COVID patient’s relative demands justice for fatal outcome
An Indiana man whose grandfather recently died after suffering a stroke is calling on state lawmakers to rethink legislation passed earlier this year to protect health care providers during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a story reported by CBS4Indy.
Late last year, Daniel Enlow’s 83-year-old grandfather, Edward Rigney, was checked into Eskenazi Hospital, in Indianapolis. Mr. Rigney suffered from COPD and had also been diagnosed with COVID-19.
At some point during his hospitalization, medical staff attempted to place what seems to have been an arterial line in order to monitor his condition. During the procedure, or at some point shortly thereafter, an “iatrogenic air embolus” was released into his veins and caused a stroke, according to medical records and Mr. Rigney’s death certificate.
“I started asking for medical records because I wanted to know what was happening leading up to it in black and white in front of me,” said Mr. Enlow, who wished to present his evidence to a medical review panel, as required by Indiana law. The first step in this process would have been to consult with a medical malpractice attorney, but several declined to take his case.
Why? Because a pair of bills passed by Indiana legislators in early 2021 make COVID-19–related suits – even tangentially related ones – potentially difficult to take to court.
The bills raised the bar to file a medical malpractice claim in COVID-19 cases and to allow only those that involve “gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct.”
“In the vast majority of cases, it’s impossible to prove that,” said Fred Schultz, immediate past president of the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association, who lobbied against the legislation.
The bills were never designed to offer “blanket freedom,” said GOP State Senator Aaron Freeman, sponsor of one of the bills. “If something is being used in a way that it is a complete bar to certain claims, then maybe we need to go back and look at it and open that up a little bit and make it less restrictive. I’m certainly open to having those conversations.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Enlow has vowed to keep pushing in the name of his late grandfather. The hospital’s parent company, Eskenazi Health, has declined to comment.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.