Late-Diagnosis
Claim Yields Record Accord
(As
Reported in the Law Bulletin)
By Elizabeth Neff
Law Bulletin staff writer
A former Chicago elementary school teacher rendered disabled
after she suffered a brain aneurysm has received a $4 million
settlement in a medical negligence suit against her health
care provider.
The settlement, reached on behalf of 46-year-old Nancy Sea,
marks the largest reported Illinois settlement for a delay
in the diagnosis of a ruptured brain aneurysm with vasospasm,
according to the Illinois Jury Verdict Reporter.
Cook County Associate Judge Miriam Ellen Harrison of the
Probate Division approved the settlement terms on Thursday,
said Sea's attorney, Kurt D. Lloyd.
Although the settlement prevents Lloyd from identifying
the defendants in the case, court records list the defendants
as Humana Health Plan, Inc., d/b/a Sykes Center, Dr. Mark
Karides and Kathy Merrill, a nurse.
Sea was shoveling snow on the front walk of her Chicago
home on Jan. 10, 1995, before leaving for work at Holden
elementary School, 1104 W. 31st St., when she experienced
a sudden, severed headache and dizziness, said Lloyd.
Sea vomited, called in sick at work, and then went to bed,
he said.
When Sea's husband, Kevin, arrived at the home at 4:30 p.m.
that day, Sea told him her neck was stiff and that her headache
was "the worst of her life," said Lloyd.
Kevin Sea than called the family's medical clinic and obtained
an after-hours appointment at 7 p.m., Lloyd said.
An on-call physician who was an internist examined Sea and
diagnosed her with the flu, said Lloyd. Sea's chart
did not show she was complaining of a headache, he said.
Five days after seeing the physician, Sea began slurring
her speech and dropping things held in her right hand, said
Lloyd. When she was taken to the emergency room at
Michael Reese Hospital, a CT scan of her head revealed a
ruptured aneurysm in the left middle cerebral artery, he
said.
An arteriogram performed the next day showed severe vasospasm,
which causes untreatable, irreversible brain damage, said
Lloyd. Sea is no longer able to speak and has partial
paralysis to her right side, he said. She is able
to walk with a cane and feed, bathe and dress herself.
Sea never returned to her work as a teacher, said Lloyd.
Lloyd contended that Sea's initial physician should have
recognized signs and symptoms of a ruptured aneurysm and
ordered at CT Scan of her brain to rule out cerebral bleeding.
If Sea's condition had been diagnosed promptly, she would
have undergone a cerebral artery clipping before the vasospasm
began, reducing the likelihood of a permanent stroke-like
vascular injury, he said.
"This was an unfortunate case in which
Humana has agreed to settle this issue for the patient,"
said Humana spokesman Dick Brown. "the settlement
has nothing to do with economic incentives for the doctor
to withold appropriate care."
Karides obtained his physician's license
in December 1990 and has never been disciplined, according
to records maintained by the Illinois Department of Professional
Regulation.
The settlement was negotiated over a period
of two weeks, said Lloyd, and talks began after he disclosed
that Dr. John M. Tew Jr. of the University of Cincinnati's
Mayfield Clinic, a former president of the American Academy
of Neurological Surgery, had agreed to testify on Sea's
behalf.
Court records show that Sea received $4 million
in cash under the settlement, along with a waiver of $188,719.33
in medical expenses.
The defendants in the case were represented
by James M. Bream of Querrey & Harrow. Bream was
not available for immediate comment Tuesday.
The case is Nancy Sea and Devin Sea v.
Humana Health Plan Inc. d/b/a Sykes Center, et al.,
No. 96 L 10751.
