A Washington surgeon, health network and nurse staffing agency have agreed to pay $4.1 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of a patient who died from respiratory complications after thyroid surgery, according to court records.
Vivian Hayward, then 29, underwent thyroid removal surgeries on June 8 and June 23, 2006, at Allenmore Hospital in Tacoma, Wash. According to court filings, the second surgery's attending physician assessed the case as "very difficult," but noted that Ms. Hayward "tolerated the surgery well."
After her transfer from recovery to the nursing floor, Ms. Hayward complained of shortness of breath. The observation nurses gave her supplemental oxygen, pain medication and ice for the incision. When they next checked on her more than an hour later, her airway had collapsed. Unable to breathe, she had suffered respiratory and cardiac arrest and hypoxic encephalopathy.
An emergency response team was unable to intubate, so a code was called and the surgeon who'd performed the case, Virginia Stowell, MD, arrived to perform a tracheotomy. Ms. Hayward's circulation was restored but she did not regain consciousness. She remained on life support until her death on July 17.
Ms. Hayward's family sued Dr. Stowell, her group practice, Proliance Surgeons, Multicare Health System, which operates Allenmore Hospital, and Favorite Healthcare Staffing, the hospital's nurse staffing contractor. The lawsuit alleged that a post-operative hematoma that put pressure on the trachea caused the respiratory issues that led to Ms. Hayward's death. This complication was a direct result of medical negligence, argued the family's attorneys.
Post-op bleeding is a common complication of thyroid surgery and was a particularly high risk given the earlier procedure; Dr. Stowell should have been aware of these risks, said the attorneys. They argued that she failed to address residual bleeding by placing a surgical drain at the incision site and failed to alert the nursing staff to the imperative need for monitoring the patient's breathing.
The hospital and nursing staff were negligent, the family's attorneys continued, in that they failed to adequately monitor the patient and delayed Ms. Hayward's resuscitation by calling for an emergency response team before calling a code when she was in trouble. What's more, attorneys allege, the staff fabricated late entries to the medical record in an apparent effort to cover their inadequate observation and claimed to the family that Ms. Hayward had aspirated on ice cream brought by her husband.
Defense attorneys denied any negligence, countering that Ms. Hayward's death was not a result of post-op bleeding. Instead, they argued that a sudden, unexpected laryngospasm blocked her airway and caused the fatal complications.
In a pre-trial settlement in September 2010, Multicare agreed to pay Ms. Hayward's family $1.6 million, Favorite Healthcare Staffing paid $1.5 million and Dr. Stowell and Proliance Surgeons paid $1 million.
"We thought it was an exceptionally strong case," said John R. Connelly Jr. of Connelly Law Offices in Tacoma, one of the attorneys who represented the Hayward's. The nursing staff's actions were "a very, very slow response once they realized she was not breathing," especially in light of the fact that respiratory concerns are extremely common after thyroid surgery.
Attorneys for the defendants did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
David Bernard
