QUESTION
The MD did not do an ultra sound to make sure the blood clot was gone due to the PICC Line b4 takin my husband off warfrin. death is a result?
Asked on Apr 20th, 2013 on Medical Malpractice - Colorado
More details to this question:
My husband passed away 10 28 12 due to a heart attack. 40 days before he passed away he was on Warfrin a blood thinner due to having a blood clot from a picc line in his right shoulder. He was on the warfrin for 3mts but no follow up ultra sound was done before taking him off the blood thinner. My reason for asking is my grandson is in the army and they have him on warfrin due to a blood clot and he was on before my husband but they keep checking if the blood clot is gone by doing an ultra sound and he has been on the warfrin for several months vs my husband being on it for 3 months with no follow up ultra sound before taking him off to see if the clot was gone. The hospital having to put a picc line in the first place was the hospital's fault due to a nurse aide putting a BP cup on the arm that had an IV and my husbands viens were very hard to find and so it resulted in him going to vascular to put the PICC line in.
1 ANSWER
2 Awards
One key to the case would be whether there was an autopsy done which proved that the heart attack was directly attributable to being taken off Warafin. Assuming the doctor should have done an ultrasound, you would still have to prove that his heart attack was not caused by arteriosclerotic heart disease and instead that it was caused by a clot being thrown to his heart. The same would be true if you established that the nurse aide's orignal action was negligence. You still have to prove that is what caused the death. An autopsy would likely be required to do that unless there was some clear evidence in the medical records showing what caused the heart attack.
Chris Hoffman
Hoffman, Sheffield, Sauseda & Hoffman
303-333-2200
choffman@hsshlaw.com
Answered on Apr 22nd, 2013 at 6:12 PM