August
27 , 2003
FAMILY
OF FIREFIGHTER KILLED AT ST. MARGARET MERCY HOSPITAL FILES
WRONGFUL DEATH SUIT
The Law Firm of Lloyd & Cavanagh filed a civil lawsuit
today in the Circuit Court of Cook County against St. Margaret
Mercy Hospital and Cardinal Health, Inc. on behalf of the
family of Michael Magdziarz, age 52. The case is pending
before Judge Kathy Flanagan, Case No. 03 L 10332.
St.
Margaret has a sister hospital, St. James Hospital in Chicago
Heights, IL that treats thousands of Chicago area residents
each year. On January 7, 2002, Michael Magdziarz was a patient
in the intensive care unit of St. Margaret's recovering
from successful heart bypass surgery. Cardinal Health, Inc.,
a corporate giant in the healthcare industry, operated a
pharmacy in the hospital which provided medication for St.
Margaret's patients including Magdziarz. An ICU nurse confused
Magdziarz's medication, a benign drug called "vancomyacin"
with another patient's medication, a deadly drug called
"atracurium," and after the wrong drug was administered
to Magdziarz, he slowly stopped breathing and ultimately
died. The drug atracurium is a paralytic which causes the
patient's respiratory system to stop spontaneously functioning.
Michael,
a Captain for the Hammond Fire Department is survived by
his wife, DONNA MAGDZIARZ, his son, JEFF MAGDZIARZ (age
30) and his daughter, LAURA SPISAK (age 32).
The
Suit Alleges Lack of Proper Labeling
One day after Magdzriarz's death, the defendants, St. Margaret's
and Cardinal Healthcare, changed their labeling procedures.
The pharmacy now has a "Code Orange" policy, which
requires that all drugs in the same class as Atracurium
must carry an orange label on the I.V. bag so that nurses
and other personnel do not confuse it with other drugs.
Before this incident, St. Margaret's and Cardinal Healthcare
were simply using white labeling for all patients and all
drugs, creating mix-up accidents waiting to happen.
One of the family's attorneys, Kurt D. Lloyd of Lloyd &
Cavanagh, stated:
"Medication
errors account for 5 to 10 percent of fatal errors in
hospitals. Despite this well-known error rate, St. Margaret's
and Cardinal Health did not have any safe medication delivery
systems in place. No color coding system or bar coding
system was in place to prevent medication errors. These
practices are followed in major hospitals throughout the
country. This is astounding. This tragic death was avoidable."
The
$250,000 Indiana Malpractice Cap
In Indiana, there is a medical malpractice law capping the
hospital's liability at $250,000. Under Indiana law, once
the hospital pays $250,000, the family can petition the
Indiana Medical Malpractice Compensation fund for an additional
maximum sum of $1,000,000. However, the lawyers for the
Magdziarz family have alleged that this is a product liability
case involving negligent pharmacy labeling. Pharmacists
and pharmacy practice are not subject to the Indiana malpractice
cap. Nor are products liability suits subject to the cap.
Attorney Timothy J. Cavanagh noted:
"Juries have awarded millions of dollars to the families
of similar victims. This cap points out the unfairness of
medical malpractice caps, which some in Congress have unsuccessfully
tried to pass on a nationwide basis."
Attorneys,
Kurt Lloyd and Tim Cavanagh discussed the lawsuit along
with family members at a 2:30 p.m. press conference August
27, 2003 at Lloyd & Cavanagh, 200 W. Madison St. Suite
2050 Chicago.
