Lawsuit Says Inept Hospital Employees Didn’t Monitor Patient During Admission.
BY: LITIGATION DESK | BocaNewsNow.com
WELLINGTON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2023 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — Inept hospital employees at Wellington Regional Medical Center paid no attention to a woman who a doctor slated for admission, according to a lawsuit just filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.
In the complaint reviewed by BocaNewsNow.com, attorneys for the estate of Lorraine Nagdeman say she was all but left for dead during her visit to the emergency room on February 22, 2022. From the complaint:
“At all times material, on or about February 22, 2022, Lorraine Nagdeman was a patient of Wellington Regional Medical Center receiving medical care at that facility. Initially, she was seen in the emergency room and it was ordered she be admitted to the hospital, During her physical transfer from the holding area to the inpatient area, it appears that Wellington Regional Medical Center, its agents and/or employees did not monitor Lorraine Nagdeman. She was discovered at about 18:54 on February 22, 2022. She was unresponsive with agonal breaths, a thready, weak, non-palpable pulse and was not on any monitor.
A code rescue was called, not a code blue. No temperature was taken on this patient prior to 18:54 on February 22, 2022, after the initial temperature twelve hours earlier and was not on a heart monitor. Lorraine Nagdeman died February 23, 2022.”
The complaint includes the following list of accusations made against Wellington Regional Medical Center in its alleged role int he death of Lorraine Nagdeman.
“The agents and/or employees breached that standard of care at the minimum by failing as follows:
a. Failing to advocate for Lorraine Nagdeman as a patient for general medical service disregarding her physical exam, history, vital signs and medical needs when her condition was critical.
b. Failing to recognize and initiate or adhere to the hospital’s sepsis protocol by not recognizing Lorraine Nagdeman fulfilled the sepsis criteria such that her doctors did not know and she was not placed in a critical care unit with full monitoring and frequent vital signs.
c. Failing to properly monitor Lorrain Nagdeman’s heart, vital signs, intake, output and laboratory findings as per MD orders.
d. Failing to review and implement admission orders and failing to review any admission orders.
e. Failing to properly evaluate the patient’s clinical status during the entire night shift and failing, despite a physician’s order, to initiate telemetry monitoring.
f. Failing to advocate for Lorraine Nagdeman by bringing her failing health to the attention of the attending physicians.
g. Failing to bring to the attention to the treating physicians the vital signs of a heart rate of 37 followed by a heart rate of 122 in the ER holding area.
h. Failing to call a cold blue instead calling a code rescue.
i. Failing to maintain a proper chart with the proper telemetry and monitoring strips that correspond to the code rescue/code blue and the transport to the intensive care unit.
j. Failing to obtain a temperature of a patient for 12 hours.
k. Failing to expedite the application of a warming blanket with the patient’s temperature of 33 degrees Celsius.
I. Failing to obtain a respiratory rate for 8 hours such that the nursing staff finds the patient essentially dead. The defendant’s agents and/or employees’ breaches in the standard of care caused or substantially contributed to the death of Lorraine Nagdeman.”
The suit seeks in excess of $75,000 which is more of a placeholder than an actual number. Medical Malpractice suits can often lead to settlements and judgements in the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. Wellington Regional has not responded the suit through a filing with the Palm Beach County Clerk of Courts. Ms. Nagdeman’s estate, and husband, are represented by Attorney Nancy LaVista of Clark, Fountain, La Vista, Litky-Rubin and Whitman, LLP, of Palm Beach Gardens.
