$500,000 Settlement: VA Hospital's Failure to Monitor a Patient Results in Fatal Airway Obstruction

Rawls Law Group recently secured a $500,000 settlement on behalf of the estate and surviving family of a decorated military veteran who died as a result of preventable negligence at the Hampton Virginia VA Medical Center.

The veteran was admitted to the hospital for routine rehabilitation treatment. While hospitalized and restrained, hospital staff failed to follow several

patient safety standards including maintaining proper control of medical supplies in the patient's room. As a result, a foreign object became lodged in his airway. When he coded, the object was discovered and removed, but not before he had suffered severe hypoxic brain injury from prolonged oxygen deprivation. He never regained consciousness, and these failures cost a veteran his life.

The claim was brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act, and the United States Department of Veterans Affairs agreed to settle the claim for $500,000, another significant administrative result for significant negligence.