Medical Malpractice $3,900,000

MA was a 40-year-old mother of two young girls and a son. On New Year’s Eve, after overdosing on Tylenol PM, which contains the common but dangerous drug acetaminophen, MA was rushed to the hospital ER. Although a lab test was run showing a toxic level of the drug in her system, MA was transferred to a mental health center without receiving the necessary antidote. During the resulting lawsuit, it was later discovered the ER was understaffed, no physician cleared MA as medically stable in the ER, and the mental health center admitted her in violation of their own policy and without the required paperwork showing she was medically stable for transfer.

Over the course of three days, MA’s vital organs shut down and her brain painfully swelled. When she was finally rushed to a second ER, she was placed on a ventilator and never recovered. Her adult son flew home from active duty in Iraq and made the painful decision to remove his mother from life support.

After retaining experts in the fields of emergency medicine, hospital administration, nursing, psychology and mental health counseling, Mr. Barnes established that two medical facilities and at least a half dozen health care providers failed MA and her children. As a result, the defendants were forced to compensate the family $3,900,000.