A 78-year-old woman who was paralyzed after a drug mix-up in the hospital pharmacy at Nashville, Tenn.-based Ascension St. Thomas Midtown has sued the hospital for $150 million, marking the first lawsuit over the August error, according to a Nov. 9 report from WTVF.
The suit, filed on behalf of Linda Gilbert, accuses the hospital of “institutional negligence and recklessness” and “medical battery.” Ms. Gilbert was one of four patients who underwent joint replacement surgery Aug. 14 and were injected in the spine with potassium phosphate instead of the intended anesthetic, according to the suit and earlier state findings. She now has a spinal cord injury that has left her paraplegic, the suit alleges.
The suit lists 25 ways the hospital allegedly failed Ms. Gilbert. It alleges she was the third patient to receive the wrong medication that morning and felt burning pain in her legs, but staff put her under general anesthesia and proceeded with surgery instead of investigating. After the operation, the suit alleges, the hospital waited more than 10 hours to perform a recognized treatment to wash the harmful fluid from her spinal cord. The suit also points to pharmacy failures identified by state regulators, including that the hospital stored look-alike products next to each other and allowed employees to override the drug tracking program when the wrong medication was scanned.
Ms. Gilbert is seeking $50 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages, according to the report. Tennessee law caps damages for catastrophically injured patients at $750,000 or $1 million, and the suit argues the cap is unconstitutional. Ms. Gilbert remains at a facility in Atlanta that specializes in spinal cord injuries, and her attorney declined interview requests.
Ascension St. Thomas is aware of the complaint and is cooperating with the legal process, a spokesperson said in a statement to Becker’s. “Our sympathy and concern remain with the affected patients and their families,” the spokesperson said, adding that the system cannot share more details because the matter is ongoing.
The Tennessee Health Facilities Commission cited the hospital for immediate jeopardy after a pharmacy technician selected potassium phosphate vials while preparing what was ordered as a Polocaine batch, and the hospital’s compounding software allowed technicians to override barcode scanning. CMS lifted the immediate jeopardy for the hospital after a revisit, but the risk of Medicare funding termination remains through June 2027. Ascension St. Thomas Midtown and Ascension St. Thomas West had faced possible termination of their Medicare agreements, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation opened an inquiry. No charges have been filed.
