Tracheostomy: Nursing Care Of Pediatric Patient Found Negligent - Not Suctioned Per Physician's Orders
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
December 1996
Quick Summary: The nursing staff was negligent for not strictly following the physicians orders to suction the patients tracheostomy tube every two hours during the night.
The physician ordered frequent suctioning at regular two-hour intervals to prevent blood and secretions from blocking the patients airway. The nurses failure to suction this patient caused his airway to occlude, leading to irreversible brain damage.
The eighteen-month-old patient was on the pediatric unit recovering from surgery the previous day to repair his cleft palate.
The physician was not faulted for not sending the child to the pediatric intensive care unit. The physicians not ordering a pulse oximeter was also ruled not negligent, as the nurses should have suctioned the patient per the physicians orders without relying on oximeter readings or alarms.
Nursing care on a general pediatric unit should have been sufficient for this patients needs.
COURT OF APPEALS OF IDAHO, 1996.The hospital tacitly acknowledged that its nursing staff was guilty of a substantial departure from accepted standards of nursing practice, when it agreed to pay a settlement to parents whose child had suffered irreversible brain damage because the physicians orders were not followed for suctioning of the childs tracheostomy tube every two hours during the night.
The physicians legal representatives did not offer to settle with the parents. The case went to trial against the physician alone. The jurys civil verdict exonerated the physician from fault.
The Court of Appeals of Idaho threw out the lower courts decision to disregard the jurys verdict and to order a new trial. In effect, the Court of Appeals was satisfied the physician had a valid defense to civil allegations of professional negligence, his defense being that the negligence of the hospitals staff nurses was the sole cause of the patients injuries.
The physician was justified in believing that adequate nursing care for this patient should have been available on a hospitals general pediatric floor. That is, had the nurses followed accepted standards of nursing practice, by strictly following the physicians orders to suction this patient every two hours throughout the night, the court was satisfied the patients injuries would not have happened.
It was not incumbent upon the physician, under the circumstances, to have sent the child to the pediatric intensive care unit for specialized nursing care. Nor was the physician at fault for not ordering a pulse oximeter with an auditory alarm for decreased oxygen saturation. The evidence the court accepted was that the nurses failure to follow the physicians orders and accepted standards of nursing practice was the cause of the patients injuries.
Keyser vs. Garner, 922 P. 2d 409 (Idaho App., 1996).More from nursinglaw.com
http://www.nursinglaw.com/trachetube.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/tracheostomy-stoma-site-bleeding.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/tracheostomy-care-negligence.pdf
http://www.nursinglaw.com/intubation-supplies-ICU.htm