The surgeons and anesthesiologists were shocked at the patient’s death. The patient had seemed relatively healthy and there were no signs of any issues until his sudden hypotensive episode followed by cardiac arrest.
They hypothesized that he may have had a cardiac event or pulmonary embolism, causing his death.
Here we will cut back to the anesthesiologist’s deposition. She describes talking to the neurosurgeon on the phone several days after the patient’s death. The neurosurgeon had just spoken with the medical examiner. No pulmonary embolism had been found. After taking the phone call, she was thinking about the patient’s mysterious death, puzzled by the lack of a clear explanation. In that moment, she made a terrible epiphany about the true cause of his death.
The final autopsy report came back several days later. The final results confirmed her suspicion. The patient died of a massive lidocaine overdose, administered in error.
The conclusions of the autopsy are shown below, exclusively for Med Mal Reviewer subscribers.
The entire autopsy report is available as a free download.