Jury Awards $44.1 Million Verdict in Failure to Continue Blood Thinner Monitoring

Andrea Tate was 57 when she underwent surgery to remove a noncancerous tumor at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. After the surgery, the staff at the hospital administered Heparin to prevent blood clots. Tate’s coagulation rate was measured using an activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) test.

Over the next six days, four consecutive APTT tests revealed that Tate’s coagulation was moving from the low end of the normal range to the high end of normal. As a result, the hospital staff stopped doing the test.

Days later, Tate suffered a catastrophic brain bleed. Previously a financial services project manager earning $100,000 a year, she is now paralyzed in her right leg and on her left side. She is mostly confined to bed and requires 24-hour care provided by her husband, who has left his job to take care of his wife.

Tate and her husband sued the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and a treating critical care physician alleging negligent administration of Heparin and the choosing not to adequately monitor her while she was taking Heparin.

The jury entered a verdict of $44.1 million finding that the hospital was 65% responsible for her serious injuries; the physician was held responsible at 35%. The attorneys who successfully handled this very compelling case were Robert Ross and Iddo Harel.

Tate v. Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, No. 130901595 (Pa. Ct. Com. Pleas Phila. County, April 27, 2016).

Kreisman Law Offices has been handling hospital negligence cases, medical negligence cases, birth injury cases and physician negligence cases for individuals and families who have been injured or killed by the negligence of a medical provider for more than 40 years, in and around Chicago, Cook County and surrounding areas including Chicago Ridge, Bedford Park, Bridgeview, Merionette Park, Blue Island, Calumet Park, Riverdale, Oak Lawn, Cicero, Joliet, Rolling Meadows, Lemont, Brookfield, Deerfield, Palatine, Chicago (Edgewater, Edgebrook, East Garfield Park, Cragin, Chinatown, Canaryville, Morgan Park, North Town, Pilsen, Princeton Park, Printer’s Row, Ravenswood Gardens), Western Springs and St. Charles, Ill.