Cardiac arrest is the sudden cessation of effective heart function, and in the malpractice context it features both as the catastrophic endpoint of an unrecognized deterioration and as an event whose management is itself alleged to have fallen below the standard of care. It arises across many clinical settings, including the emergency department, the operating room, the obstetric suite, and the general ward.
Litigation arising from cardiac arrest commonly concerns failure to recognize and respond to warning signs of deterioration, inadequate monitoring of an at-risk patient, delay in initiating or escalating resuscitation, and complications of anaesthesia or sedation. The standard of care is proven through expert evidence appropriate to the setting, and causation often turns on whether earlier recognition or a more competent response would have prevented death or the hypoxic injury that can follow a prolonged arrest.
Posts tagged Cardiac Arrest analyze Ontario decisions involving the recognition, prevention, and management of cardiac arrest in the course of medical care.
A settlement on behalf of the family of a man admitted with a heart attack who died overnight after his telemetry alarms went unanswered by hospital staff.
The Court of Appeal affirmed a $12 million plaintiff verdict for catastrophic maternal brain injury, rejecting the defence theory of amniotic fluid embolism.
A young mother left in a permanent vegetative state after C-section. The court found anesthesiology negligence but accepted that an amniotic fluid embolism was the unavoidable cause.
Paul Cahill settled a wrongful death claim after hospital staff failed to connect oxygen tubing to a patient’s CPAP machine, leading to cardiac arrest.
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