Medical Malpractice – $500,000 Verdict in Jefferson County, Alabama

In January 2018, a Jefferson County jury returned a verdict in favor of a 26-year-old disabled woman who died unnecessarily in 2012 after St. Vincent’s Hospital East failed to call her critical labs directly to her physician, as its own written policy required in 2012. The jury awarded $500,000. The case for the family was tried by Marsh, Rickard & Bryan attorneys David Marsh, Rip Andrews, and Ben Ford. Aleshia Neal was severely mentally handicapped and suffered from a seizure disorder. She lived in a group home in Birmingham. Months before her death, Aleshia had lab work done at St. Vincent’s Hospital East as an outpatient. The results showed high electrolyte sodium levels. Those critical lab values were never communicated to Aleshia’s main doctor so they went untreated. The same lab work was repeated two months later, and the results again showed critically high electrolyte sodium levels. In fact, the sodium level, in particular, had worsened. These second critical lab values didn’t reach Aleshia’s main doctor either, so they, too, went unaddressed. Aleshia died shortly after that from complications of an electrolyte imbalance and her blood showed elevated sodium and chloride levels. Evidence at trial showed that St. Vincent’s East, in order to charge for the labs ir performed, was required by industry groups to have a written policy in place for communicating critical labs. St. Vincent’s East’s policies required that outpatient labs be communicated to the ordering physician. Simply put, the lab missed two opportunities to save Aleshia’s life. Instead, the lab called the critical values to the group home headquarters, violating its policy and adding an unnecessary intermediary to the chain of communication. The case against the group home was resolved prior to trial.