Another Day, Another Story about Hazardous New York City Hospitals

As Washington continues to debate how to improve the quality of medical care, and some still insist that lawsuits are a “problem” instead of the degree of medical malpractice itself, we gain new insight into the egregious safety problems at New York City hospitals thanks to the New York Daily News.  The paper just published another series of articles about this topic (here, here, here).

Some of the more notable “lowlights” included a man who sought gastric bypass surgery at Coney Island Hospital and died after a piece of tubing that was mistakenly left inside him caused a fatal infection.  Although the hospital initially reported the incident as merely an “unexpected death,” an internal document obtained by the family after it sued the hospital stated, “Foreign object left in the body during surgical operation.” (The hospital eventually settled the family’s malpractice claim, but refused to admit fault.)

Then there was the death of a woman at Woodhull Hospital who was improperly reconnected to a ventilator after being momentarily disconnected for some X-rays.  Hospital officials initially told the woman’s family she had “received an appropriate level of care during her hospitalization.”  However, with the help of, among other things, documents that emerged from a lawsuit filed by the family, a legal settlement was reached.

Said the deceased woman’s daughter, “They tried to cover it up. They didn't even apologize…I don't trust hospitals anymore."

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