Professional Negligence Law Reporter

James Eveland, 50, experienced shortness of breath. His cardiologist sent him to the Jefferson Torresdale Hospital ER, where a triage nurse documented that he was short of breath and pale and had a history of chronic blood clots in his leg. An EKG showed heart strain. Over five hours later, he underwent a chest X-ray and blood tests, including a D-dimer. A doctor in training later told Eveland, whose breathing rate had increased, that the chest X-ray ruled out congestive heart failure. The supervising ER physician then ordered a CT angiogram after the D-dimer came back nine times higher than normal. Within three hours, before the CT was performed, Eveland suffered seizure-like activity and became unresponsive. Staff called a code blue and administered tPA approximately 30 minutes later, but Eveland died. An autopsy revealed that he had suffered a pulmonary embolism and fatal cardiac arrhythmia. Eveland is survived by his wife and two teenage sons.

Eveland’s wife, individually and on behalf of his estate, sued the hospital, alleging it was liable for its nurse’s failure to conduct triage within the standard of care, recognize that Eveland was in danger of suffering a life-threatening pulmonary embolism, and assign him a level of severity that would have led to timely diagnosis and treatment. The plaintiffs also asserted that the supervising ER physician was liable for failing to timely diagnose the embolism, including treating Eveland with blood thinners in the eight hours before the CT scan was ordered.

The jury awarded the plaintiffs more than $2 million, apportioning fault at 90% to the hospital and 10% to the physician.

Citation: Eveland v. Aria Health, No. 000912 (Pa. Ct. Com. Pl. Phila. Cnty. Mar. 25, 2024).

Plaintiff counsel: AAJ member Anthony J. Baratta and Andrew P. Baratta, both of Huntington Valley, Pa.

Plaintiff experts: Neel Shah, hematology, Chicago; Susan Abookire, hospital standard of care, Boston; Harry Kamerow, pathology, State College, Pa.; Eric Nazziola, emergency medicine, Paramus, N.J.; Jose Maria, nursing, East Elmhurst, N.Y.; and Andrew Verzilli, economics, Annie Steinberg, psychology, and Rajnikant Shaw, cardiology, all of Philadelphia.

Defense experts: Elliot Gerber, cardiology, Berwyn, Pa.; Paul Kinniry, pulmonology, Philadelphia; James Stone, cardiac pathology, Boston; and James Stavros, economics, Westmont, N.J.