During a routine colonoscopy, our client, a 73 year old male from Jefferson Hills, was found to have colon cancer. He underwent successful colon surgery to remove the mass at a South Hills hospital. Fortunately, the cancer was caught at its earliest stage and our client was expected to have a full recovery with no adverse effect on his life expectancy. While recovering in the hospital, our client was given the powerful narcotic, fentanyl, for pain control. Unfortunately, without being examined by the surgeon, our client was also prescribed a sedative medication. These two medications, when combined, are known to cause respiratory depression, which if not caught, can cause a person to stop breathing. Not be monitored closely enough by the nursing staff, our client suffered a respiratory arrest. By the time medical personnel found our client, he had been without oxygen for an extended period of time. Diagnosed with hypoxic encephalopathy (deprivation of oxygen to the brain) and irreversible brain damage, our client died a few days later.
We brought a wrongful death civil action in Allegheny County on behalf of our client's surviving wife and children. A settlement was reached with the insurance company's of the hospital and physician.
