Timothy J.

Timothy arrived at a hospital with complaints of physiological symptoms indicative of a possible spinal cord injury. Defendant’s triage nurse that day and the disposition nurse did not chart and did not communicate such physiological symptoms to the doctor. If the nurses had fulfilled their duties and obligations as Registered Nurses and patient advocates, Timothy could have received the immediate surgical intervention needed.

As if that was not enough, the nurse then fails to continue to assess and assist Timothy and when she became aware that he fell on the emergency room floor, she did not help him nor she get assistance from other staff. Rather, she repeatedly berates him to get up when he could not and calls the police to remove him from the hospital under the false pretense, he had created a “disturbance” and was refusing to leave, which he was not.

On the same day, Timothy was diagnosed as suffering from traumatic paralysis and severe spinal cord injuries. Within a few hours, the Defendants transferred Tim to Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara for surgery. With the assistance of Attorney Todd A. Porter, I resolved the case. This case was litigated for three years in Santa Barbara Superior Court, Cook Division, before the Honorable James F. Rigali. All three defendants threatened malicious prosecution actions at the outset of the litigation. Ultimately, $2,750,000.00 was paid in a hybrid EMTALA/MICRA case, including a $1,750,000.00 settlement on the first day of trial against the nursing defendants partially responsible for the client’s adverse outcome.