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Sinai Hospital Sued in Baltimore City Circuit Court for Failure to Diagnose and Treat Woman's TB

Posted on: Thursday, 11 August 2005, 21:00 CDT

The husband and six children of a woman who died from tuberculosis in 2002 are suing Sinai Hospital in Baltimore City Circuit Court, alleging that two emergency room doctors failed to diagnose and properly treat her condition.

The complaint alleges that Dr. Daniel E. Kohn, along with one of his colleagues, advised Ruby DeJesus to see her private physician but failed to contact her physician directly or make DeJesus aware of troubling chest X-ray and CT scan results.

DeJesus had chills, a fever and fluid buildup in her abdomen when she was examined by Kohn, but the doctor sent her home because she looked comfortable, the complaint alleges.

Cecilia I. Lavrin, who is representing the DeJesus family in the case, refused to comment when reached by phone this week.

Sinai spokeswoman Jenna Sizemore said yesterday that the hospital does not comment on pending litigation.

DeJesus had a chest X-ray on the orders of a Sinai emergency room doctor, identified as Dr. Sunnes, after a May 25, 2002, examination revealed that she had chills, a cough, high blood pressure and an abnormal heart rate, the complaint alleges.

According to the complaint, Sunnes did not admit DeJesus, instead prescribing cough medicine and telling her to see a family physician. (Sunnes is not named as a defendant in the suit.)

The complaint further accuses the hospital of failing to inform DeJesus of her X-ray results, which were reviewed on May 27, 2002 and allegedly indicated possible fluid buildup in her left lung.

DeJesus was coughing up blood when she returned to the emergency room on June 7, 2002, and a CT scan, this time ordered by Kohn, showed fluid accumulation in her abdomen, the plaintiffs say.

She spent more than nine hours in the hospital, but, according to the complaint, was discharged around 3:00 a.m. by Kohn and again told to see a private physician.

The complaint, filed Aug. 4, states that DeJesus died after being diagnosed with tuberculosis following her Aug. 5, 2002 admittance to the Northwest Hospital Center.

The lawsuit accuses Kohn and the hospital of negligence, wrongful death and loss of consortium.

Even though DeJesus had symptoms indicating a number of very serious conditions, Kohn failed to order further tests, request a consultation or admit DeJesus, the complaint alleges.

The complaint asserts that there was no contributory negligence on the part of DeJesus in this case. It does not specify whether she ever visited a family physician, but alleges that Kohn failed to advise her of the need to do so urgently in light of the test results.

Had [DeJesus] been timely diagnosed and treated for her tuberculosis on or around June 7, 2002, her tuberculosis would more likely than not have been cured and she would not have died, the complaint alleges.

The suit seeks unspecified damages against Sinai, Kohn and Kohn's employer, EmCare Inc.

Claire Mullins, vice president of communication for the American Lung Association of Maryland, explained that tuberculosis is an airborne infection, which can be spread by coughing or sneezing, but noted that infections usually occur after prolonged exposure to someone who has the disease.

Repeated night sweats, unexplained weight loss, fever, chills and general lethargy as well as coughing up blood are all considered symptoms of tuberculosis, which can usually be detected through a simple skin test, Mullins said.

The American Lung Association's Web site notes that the vast majority of tuberculosis cases can be cured, though patients may sometimes need to take medication for more than a year.

According to statistics provided by Mullins, the reported rate of new tuberculosis infections in the United States has been decimated in the last 50 years - from 53 per 100,000 population in 1953 to just 5.1 per 100,000 in 2003.

Maryland had 268 new cases of tuberculosis in 2003, the last year for which statistics were available. Nationwide, there were close to 15,000 new cases and 748 people died from the disease that year.

Source: The Daily Record (Baltimore)

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