Assignment 2: In Defense of Negligence

Assignment 2: In Defense of Negligence

Case Note

Lavern Wilkinson went to Kings County Hospital in 2010 believing it was a heart attack when she first felt chest pain. X-Ray was conducted which showed a suspicious nodule in her lung, yet she was sent back home and was told to take medication. Now, she has a lung cancer that has spread to the brain and spine, and she is told that she has just around 6 months to live.

Facts

Lavern Wilkinson is a single mother of her only child, a severely retarded and autistic 15 year old daughter. It was February 2, 2010 when Lavern Wilkinson while cleaning her apartment, was seized with chest pain. She took the bus to Kings City Hospital fearing that she might be having a heart attack. Doctors in the busy emergency department of the hospital ordered a chest X-Ray and an EKG. First year resident, Dr. James Willis, told her that her tests were normal, and she could go home suggesting Motrin for pain and following up with the doctor. The X-Ray had, on the other hand, revealed a 2 cm nodule in her right lung, and it was recommended by the radiologist, to have a follow up X-Ray in the next three months, and a CT scan was also suggested if there were no clinical concerns. Later, in the last two years of follow up clinical appointments when she regularly complained of a chronic cough, she was offered cough medicines, inhalers and steroids with the belief that her ailments were caused by her long standing asthma.

In spring 2012, one day she again arrived at the emergency wheezing and short of breath when a new chest X-ray was taken which showed the nodule to have enlarged to double its size and also had spread to her left lung. It had entered in the Stage 4 of lung cancer and had metastasized to her liver, spine and brain leaving her with only about six months to a year to live. The attending physician while revealing the news also told her that had there been treatment after February 2010 chest X-Ray, she had a chance to live. She told her that it seemed that nobody saw the X-Ray report at that time otherwise there was a possibility that such an earlier diagnosis would have made it possible to achieve a surgical cure. A review of the medical records reveals that she was discharged at noon after the first chest X-Ray while the radiologist report documenting the nodule was written at 2 pm, two hours after she left the hospital.

Over the two years, no one looked at the radiology report and doctors at the Kings County Hospital gave her all drugs related to breathing but never ordered another chest X-Ray or any test. The negligence and carelessness on the part of the doctors at the hospital has not only put her on the death bed but also has brought for her worries regarding the care of ...