Diagnostic Error: $800K Settlement for Failure to Diagnose Pulmonary Embolism

A Pennsylvania hospital has entered into a settlement with the widow of a man who died of a pulmonary embolism "mere minutes" after a follow-up appointment in its trauma clinic.

According to published reports, the patient, a 60-year-old man, was treated at the defendant hospital for fractured ribs with hemopneumothorax (air and blood in the chest cavity) after being involved in a motor vehicle accident. Published reports state that although the patient had a history of rib fractures—with pulmonary...