Pinellas County Husband Serves as Personal Representative for Estate of His Wife

The Pinellas County Husband qualified as a survivor of his wife under Florida’s Wrongful Death Act. The decedent wife was a hospital patient at the local defendant hospital in December of 2018 when she presented symptoms of congestive heart failure, such as shortness of breath. After a consultation with a cardiologist, she underwent a left heart catheterization under a normal mental health status. Later, when she went to the post-anesthesia care area, the nurse misinterpreted the decedent’s mental health state as unchanged from pre-procedure condition. She had been negligently given a medication which masked her stroke symptoms due to nursing staff reporting inaccurate clinical pictures to the doctors. At no point did the defendant hospital’s staff call a stroke alert to have her tested due to her ongoing symptoms. Critical stroke treatment opportunities were missed as a result of this negligence, and a later MRI showed evidence of brain ischemia. She remained combative and this delay in proper treatment ultimately eliminated the opportunity to properly diagnose and treat her stroke symptoms.