Excessive Morphine for Diabetic Patient - Acute Kidney Injury

An elderly man was admitted to a hospital to have a cancerous polyp removed from his colon. While the surgery was successful, he suffered a respiratory, then cardiac, arrest in the hospital after receiving IV Morphine for more than a day. He was subsequently resuscitated and survived, but had acute and permanent kidney injury. It was alleged that although the amount of morphine the man received would likely not have  been excessive for a normal patient, the patient had a known history of diabetes and kidney problems, which did not allow his body to properly clear the drug; instead, the Morphine accumulated in his body to the point where his lungs, then heart, shut down, from lack of oxygen, thereby worsening his kidney blood-circulation and requiring ongoing and later permanent dialysis. Clore Law Group, LLC, with the assistance of another law firm, obtained a confidential settlement for the man.

• Practice Area
  Surgical Errors
• Outcome
  Confidential Settlement