Aiken couple awarded more than $3 million in lawsuit against Augusta hospital
A Richmond County jury this week awarded an Aiken couple more than $3 million for injuries sustained by one of them during an outpatient procedure in November 2016 at Trinity Hospital, now Augusta Hospital LLC.
In a complaint filed in Richmond County Superior Court in June 2018, Willie Wright alleged he visited the hospital on Nov. 3, 2016 for insertion of a filter designed to trap blood clots during an upcoming gastric bypass procedure.
The filter was misplaced due to poor visualization resulting from the equipment provided by the hospital, according to the complaint. When the physician tried to remove and replace the filter, the removal apparatus became entangled with the filter and removal was unsuccessful.
Wright was moved to another operating room for better visualization, but the machine overheated and shut down, according to the complaint. The procedure was aborted, pending repair of the machine.
Wright was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit and the removal was completed the next day, but during the wait, Wright suffered respiratory distress resulting in the need for a ventilator and a tracheostomy; an adverse reaction to Heparin resulting in a stroke that caused foot drop; pressure sores; profound weakness and disability; and a multitude of other injuries that resulted in a prolonged hospitalization and rehabilitation, according to the complaint.
Wright's medical bills approximated $650,000, according to a news release from Wright's attorneys, Ken Connor and Caleb Connor. Trinity Hospital charged the Wrights insurance more than $440,000.
In addition to alleging Trinity Hospital used the wrong equipment for the procedure, the Wrights claimed the hospital violated the manufacturer's operating instructions and warnings, which resulted in the machine's failure.
"The evidence showed that there had been multiple issues with the cooling apparatus of the machine that was used and the hospital should have anticipated the problems that led to the shut down," according to the news release. "Notwithstanding the foreseeable failure of the machine, however, the hospital had no-backup plan in place, even though such a plan was recommended by the manufacturer."
Willie Wright was awarded $3.2 million and his wife was awarded $308,000, according to the Connors.
The complaint also initially listed Dr. Dennis H. Jones as a plaintiff, in addition to the hospital, but Ken Connor said the case against the doctor was "resolved" prior to the recent court decision. He could not confirm if that meant there was a settlement.
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This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Aiken couple wins lawsuit against Trinity Hospital in Augusta
