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Orange County Man Awarded $6 Million in Medical Malpractice Suit Filed by Lopez, Hodes, Restaino, Milman & Skikos NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 26, 2005-- Defendants University of California, UCSF Medical Center and American Mobile Nurses Inc. Offer Settlement in a Case Involving Medical Negligence A 44-year-old brain-injured quadriplegic was awarded $6 million in a medical malpractice suit filed by the Newport Beach law firm Lopez, Hodes, Restaino, Milman & Skikos. The defendants in the case agreed to pay the substantial settlement following a second day of mediation with a San Francisco judge on June 20, 2005. Four years ago, Spencer Sullivan was a 41-year-old registered nurse earning $130,000 a year at the Fountain Valley Regional Medical Center. For several years he had suffered from mild neck pain, and in the fall of 2001 his discomfort level increased. Upon being diagnosed with a persistent disc protrusion, Spencer elected to undergo routine surgery at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center. According to the suit, the surgery on December 26, 2001 was uneventful. However, in the hours that followed, conflicting medication orders and lack of monitoring by Spencer's primary nurse contributed to a narcotic overdose that led to respiratory failure and hypoxic brain injury. Three months later, Spencer left the hospital in a chronic vegetative state and now requires 24/7 care. His elderly parents moved from their retirement home in Atlanta, Georgia to Orange County in order to care for their son. "What happened to Spencer and his family was avoidable," said Daniel M. Hodes, the attorney who represented the victim. "In the twelve hours after surgery, there were numerous opportunities to identify and prevent his overmedication. Ultimately it was lack of communication and the failure of Spencer's nurse to follow basic orders that led to this result." Hodes took the depositions of more than 20 witnesses involved in Spencer's care. Although it was not written in the medical chart, Hodes discovered through the depositions that when the nurses were unable to arouse Spencer at 6:00 AM on December 27, 2001, they delayed for 15 minutes in applying an appropriate ventilator assistive device. There was also a 15-minute delay in giving the appropriate narcotic reversal medications. "Despite the conflicting medication orders and lack of proper nursing monitoring that night, Spencer would have escaped injury had the UCSF charge nurse done her job correctly on the morning of the 27th," Hodes said. Defendants in the case included the UCSF Medical Center, Regents of the University of California and American Mobile Nurses Inc., the company that employed the visiting R.N. who was responsible for Spencer's post-operative care. The settlement will go towards the reimbursement of Spencer's parents, who have incurred more than $500,000 in out-of-pocket expenses related to his care, and towards the long-term treatment of Spencer, who will eventually be required to move into a 24/7 patient care facility. He is not expected to recover from his neurological injuries.
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