Jury found it was appropriate for a physician to place a patient with multiple medical problems in a non-telemetry bed, where patient subsequently died from a sudden arrhythmia

John Langhenry and Melissa Gordon successfully defended an internist where the plaintiff argued that because of the decedent’s multiple medical problems, including diabetes, hypothyroidism, an EKG that showed abnormalities but, was consistent with prior EKG’s for this patient, in conjunction with the prescription of IV narcotics, should have been on a telemetry bed that would have measured her cardiac and oxymetric status and would have alerted the nurses when the patient experienced a fatal cardiac arrest.  Mr. Langhenry and Ms. Gordon established that there was nothing during the admission that suggested that the decedent was having any worsening cardiac issues or any difficulties that required that she be placed on a monitored bed.  The defense further demonstrated, even if the decedent had been on a monitored bed, it is unlikely that she would have survived the fatal cardiac arrest.