A Brooklyn man is bringing a malpractice suit against Coney Island Hospital after a 13-hour delay in emergency treatment led to the amputation of his right leg above the knee. When Delfino Cuautle was hit by a car just after 6:00 a.m., after leaving his job at a grocery store, the response was initially appropriate. Within three minutes of receiving the 911 call, emergency services arrived on the scene and transported the patient to Coney Island Hospital, where he was properly examined.
On initial evaluation, his right leg was cold to the touch, and doctors determined within an hour that there was no blood flow to that leg. Although potentially treatable with emergency vascular surgery, artery blockages can lead to tissue death, or gangrene, if not addressed promptly. Mr. Cuautle’s CT scan showed that he needed such a surgery in order to save his leg.
Coney Island Hospital did not have a vascular surgeon on-site, so doctors called the transfer hotline at Kings County Hospital, only six miles away. The complaint states that calls to the hotline should be picked up by the third ring, but this protocol was not followed and the Coney Island doctors had to leave messages about this medical emergency. Mr. Cuautle was not transferred to Kings County Hospital until after 2:00 p.m., approximately seven hours after the doctors first discovered the emergent situation.
Unfortunately, the problems did not end there. The staff at Coney Island failed to send Mr. Cuautle’s CT scan with him to Kings County and, for some reason, were unable to send it to the other hospital via New York City’s electronic health records system. This meant that the CT scan had to be repeated at Kings County. After another three hours, the patient was finally taken into surgery just after 7:00 p.m. – 13 hours after the accident. At this point, his leg had gone too long without blood and could not be saved.
According to the complaint, New York state law mandates that the transfer of this patient between hospitals should have taken place within 30 minutes. Professional guidelines indicate that the surgery should have taken place within no longer than eight hours. The excessive delays in this case could very well have been the difference for this father of three between recovery and permanent disability.
Sources:
[Man who lost his leg blames Brooklyn hospital in a $24M medical malpractice lawsuit](http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/man-lost-leg-blames-brooklyn-hospital-article-1.2700532)
[Occlusive Peripheral Arterial Disease](http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/heart-and-blood-vessel-disorders/peripheral-arterial-disease/occlusive-peripheral-arterial-disease)
