In a rather unfortunate incident in Pennsylvania, a 45-year old Tyrone man named Christopher Carey Miller encountered serious brain damage after getting an MRI done in 2016 from a Tyrone hospital. However, a Blair County jury came to his rescue and awarded him $10.83 million.
According to the verdict that was ruled unanimously in the favor of Miller, the majority of the sum, that is, $6.21 million, will be reserved for his future medical treatments and recurrent supervisions that are to take place over the next 30 years. The remaining amount was delegated to make up for all the expenses that Miller himself paid for owing to his loss and suffering.
Understandably, the victim’s family finally had something to be hopeful about after all these years of agony. Brendan Lupetin, a Pittsburgh attorney representing Miller admitted that Chris’s father was so overwhelmed with the decision that he could hardly say anything or express himself. Later, Timothy Miller admitted that this verdict was like an end to his son’s continuing trauma and concerns.
This monetary award and verdict, which also happens to be one of the most historical ones in Blair county to date, was a closure to a case that started with Chris Miller visiting Tyrone hospital on the 4th of October, 2016, complaining of back pain. He wanted to get an MRI done and during the procedure, he developed an allergic reaction to gadolinium. For the unversed, gadolinium is s substance used while conducting an MRI to produce better contrast in the images. As a consequence of the allergic reaction, Miller underwent a severe cardiac arrest leading to brain damage that reduced his mental acuity to that of a child.
Michael Sosnowski did his best to sway the decision for the benefit of Tyrone Hospital. He claimed that after learning about Miller’s allergic reaction, the hospital personnel immediately decided to provide medical care that would improve his condition. When numerous witnesses were summoned to describe how the hospital responded to this crisis, all of them admitted that the latter neither had an alarm or emergency box in the MRI room to ease Miller’s difficulties.
The MRI technologist, supervising radiologist, and the emergency room medical director accepted that all of them had to step in the MRI room to activate the alarm and get additional assistance with the case. One thing that was clear from the witnesses’ testimony was that the MRI room did not have the required resources like the emergency drug epinephrine, which is an anti-allergy medication given to the patient when he suffers from an allergic reaction.
Although Sosnowski tried to convince the jury during his closing that the doctors did not want to administer a drug like epinephrine without a second opinion, Lupetin made it clear that the medical personnel only wasted precious time. The jury declared that the Tyrone hospital was responsible for 75% of the negligence in this event of medical malpractice and the rest 25% was assigned to Dr. Kelly Biggs, the supervising radiologist.
Citation
https://www.altoonamirror.com/news/local-news/2020/08/jury-awards-10-83m-in-tyrone-hospital-case/
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