Hospital Fails to Diagnose Preeclampsia in Pregnant Patient

This case takes place involves a pregnant patient who had a history of preeclampsia. The patient had been observed by her doctor as having high blood pressure and a trace of protein in her urine. The patient went to her doctor later complaining of diarrhea and a fever and told the doctor she had been experiencing severe abdominal pains for several days. The patient was given medication and when it did not help her pains, she went to the hospital. A nurse at the hospital found that the patient was having upper abdominal pain and the patient was admitted to the obstetrics department. The patient told the nurse she was experiencing nausea and headache. The patient also could not urinate and her blood pressure was found to be elevated. The nurse did not give this information to the patient’s doctor right away. When the doctor was told about the patient’s symptoms some time later, he diagnosed her with a gastric disturbance resulting from flu and dehydration. The nurse was told to keep monitoring the patient’s blood pressure. The nurse failed to report to the doctor that the patient’s blood pressure continued to be elevated. The nurse later entered the patient’s room and found her in a grand mal seizure. The patient suffered paralysis of her left side as the result of the seizure and lost some of her neurological and muscular faculties. The patient sued the hospital claiming that they were negligent in causing the seizure. An expert in obstetrics and perinatology was retained in this issue.

Question(s) For Expert Witness

1. Can a pregnant patient with a history of preeclampsia sue a hospital if the patient suffers an eclamptic seizure?

Expert Witness Response

Preeclampsia is a complication of pregnancy associated with weakening of the kidneys and spilled protein in the urine. Symptoms of preeclampsia include elevated blood pressure, upper abdominal pain, and headache. In pregnancy cases like this one, hospital staff must exercise due care in keeping the patient under close observation and in making the appropriate report of the patient's preeclamptic symptoms to the doctor in order to meet the proper standard of care. The nurse in this case failed to meet the proper standard of care because she did not recognize the major obstetrical complications that put the patient at risk of eclampsia and seizure. In order for the hospital staff to have met the proper standard of care in this case, the nurse should have monitored the patient more closely and reported her elevated blood pressure to the patient’s doctor so that the seizure could have been prevented.