Husbands Unnecessary Death Spurs Malpractice Suit
An Omaha, NE woman lost her husband of 57 years to a medical error on March 12, 2007. Earlier the previous day Jim Karaus and his wife Mary were watching TV when he started talking in nonsense words. Mary called the paramedics and they rushed him to Bergan Mercy Hospital. Jim had suffered a minor stroke. Doctors
approached Mary and asked her about giving him a dose of T.P.A. a drug that can minimize the effects of stroke. She agreed. “Next thing I knew, the nurse came in and she was crying and the doctor come right in and they said they'd given Jim the wrong medicine,” said Mary. The doctor prescribed T.P.A., but a nurse wrote T.N.K. in another box. T.N.K. is a drug for heart attack patients not strokes. The emergency room record stated, “Nurse inquired 'do you want T.N.K. given? Both M.D.'s stated yes.” Mary said she stayed at the hospital while the staff monitored her husband in case there were complications. When it looked like Jim was in the clear, Mary went home. Later Jim
’s lungs started to bleed and he died shortly after. The family filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the hospital in hopes of preventing the same outcome in future stroke patients.
