Navy Settles Medical Malpractice Case
The 20-year-old was a good nurse. So when she was told to show up at Jacksonville Naval Hospital’s Mayport clinic in 2005, despite the fact that she had a cold and worsening headaches, she did so. But that decision turned deadly for a young pregnant woman.
An undiagnosed sinus infection became bacterial meningitis taking her life. Monday, December 28, 2009, the government finally settled with the family. Most of the $850,000 will go to her 4-year-old daughter who was delivered seven weeks early by C-section as he mother lay dying. The child will not go without, but she will go without her mother.
Our condolences to the family for their immense loss. It is a complete tragedy, especially considering that the failure-to-diagnose case is the third settled by the family’s attorney with this hospital.
Medical Malpractice
By failing to diagnose this young woman simply by taking her temperature, determining she had a bacterial infection and treating the infection with antibiotics, the hospital committed malpractice. She had shown up at the Mayport clinic with the respiratory infection and a two-to-three day history of headaches, but told to continue taking over-the-counter (OTC) medication. Even the young woman’s mother called the clinic herself to demand they give her daughter a prescription for antibiotics. Instead the daughter received a different OTC medication.
Malpractice occurs when a standard of care is violated and that clearly happened here. By the time the bacterial meningitis was diagnosed, it was too late. She died two days later and her organs were donated. Her mother says her daughter was her best friend.
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