MALPRACTICE CASE BRINGS $87,000 AWARD

The Medical University of South Carolina must pay more than $87,000 in attorney fees and costs after a court found that employees altered paperwork, provided false testimony and took too long to produce medical records for the family of a deceased patient.

In a court sanction dated Sept. 28, the Charleston County Court of Common Pleas found that the hospital mishandled records for 49-year-old Charles Mikell, a patient who went to the hospital on Oct. 1, 2010, for a colonoscopy.

While under anesthesia for the procedure, Mikell’s blood oxygen level “dropped to dangerous levels” and he ultimately went into cardiac arrest, according to the sanction.
Mikell was rescued from cardiac arrest but stayed hospitalized at MUSC until his death on Jan. 2, 2011.

According to the sanction, Mikell’s family noted several discrepancies when they obtained his medical chart, including eight minutes of missing blood oxygen data on an anesthesia report.

 

Thanks to Derrek Asberry and THE POST AND COURIER