The family of a young girl with epilepsy who spent seven years living with an electrode that was mistakenly left on the surface of her brain has confidentially settled a lawsuit with the at-fault hospital for $730,000, the family’s attorney reports.
Hinson
Brick Hinson of Finkel Law Firm in Columbia said that the girl, now 14, underwent a brain mapping study in 2010 to locate the origin of her seizures. The surgery involved partially opening the girl’s skull and placing electrodes onto the surface of her brain. Her skull was then closed, with wires attached to the electrodes pointing out her head. She was monitored in the hospital for a month as health care providers studied her seizures and the location of their origin.
When the study was complete, another surgery was performed to remove the electrodes, Hinson said. As the years went by, the girl’s seizures continued, and she had significant developmental delays, cognitive impairments, and bad headaches.
In 2017, her parents took her to a different medical group that performed imaging studies, which revealed an electrode on the left frontal and parietal lobe of her brain, Hinson said. She underwent surgery to remove it, and her family brought medical negligence claims against the hospital relating to the electrode, the damage it caused, and the failure to diagnose its presence years earlier.
“My grandmother often reminded her hurried grandchildren that ‘a stitch in time saves nine,’ and the facts of this case certainly demonstrate her wisdom,” Hinson said.
Hinson said that had the surgical team taken a few seconds to count how many electrodes had been removed, they would have realized that one electrode still remained.
“The operative report noted that ‘sponge and needle counts were correct,’ but it seems that no one bothered to count the number of electrodes that had been removed, and such a simple act as counting would have prevented this terrible error,” Hinson said.
Due to a confidentiality agreement, other details about the case, including the identities of the defendants and their attorneys, were not available.
SETTLEMENT REPORT — MEDICAL MALPRACTICE
Amount: $730,000
Injuries alleged: Neurologic and cognitive difficulties, headaches
Case Name: Withheld
Court: Withheld
Date of settlement: March 2020
Special damages: $54,642 (medical bills)
Attorney for plaintiff: Brink Hinson of Finkel Law Firm in Columbia
Attorneys for defendant: Withheld