Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog
New questions are being raised about the death of a Dallas man, who died after waiting 19 hours in Parkland Hospital’s emergency room. See earlier story.
The questions come from another emergency room patient who sat with the dying man for ten hours. The woman says what she saw that night two weeks ago was, in her opinion, the unconscionable misdiagnosis and mistreatment of a man who suffered for 19 hours before dying.
The man complained of so much pain that according to Parkland records, on a scale of ten, he was a ten. The reason, a perforated hernia that he at one point showed to the stranger sitting next to him.
“And at that point I could see the intestines coming through his abdomen,” she said.
Over the course of ten hours, the woman who befriended the dying man says she became increasingly upset at the lack of attention to a man who was in obvious physical pain.
Parkland President and CEO Ron Anderson says the hospital is not only remorseful about Herrera’s death, it is conducting a review of the timeline and medical records to see if it could have been prevented.
Legal Analysis: A wrongful death case. When you go to the ER you do not expect to die waiting for treatment. The biggest problem here with this wrongful death for which Parkland is liable, is that the maximum money damages the family can get is $100,000. Because Parkland Hospital is a government public hospital and such enjoys sovereign immunity. It is protected by the Texas legislature under the Texas tort claim act.
Crocodile tears by Parkland.