Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession(5)7 Jul 97
PDF VersionQuick Summary: After an orthopedic procedure involving the thigh and knee, nurses caring for the patient must check the lower leg for adequate pulses and for signs of ischemia in the foot.
A nurse’s failure to monitor the patient, failure to detect a problem with circulation or failure to notify the physician in time can lead to civil liability for professional negligence.
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS, SIXTH CIRCUIT (TENNESSEE), 1997.Nurses caring for an orthopedic post-op patient must closely monitor blood flow in the affected extremity. If a problem is allowed to develop without the physician being promptly notified, the nurses caring for the patient can be found negligent, according to a recent ruling from the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (Tennessee).
However, in this case the hospital which employed the nurses was not sued by the patient. It was the orthopedic surgeon and the vascular surgeon who wanted the court to apportion responsibility for part of the verdict to the hospital’s nurses.
The court stated in general terms that nurses have the legal duty to monitor an orthopedic post-op patient very closely for adequate blood flow in the affected extremity, but in this particular case the court saw no evidence to suggest that any part of the blame should fall on the nurses.
Free vs. Carnesale, 110 F. 3d 1227 (6th Cir., 1997).