$775,000 settlement reached for medical malpractice due to Ohio emergency physician’s failure to diagnose and treat patient’s stroke.

Stroke is the term doctors use when a part of the brain dies because it goes without blood for too long. There are two main types of stroke: those caused by a blockage in a blood vessel in the brain – called an ischemic stroke, and those caused by bleeding in the brain or surrounding area – called a hemorrhagic stroke.

There are two types of ischemic strokes. One is a thrombotic stroke, which usually occurs in arteries that are clogged with fatty deposits or plaque. The other type of ischemic stroke is an embolic stroke, which occurs when a blood clot from another part of the body, often the heart, travels through the blood stream to the brain, where it lodges in a smaller blood vessel. One of the most common causes of embolic strokes is an irregular heart rhythm called “atrial fibrillation.”

Lamkin, Van Eman, Trimble & Dougherty, LLC obtained a $775,000 settlement on behalf of an arrhythmia patient against an Ohio emergency room physician for failure to diagnose and treat a stroke.  The emergency room physician diagnosed acute gastroenteritis and the patient was sent home. The patient returned to the emergency room the next day, at which time he was immediately diagnosed with a stroke. However, by this point it was too late to administer clot busting drugs such as tPA – tissue plasminogen activator – or otherwise successfully treat the stroke. Fortunately for this patient the stroke was not fatal, although he did suffer a mild to moderate brain injury.

The Plaintiff in this case was represented by Tim Van Eman of Lamkin, Van Eman, Trimble & Dougherty, LLC, in Columbus, Ohio.