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Operating Room: Padding is Shared Responsibility of Nurses, Hospital, Physicians, Court Rules
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
Quick Summary: Lack of padding under a bony prominence, and lack of documentation of proper padding, are departures from the standard of care.
There was no documentation in the medical records about padding under the patient’s knee while she was in the lateral decubitus position for surgery on her right hip. COURT OF APPEAL OF LOUISIANA, 1998.
A patient developed a left peroneal nerve palsy after surgery on her right hip. Her physicians thought the most likely cause was failure of the physicians and nurses in the operating room to put padding under her left knee during surgery.
The patient sued the nurses, the physicians and the hospital. The Court of Appeal of Louisiana upheld the verdict which was in favor of the patient.
The court found documentation in the chart of a beanbag being used to stabilize her upper body and an abductor pillow being placed between her legs. However, according to the physician and the nurse who testified as expert witnesses, that was not sufficient. There should also have been padding between the bony prominence of the patient’s left knee and the hard surface of the operating table while she was lying on her side. One of the defendant nurses admitted she knew this.
The court also noted that all members of the surgical team share legal responsibility for proper positioning and padding of the patient. Pommier v. ABC Insurance Company, 715 So. 2d 1270 (La. App., 1998).