Intubation: Court Sees Violation Of Standard Of Care, But No Link To Patient’s Death.

Intubation: Court Sees Violation Of Standard Of Care, But No Link To Patient’s Death.

Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession

July 2017

To sue for healthcare malpractice the patient must have proof of a violation of the standard of care by the patient’s provider. Likewise essential to a successful malpractice lawsuit is proof of a link between the provider’s violation of the standard of care and harm to the patient. COURT OF APPEALS OF TEXAS June 14, 2017

While on a ventilator in the hospital the patient twice pulled out her own tracheostomy tube. At the time the patient was not on pulse oximetry. Only after the second episode was the patient restrained so that she could not pull out her tracheostomy tube again. Almost a month later, after the patient had been weaned from the ventilator and was noted to be doing well, the patient was found by a nurse unresponsive in her room at 5:11 a.m. and pronounced dead at 5:29 a.m. after a brief code. The last vital signs were taken at midnight and a nurse last checked on her at 4:40 a.m.

The Court of Appeals of Texas dismissed the lawsuit the family filed against the hospital. The Court did not disagree that weeks before the patient’s death the patient should have been on pulse oximetry so that hospital personnel would have been promptly alerted to a drop in oxygen saturation from compromised breathing. The Court also did not disagree that the patient should have been restrained then to keep her from dislodging her tracheostomy tube. However, the Court saw no logical link between those earlier lapses in compe-tent care and her death. Hospital v. Gonzales, 2017 WL 2623055 (Tex. App., June 14, 2017).