Cunningham Bounds: Alabama Supreme Court Upholds $10M Wrongful Death Judgment Against Springhill Medical Center

MOBILE, Ala., Sept. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Alabama Supreme Court recently affirmed a $10-million judgment on a Mobile County jury's verdict for the family of Mr. Jay West, who died due to unsafe use of Dilaudid that he was given after minor thumb surgery at Springhill Medical Center. The judgment is the largest that the Alabama Supreme Court has ever affirmed for a single wrongful death.

The record-setting affirmance originates from an incident in June 2014. Mr. West accidentally cut his left thumb with a table saw and went to Springhill Medical Center. A minor 20-minute surgery was completed to repair the wound. No complications were reported.

After the surgery, Mr. West's surgeon ordered Percocet and intravenous (IV) Dilaudid for his pain recovery. If the medical personnel had reviewed Mr. West records and the Sentinel Event Alerts from the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organization (JCAHO), they would have discovered that he was at "high risk for opioid-induced respiratory depression." No safety measures were taken before Mr. West was given the IV opioids. At trial testimony proved that the hospital had not trained its nursing staff on how to prevent or respond to a patient experiencing opioid-induced respiratory depression.

Mr. West was placed in a recovery room in the hospital and the first round of opiates – four milligrams of IV Dilaudid – was administered to alleviate the residual pain from the thumb surgery. About two hours later, a second four-milligram IV dose of the Dilaudid was administered without any hospital monitoring. Less than eight hours later, Mr. West was found unresponsive and not breathing. Medical intervention was unsuccessful.

During the trial for Mr. West's wrongful death, Dr. Kenneth Rothfield was called as an expert witness to testify about the use of Dilaudid, which carries an FDA-mandated "Black Box Warning." Dr. Rothfield testified about the amount of IV Dilaudid Mr. West received, "Well, if you were planning on killing somebody, that would be a dose that would be expected to do the job."

The Alabama Supreme Court unanimously agreed that Springhill Medical Center breached the standard of care. 

Attorney Brian Duncan of Cunningham Bounds, who represented the West family and was joined by Attorney Robert Mitchell and Attorney David Wirtes stated, "Mrs. West deeply values the dedication and bravery demonstrated by every juror involved in the case. She expresses her heartfelt gratitude for the Alabama Supreme Court's affirmance of the Mobile County Circuit Court's rulings. After a nine-year journey, justice has at last been served for her husband's tragic and entirely avoidable death."

Cunningham Bounds remains focused on and committed to fighting for plaintiffs in cases involving serious personal injury, wrongful death, medical malpractice, products liability, and complex civil litigation. For more information on Cunningham Bounds, visit: www.cunninghambounds.com

The law firm of Cunningham Bounds has offices in Mobile, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia and has been representing plaintiffs for over 60 years. Today the firm continues its tradition of representing victims in cases involving catastrophic personal injury, industrial accidents, defective products, truck and automobile accidents, and medical malpractice. The firm also has expertise in business litigation, complex litigation, and national and state class action litigation involving defective products and consumer fraud.

For more information, contact:
Lauren Hart 
[email protected]
251.471.6191

SOURCE Cunningham Bounds