sick and often vomits. This has played a hard toll on Jessie psychologically, who is realizing that he now cannot do the simple things that he took for granted before the oxycodone hydrochloride overdose.

Jessie’s mother Laurie Scott expressed her outrage over the situation: “All the things he’s had to go through, you know, just haven’t been fair to him; and it shouldn’t have happened.” Jessie’s father Wayne Scott told KSL that they will continue to try and be positive: “We’ll make lemonade out of lemons, and we’ll go on, and we’ll support him, and we’ll give him everything he needs that we possibly can.” Even though Jessie is frustrated with his condition, he is also determined to remain strong and make the best of his situation. He has strived mightily to move his legs and right arm. Jessie’s parents Laurie and Wayne report that Jessie will be able to return home later this month, after being hospitalized for nearly seven months. They will be converting their living room into a living space for Jessie and will remodel a bathroom to accommodate him. He is expected to require around the clock care.

Unless the Scotts hire a full-time, around-the-clock staff of care providers, they will, upon Jessie’s return home, be converted into full-time care givers. This isn’t right. It was Wal-Mart’s fault that this happened and they should accept responsibility. Right now, HealthSouth is providing the 24/7 care that Jessie needs. Around-the-clock care for him will be very expensive, as will future medical bills and adaptions for Jessie that will need to be made. And as admirable as the Scotts have been at stepping forward and making the best of a really crummy situation, they need to keep in mind that they will not be able to keep Jessie in their front room forever. At some point, maybe much sooner than they anticipate, it will be impracticable and unless he dramatically improves, he will need to be moved to a licensed care center that has the staff and resources to properly care for Jessie and attend to problems as they arise.

A proper “life care plan” for Jessie will be in the millions of dollars, quite possible over 10 million dollars (unless his life span is considerably shortened). Life care planners, who will sit down and account for the costs of all aspects of Jessie’s life, will probably recommend extensive therapy and rehabilitation to help Jessie capture any functionality that can be regained at this point. Given his pain complaints when he is probably already medicated at HealthSouth, he will likely need a life time of powerful and expensive pain medications. A special van will need to be purchased to transport him to his doctor and therapy appointments. This is a large component of the claim that Jessie has, with his parents acting in a power-of-attorney capacity. But this amount is only to pay others for goods and services that Jessie will need. Other components of Jessie’s claim include a lifetime of lost wages for money he will never be able to earn. But these amounts still pale beside the real loss in this case: the loss of the quality of life that Jessie had before the pharmacy’s malpractice. Jessie will be denied the opportunity to do those things he has probably dreamed about his whole life, such as having a normal relationship with a woman and raising a family, among other significant things he assumed he would do. It’s a sad, tragic result from a pharmacy that in a moment of carelessness, changed Jessie’s and the Scott’s life forever.

Ron Kramer is a Utah personal injury attorney experienced in medical malpractice claims and prescription error cases.

Published by: Ron Kramer

A settlement was recently reached in a case involving Lisa Speckman, a Bountiful Utah woman who walked into LDS Hospital to give birth and now has no legs to stand on or right arm to write with.
According to a story in the Salt Lake Tribune, Ms. Speckman developed a “flesh-eating” disease that led to the amputation of both of her legs above her knees and her right arm above the elbow. In the ordeal, she also lost her reproductive organs, much of her large intestine and her gall bladder.

In her medical malpractice lawsuit, Speckman alleged that negligence by IHC and LDS Hospital caused the necrotizing fascitis that invaded her body after the birth of her child in February of 2005. According to the suit, doctors ignored signs of infection both before and after the baby was born and failed to perform tests.

Her settlement was with LDS Hospital and Intermountain Health Care. The University of Utah Hospital was also named in the medical negligence claim because they provided medical residents that apparently took part in Speckman’s treatment. The settlement amount was confidential but appears to be substantial. The cost of future care and treatment alone for Lisa Speckman was projected to be at least $15 million.

Kudos to the lawyers who obtained justice for Mrs. Speckman. Medical malpractice claims by an attorney against hospitals alleging failure to diagnose and treat infection are difficult and require showing that the medical provider(s) violated accepted standards of medical practice leading to the injury. Many bad consequences in hospitals are simply seen as “accepted complications” of a medical procedure. For example, a woman who goes into a hospital for a hysterectomy and leaves with a hole in her colon or her bladder, will usually not have a claim since these types of injuries are seen as “accepted complications” of the procedure. The doctor in those cases, however, still has a duty to look for injury caused by the surgery and to take care of it if there is one.

Even though the settlement with the hospital may have been significant, it will never make up for the life that has been taken away from Lisa Speckman because of the doctor(s) negligence. Hopefully this settlement will cause LDS Hospital to train its doctors to be more careful in catching and treating infections that their patients have.

Published by: Ron Kramer