Sanford Health loses multi-million dollar medical malpractice verdict
Doctor failed to test for blood clots that killed mother of three
A Lincoln County jury awarded the family of a woman who died $2.5 million Thursday after deciding her doctor was negligent for not properly evaluating her sudden onset of shortness of breath.
Anna Harty, 42, died on May 25, 2019, four days after she had visited her primary care doctor, Dr. Caryn Wallace, to complain about weakness, fatigue and shortness of breath. During that visit, Wallace noted that Harty had a resting heart rate of 105 beats a minute, her weight was 351 pounds and that she was taking contraceptive pills.
Wallace also observed that Harty had “charley horses in her legs in the AM only.”
Wallace had been Harty’s primary physician since 2005 and had attended the deliveries of Harty’s three children. Eight months before the May 21 visit, Wallace had prescribed her with birth control pills. During the visit, Wallace ordered bloodwork.
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