DLG Settles with Durable Medical Equipment Company!

The attorneys at the Dinizulu Law Group, Ltd recently partially settled a Wrongful Death lawsuit against a Durable Medical Equipment company for $1.65 million. The case is still ongoing against Ingalls Hospital and the physicians that discharged him improperly.

Sixty-six year old Brian Jackson, a married father of 6 adult children, was admitted to Ingalls hospital on March 18, 2009 with past cardiac disease and decreased respiratory function. Jackson underwent heart valve replacement surgery while at the hospital.

Jackson was in need of oxygen for survival upon discharge and was given an “Easy Pulse 5” portable oxygen tank with a conserver device on it by a Durable Medical Equipment company. It was delivered by a vendor selected by Ingalls Hospital. Our attorneys were able to uncover that this conserver device sat in the driver’s trunk for 11 days.

This is incredibly important because unlike a continuous flow oxygen tank that Jackson had been using, he was instead given an oxygen tank that had a “conserver device” on it. Unlike a “continuous flow” device, oxygen on a conserver device delivers oxygen by “intermittent flow,” or discharges oxygen only when the patient inhales. This can drastically effect oxygen saturation levels in a manner that is different and lesser than, continuous flow oxygen delivery systems.

The conserver device used by the Durable Medical Equipment is also known as a “pneumatic device”. This means that unlike other temporary oxygen devices on the market, the device does not run electronically from an outside power source. Instead, the tank is literally always “on.” As a result, this self-powering device is always losing psi (or the amount of life sustaining air in the portable oxygen device) because it is always “venting,” even when not in use.

It is as if, instead of being able to turn off your car while in the garage, the car ran all the time. If the car is left in the garage long enough, the tank runs out of gas. The same is true of the device at issue here; if left inert too long, the product vents psi and the tank becomes empty.

In this case, this means that over the 11 day period before it was given to Jackson, the tank would’ve been depleting. The loss of “psi” or depletion of air supply is a point that the Durable Medical Device company and Ingalls Hospital through their agents and contractors failed to identify and was in violation of the applicable procedures and standards of care in the industry.

From Jackson’s initial hospital discharge to arriving home, approximately 40-45 minutes had elapsed.

Durable Medical Equipment was the entity that was to also deliver the home oxygen (i.e., large tanks that provided continuous flow oxygen and that were not equipped with conserver devices) to Jackson after he arrived home. At approximately 6:50 p.m. —to 7:00 p.m., Jackson started to feel hot. He took off his shirt and was fanned by a family member.  Jackson had complained about being hot in the past, so this was not surprising to the family.

Minutes later, Jackson began to have difficulty breathing. He complained that the tank was empty and then began to make sounds like he was having an asthma attack .

The family called the EMT. According to the EMT report, the EMT arrived at the house six minutes later, at 7:12 p.m., and Jackson was taken back to Ingalls Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

This was a tragic death that should have never happened. While this settlement will never bring back Mr. Jackson to his family, it will help them heal by knowing those responsible for his death are being held accountable.