Professional Negligence Law Reporter

Medicine

You must be a Professional Negligence Law Reporter subscriber to access this content.

If you are a member of AAJ's Professional Negligence Section or a subscriber, log in below. Not yet a Section member? Join today!

Join the Professional Negligence Section

Gout misdiagnosis

July/August 2024

Doe, 58, went to an urgent care center, suffering from a fever, worsening pain in his left foot, and an inability to bear weight. Lab tests and a foot X-ray were essentially normal. Doe was given prescriptions for pain and anti-inflammatory medications and instructions to go to a hospital if his symptoms worsened. Early the next day, Doe went to a hospital ER, complaining of swelling in his left foot and throbbing pain. He was diagnosed as having arthritis and gout and prescribed prednisone.

The following afternoon, Doe experienced a change of mental status and returned to the ER, where an examination revealed necrotic tissue on his scrotum. He became hemodynamically unstable, leading to a code blue. After being resuscitated, he was taken to an operating room. He coded again, however, and died.

A lawsuit alleged that the urgent care and ER physicians had misdiagnosed Doe as having gout and failed to diagnose necrotizing fasciitis of the perineum and scrotum. The defense asserted there had been no negligence.

The parties settled before trial for $1 million.

Citation: Doe v. Roe, Confidential Dkt. No. (Mass. Super. Ct. Hampden Cnty. 2023).

Plaintiff counsel: AAJ members William J. Thompson and Andrew C. Meyer, both of Boston.