$4.85 Million Settlement in Failure to Diagnose and Treat Aortic Dissection

Edward Peers was eating dinner with his family when he felt a jolt of pain in his back and radiating chest pain. He was taken to Doylestown Hospital where he was examined by an emergency department physician who ordered two EKGs.

The test results were not concerning for acute coronary syndrome, and a chest x-ray did not reveal any acute findings. Nevertheless, while at the emergency department, Peers experienced shortness of breath, nausea and bradycardia.

The emergency department doctor allegedly diagnosed nonspecific chest pain and heat exhaustion. The doctor ordered that Peers be discharged after receiving IV hydration.

Peers died the following morning. An autopsy revealed he had suffered an aortic dissection. Peers was survived by his 11 children.

The Peers estate sued the ER doctor, an emergency medical group and the hospital, alleging that they chose not to timely diagnose and treat the aortic dissection. The Peers estate maintained that the ER doctor should have ordered a stat CT scan of Peers’s chest, which would have identified the dissection and prompted emergency surgery.

Before trial, the parties settled for $4.85 million.

The attorneys successfully handling this tragic case for the Peers family were Robert F. Morris, Seth D. Wilson and Joshua J. Knett.

Deger v. Doylestown Hospital, No. 2016-05468 (Pa. Ct. Com. Pl. Bucks County).

Kreisman Law Offices has been handling medical malpractice lawsuits, wrongful death cases, misdiagnosis lawsuits, and birth injury cases for individuals, families and loved ones who have been harmed, injured or died as a result of the carelessness or negligence of a medical provider for more than 45 years in and around Chicago, Cook County and its surrounding areas, including Mount Prospect, Buffalo Grove, Elgin, Geneva, Bridgeview, Alsip, Naperville, Aurora, Romeoville, Morton Grove, Chicago (Near North Side, South Loop, Near South Side, Chinatown, Douglas, McKinley Park, Little Village, Gage Park, Brighton Park, South Side, Wood Lawn, Lincoln Park, Jefferson Park), Schiller Park, River Grove, and Northlake, Illinois.

Robert D. Kreisman has been an active member of the Illinois and Missouri bars since 1976.