Medical malpractice suit filed against Lifeteam EMS
By EMILY SCOTT (escott@reviewonline.com)A medical malpractice suit has been filed against Lifeteam EMS, Inc. by Anna Lybert and Robert McGaffic Jr., the parents of Erik McGaffic, who died in February 2006 after being transported from East Liverpool City Hospital to the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh by the ambulance company. The suit also names Lifeteam employees Kelly Betteridge, Nick Cresanto, Joseph Burke, and Jamie Hartley as defendants.
Following the suit being filed in Hancock County, which took place on April 18, the defendants filed a Notice of Removal on May 20 to have the case taken from the Hancock County Circuit Court to the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, as Lifeteam and its employees implicated in the suit are citizens of Ohio while the plaintiffs are West Virginia citizens, and because the monetary amount awarded to the defendants, should their case prevail, would exceed $75,000.
According to a Civil Case Information Statement filed with the Hancock County Circuit Court by the plaintiffs' attorneys, Erik McGaffic, who was two years old at the time, was brought to the emergency room of ELCH complaining of increased shortness of breath and an inability to sleep because of wheezing and a croupy cough. Personnel at ELCH decided to sedate and paralyze McGaffic and insert a T-tube, then transport him to Pittsburgh.
The statement continues to read that there was no trouble with intubation and that when McGaffic was released into Lifeteam's care, he was diagnosed with "good air movement for being intubated...X-Ray did reveal proper placement of the T-tube." Lifeteam was reportedly advised not to permit McGaffic to move and to immediately sedate him if he should move, as well as not to let the air tube come out under any circumstances.
During transport, McGaffic, having never been put in any kind of restraints, began to move, and, according to the statement, was not given sedation medication in a timely fashion. The air tube was then said to have discharged, which caused McGaffic to thrash and gasp for air. "As a direct proximate result of not getting oxygen, Erik Thomas McGaffic went into cardiac arrest and became brain damaged to the point that the medical personnel at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh declared him to be brain dead," the statement reads.
Children's Hospital personnel met with McGaffic's parents two days later to discuss their son's neurological exam and status, after which McGaffic's endotracheal tube was removed and his time of death was pronounced.
"The records at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh clearly indicate that the Defendants brought Erik Thomas McGaffic into the hospital pulseless and atneic without any prior warning to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Emergency Room. The Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh medical records clearly indicate that Erik Thomas McGaffic was an otherwise healthy two year-old male suffering from croup prior to being placed in the Defendants' care," the statement reads.
The suit alleges that "negligence, willful misconduct, medical negligence, and acts and omissions that fell below the standard of care caused Erik Thomas McGaffic to suffer great pain and suffering, a loss of oxygen, cardiac arrest and brain death until he was declared deceased." That negligence is said to include improper IV monitoring, failure to divert to a closer hospital to assist with the dislodged air tube, and failure to notify the Children's Hospital emergency room timely and properly.
McGaffic's parents are seeking damages, as they "suffered a loss of services, comfort and companionship, as well as medical and funeral expenses as a direct result of the injuries and damages suffered by their son," the statement continues.
At this time, a pretrial conference/final settlement conference has been scheduled to be heard in District Court on Aug. 10, 2009, and jury selection is slated to begin Aug. 25, 2009.
