$4,500,000 Settlement

Our client, a 47-year-old woman went to the hospital after feeling lightheaded and dizzy since the night before. The hospital performed a CT scan, which was read as negative for an active stroke, and she was sent home. Within 24 hours of her discharge, she suffered a major stroke that left her partially paralyzed on her right side.

The defense argued that she was not having a stroke when she arrived at the hospital and that discharging her was appropriate given the clean radiology results. The defense took a “no pay” position and refused to make a settlement offer prior to trial.

During the trial, we argued that the hospital failed to recognize our client’s lightheadedness and dizziness as early warning signs of a stroke that was about to happen. We argued that those symptoms called for further evaluation and treatment, not discharge. We further demonstrated that the hospital’s radiologist misread the CT scan. Read correctly, the scan provided further evidence that she was already showing the early signs of a pending stroke. Had the hospital properly read the scan and recognized her symptoms, it could have intervened before the stroke caused permanent damage.

After several weeks of trial, and just before the jury reached a verdict, the case settled.