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3.13 Million Dollar Settlement - Failure to Diagnose and Treat Kidney Infection

Attorney - Ken Berkowitz
Spring/Summer 2005

Blume Goldfaden principle, Kenneth A. Berkowitz, obtained a $3.13 million dollar settlement on behalf of a 31 year-old woman following her presentation to a Newark Hospital in July 2000 with complaints of right flank pain, nausea and vomiting. After a CT scan, she was diagnosed with a kidney stone. The patient was given IV fluids and, after improving, was discharged from the Emergency Room with instructions to follow up in the Urology Clinic the following day. The young woman did not return to the Hospital the next day and she hid from an ambulance on the day after that. Plaintiff argued that she did not go to the Hospital on either of the two days after discharge because of continuous vomiting, chills and developing sepsis. By the time she was brought to the Hospital two and a half days later, the young woman was in septic shock and suffered resulting amputations of both legs at the knees, and amputations of multiple fingers. Plaintiff contended that she should not have been discharged from the Hospital due to her vomiting and possible infection.