New York Medical Malpractice Attorneys

$750,000-A boy sustained permanent injuries - Failure to diagnose herpes encephalitis

F&F# 99126A

MEDICAL MALPRACTICE ATTORNEY - CLINIC FAILED TO DIAGNOSE HERPES ENCEPHALITIS

Settlement: $750,000

Injuries:

• Permanent injury to the right side of body
• Severely restricted movement in right hand

Facts:

The infant plaintiff was diagnosed with a herpes simplex 2 virus on his hand at 5 months of age. Approximately two months later, the infant presented to the Nagle Pediatric clinic at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center with complaints of an elevated fever for a couple of days and episodes of vomiting. He was diagnosed with gastroenteritis and was sent home. The following evening the infant was observed to have seizures. When he presented to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center he was found to have hemorrhagic lesions on his brain. He was also noted to have a herpes simplex 2 lesion on his finger during his hospitalization. The infant plaintiff continued to suffer from seizures and was eventually placed on coumadin therapy for a protein s deficiency in his blood.

Fitzgerald & Fitzgerald successfully argued that the Nagle Clinic failed to diagnose that the plaintiff had herpes encephalitis. It was Fitzgerald & Fitzgerald's position that had the plaintiff been given acyclovir when he presented to the Nagle Clinic with symptoms of a high fever and vomiting--which were signs of herpes encephalitis--he would not have sustained the permanent injury to his brain.