Medical Malpractice - Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) – Voluntary Dismissal

Dennis Vandenberg and the Peterson Bernard medical malpractice team successfully defended an anesthesiologist and a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) in a medical malpractice case in Palm Beach County, Florida wherein the Plaintiffs chose to voluntarily dismiss their case after 2 ½ years of litigation. The patient had been hospitalized following an automobile accident wherein he fractured his neck and wrist. Following surgery to repair his wrist, the patient’s condition began to deteriorate and the Plaintiffs alleged that there was a failure to timely secure the patient’s airway via a blind nasal intubation which resulted in a hypoxic brain injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and resulting cognitive and physical impairment. The defense was able to establish that the cause of the patient’s brain injury was most likely the result of a vertebral artery dissection that occurred around the time of the automobile accident.