A Dallas County jury awarded $21.1 million to the family of a man who was left in a vegetative state after surgery to repair his broken leg in 2017.
The jury found that providers with U.S. Anesthesia Partners of Texas were negligent during the surgery at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.
The victim’s mother, Wilda Jennifer Rojas Graterol, filed a lawsuit against registered nurse Casey Martin, physician Mallorie Cline, U.S. Anesthesia Partners of Texas, and the Baylor University Medical Center.
Carlos Rojas, 32, of Dallas, was hanging Christmas lights in October 2017 when he fell from a ladder, breaking his leg and injuring his knee.
Rojas underwent surgery the next day, requiring general anesthesia. The lawsuit said he was unresponsive after the operation despite a pre-surgery assessment not finding any medical or clinical issues that could put him at risk for complications with anesthesia.
The victim suffered permanent brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain during surgery, which experts say should have been indicated by low blood pressure readings.
While handwritten surgical records show Rojas did not experience any severe blood pressure issues, two nurse anesthetists reportedly gave him multiple doses of medicine to increase his blood pressure.
“The need for multiple doses of vasoactive medications means that Carlos’ blood pressure was much lower than was being recorded by CRNA Martin,” the suit claimed.
“We believe they created the handwritten record to cover up what really happened here, which was that Carlos’ blood pressure dropped and they didn’t address it quickly enough to protect his brain,” attorney Charla Aldous of AldousWalker, the firm representing Rojas and his family, said in a statement.
Evidence presented in the case included records that allegedly showed the nurse anesthetist failed to monitor Rojas’ brain activity during the operation, despite being required to do so.
The nurse also allegedly left the operation room for 12 minutes in the middle of the procedure.
The suit said Dr. Cline, the supervising anesthesiologist over Casey Martin, who was caring for Rojas, was also supervising three other CRNAs in different rooms with different patients.
“The jury sent a message to U.S. Anesthesia Partners and their doctors that allowing one anesthesiologist to supervise multiple CRNAs at the same time may be good for business, but it’s not good for the safety of patients,” attorney Bruce Steckler said in a statement. “The consequences can be tragic.”
The hospital did not print an electronic record of Rojas’ blood pressure but “was spoliated and left to be deleted on the electronic monitor,” the suit said.
“They should have taken care of (Rojas) and sent him on his way,” Walker said in the statement. “Instead, his family is left to care for him and provide all that he needs for the rest of his life because he is incapable of doing things on his own.”