Montco jury awards $5 million in hospital death
A Montgomery County jury on Friday awarded $5 million to the family of an 88-year-old man who died at Abington Memorial Hospital in 2008 after a misplaced feeding tube filled his lungs with fluid.
A Montgomery County jury on Friday awarded $5 million to the family of an 88-year-old man who died at Abington Memorial Hospital in 2008 after a misplaced feeding tube filled his lungs with fluid.
In what one of the defense attorneys described as a "shocking" verdict, the jury found Friday afternoon that radiologists had misread an X-ray, causing the feeing tube to fill Marvin Summerford's left lung for hours.
"Marvin Summerford's lung was pumped full of feeding solution, in essence slowly drowning him while he was fully conscious and his arms were restrained," said Michael A. Trunk, of Kline & Specter, the attorney who represented Summerford's family.
At trial, defense attorneys presented experts who testified that Summerford had a low chance of surviving that hospital visit even without the misplaced feeding tube. Summerford also suffered from pneumonia and dementia, and had a feeding tube because he had no gag or swallowing reflex, said Nancy Raynor, a lawyer for the Radiology Group of Abington.
"We're talking about an 88-year-old with dementia confined to a nursing home, not doing well medically," Raynor said. "So it was quite a shocking verdict."
The doctor who misread the X-ray admitted the mistake and has been apologetic since Summerford's death, said Raynor, who tried to settle the case before trial.
"This was an unfortunate outcome for the family," the hospital, now Abington Hospital-Jefferson Health, said in a statement Monday. "However, the hospital is disappointed in the award and is considering posttrial options."
Summerford's daughter, Anita E. Tong-Summerford, filed suit against the hospital and the radiology practice in 2010.
Summerford was transported from a nursing home to the hospital in November 2008 for episodes of fainting, according to the lawsuit. He died less than a week later.
Summerford initially was given a feeding tube that he removed, Trunk said. He was then restrained and given a second feeding tube, which was found through an X-ray to have been improperly placed.
A third tube was inserted, and while doctors thought it was entering Summerford's stomach, the X-ray was read incorrectly, the suit claimed, and the tube filled his left lung with feeding fluid for 12 hours. Hospital staff members were unable to resuscitate him.
The jury agreed with his family, awarding $1.5 million for wrongful death claims and $3.5 million under the survival act to Summerford's estate.
610-313-8116 @Lmccrystal