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Jury awards $636,640 in hospital death Woman, 44, had heart attack, died in waiting room at Sacred Heart in Allentown. By Debbie Garlicki Of The Morning Call A Lehigh County jury that found Sacred Heart Hospital in Allentown was liable for the death of a 44-year-old mother of two children recently awarded the woman's estate $636,640. Douglas J. Barron, 49, as administrator of his wife's estate, alleged that Janet V. Barron died on Dec. 13, 2003, in the emergency waiting area because of delayed diagnosis and care of a severely blocked artery. On May 18, the jury found that the hospital was negligent and that the negligence caused Janet Barron's death. The jury didn't award any individual damages to Douglas Barron, of Allentown, even though jurors found that he suffered emotional distress from witnessing his wife's death in the waiting room. Jurors said he didn't suffer physical manifestations of the distress. After the eight-day trial, the jury awarded $511,640 in the wrongful death action to compensate for the loss of services Janet Barron would have provided her husband and daughters and cost of the funeral. In the survival action, the jury gave the estate $125,000 for Janet Barron's pain and suffering. One of Douglas Barron's lawyers, Stephen L. Shields, said the hospital agreed to pay the verdict and will not file an appeal. The estate will not get the entire award because lawyers' fees and the costs of the litigation, such as fees for expert witnesses, will be paid from it. The hospital, represented by lawyers Candy Barr Heimbach and Michelle L. Wilson, denied negligence. Many expert witnesses testified on both sides in the trial before Judge Lawrence J. Brenner. Shields and co-counsel Fredrick E. Charles alleged that Janet Barron, who had a heart attack, would have had 'a significantly increased' rate of survival if the hospital had not delayed care and had done proper diagnostic tests. Janet Barron returned home after walking her dog on Dec. 13, 2003, and started vomiting, according to the complaint. Douglas Barron called 911 when his wife said she had shortness of breath, tingling in her hands, profuse sweating and dizziness, her lawyers said. Paramedics thought Janet Barron may have been experiencing a severe case of acid reflux, Shields said. The hospital said paramedics were able to resolve Janet Barron's symptoms of hyperventilation and noted no chest, neck or back pain, no shortness of breath and stable vital signs. Janet Barron was taken to the hospital, and a paramedic gave an emergency room triage nurse a summary of her symptoms, according to the complaint. The nurse, Shields alleged, told Janet Barron to sit in the waiting room and did not do any kind of medical screening to determine if Janet Barron had an emergency condition. In a pretrial memorandum filed in court, the hospital said a paramedic reported Janet Barron had recent, stable vital signs. 'Due to the busy night and lack of an available bed, the providers took down the information and directed that Mrs. Barron wait in the waiting room,' the memorandum said. After Janet Barron and her husband waited for 25 minutes in the room, Janet Barron collapsed, and efforts to resuscitate her were unsuccessful, her lawyers said. Shields said Janet Barron had a massive cardiac arrest from 85 percent blockage of an artery. Medical experts who testified for the estate said that proper medical procedures require a diagnosis to rule out the worst possibilities first and that the hospital should have determined first whether Janet Barron was having a heart attack. The estate's experts said Janet Barron had a 95 percent survival rate with no heart damage if there had been a prompt diagnosis and medications administered, Shields said. The hospital's experts defended the conduct of the emergency room staff, based on the complaints Janet Barron had, her history and her condition in the emergency room.
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