Subglottic Stenosis

⇐ BACK TO SETTLEMENTS AND VERDICTS INDEX

CASE: Subglottic Stenosis

On August 13, 2015 a Grafton County jury awarded our client $1,500,000.00 for injuries she sustained as a result of a laser surgery intended to widen her airway.

The plaintiff suffered from subglottic stenosis – a narrowing of her airway that causes asthma like symptoms, including wheezing and shortness of breath on exertion. An otolaryngologist employed by the defendant hospital planned to perform this repeat elective surgery with a CO2 laser (a minimally penetrating laser that causes little tissue damage and swelling). Consent was obtained from the plaintiff for the use of a CO2 laser. Instead, before the surgery started the surgeon decided to use a deep penetrating Nd:YAG laser which causes significantly more tissue damage and, as a result, poses an increased risk of tissue swelling. The surgeon’s negligent choice to use the Nd:YAG laser, caused the plaintiff’s airway to swell, leading to respiratory arrest, requiring emergency intubation and an induced coma. Two days later a tracheostomy was performed and the plaintiff spent the next two years and three months breathing through a hole in her neck. Only after a high risk 11-hour resection of her airway was the tracheostomy removed.

The jury found that the otolaryngologist was negligent in his choice of lasers.