Widow Awarded in Wrongful Death and Malpractice Suit
A common surgery left a woman a widow in 2002. Mrs. Thornburg’s husband underwent surgery to install an automatic implantable cardiovascular defibrillator when the anesthesia team failed to notice his deteriorating vital signs. After a considerable amount of time his lack of breathing led to the deprivation of oxygen to Thomas L. Thornburg’s brain causing severe brain damage. The defibrillator temporarily helped Thornburg’s heart condition, but the 62-year-old man eventually died. When doctors were faced with repairing another cardiac episode they decided not to render medical treatment even though the final episode was treatable. Doctors said Thornburg’s mental state and living conditions influenced their decision. Thornburg’s widow file suit against the hospital where the surgery was performed. In a pre-trial settlement the hospital agreed to pay $115,000 for the wrongful death allegations. A jury’s verdict ruled $1.54 million was to be given. The $1.54 million verdict includes $1.1 million for non-economic losses which exceeds West Virginia's non-economic cap by $850,000, but the case pre-dated medical malpractice reform that decreased the cap from $1 million to $250,000.
