Med-Mal Suit Settles for $6 Million
By Eron Ben-Yehuda Daily Journal Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES - A Laguna Niguel man who underwent routine elective neck surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center left the hospital three months later as a quadriplegic, resulting in a medical-malpractice suit that has settled for $6 million.
The settlement announced this week leaves the University of California, which operates the San Francisco medical center, on the hook for $3.6 million. Co-defendant AMN Healthcare Inc., a nurse placement agency, will cover the remaining $2.4 million. Neither party admitted wrongdoing.
Plaintiff Spencer Sullivan, now 44, worked as a registered nurse and devoted himself to providing quality care, his attorney Daniel M. Hodes said.
But Sullivan ended up a "victim" because of the defendants' "blunder," Hodes said.
"It's just the worst kind of irony," said Hodes of Newport Beach's Lopez, Hodes, Milman & Skikos.
The surgery, performed in 2001, was uneventful. But conflicting orders on what post-operative medication was required and the failure to properly monitor Sullivan resulted in a narcotic overdose that led to respiratory failure and brain injury, according to a release issued by Hodes' public relations team.
The hospital's defense counsel, David R. Lucchese of Walnut Creek's Galloway, Lucchese & Everson, did not respond to requests for comment.
But the medical center issued a short statement.
"UCSF questions the asserted facts and assumptions of the press release," the statement reads. "However, the confidentiality of patient information is protected by state and federal law from disclosure so we will provide no further comment."
George E. Clause of San Jose's Ropers, Majeski, Kohn & Bentley, who represented San Diego-based AMN Healthcare, referred questions to the company's general counsel, Denise Jackson, who did not return a call for comment.
Sullivan's primary nurse, Rose McKenzie of American Mobile Nurses, allegedly failed to check on Sullivan from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. on Dec. 27, 2001, Hodes said.
By 6 a.m., Sullivan allegedly had a respiratory rate of four breaths per minute. The typical rate is 16-to-18 per minute, Hodes said.
"He was in extremis, as they say in the trade - not good," Hodes said. "You need to call a code blue."
That didn't happen, he said.
At that point, McKenzie alerted the hospital floor's supervising nurse. But a critical 15 minutes passed before a resuscitation mask was used to force oxygen into Sullivan's lungs, Hodes said.
The nurses also failed to give Sullivan medication that would have provided immediate relief from his respiratory difficulty, Hodes alleged in a mediation brief.
"Simply stated, they never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity to save Spencer Sullivan," Hodes wrote.
