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Beilinson to compensate for negligence that ended in brain damage By Ran Reznick Tel Aviv District Court Judge Drora Pilpel has ruled that negligence during the examination and treatment of a patient by two doctors in the emergency room at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva resulted in meningitis that caused brain damage and disability. Pilpel ordered the hospital to pay the patient NIS 3.5 million in compensation. The patient was treated at Beilinson in April 2000, and the verdict, published here for the first time, was handed down on September 4, 2008. A source at Beilinson responded that "some fundamental mistakes were made" in the ruling, and the hospital will soon be filing an appeal to the Supreme Court. Advertisement The patient, 49, who is married and has three children, underwent surgery in January 2000 to remove a tumor on his pituitary gland that was pressing on his optical nerve. A complication during the operation caused the leakage of cerebrospinal fluid, which later led to the development of bacterial meningitis, a serious illness that can cause paralysis and death. About two weeks after the operation, the patient went to the emergency room at Beilinson with blood-tinged fluid leaking from his nose. He was released after an examination, and advised to go back to his doctor for follow-up. About two months later, on April 22, 2000, when the runny discharge returned, the patient went back to the emergency room at Beilinson. He was examined by two doctors: ear-nose-and-throat intern Dr. David Olonovski (today a senior ENT specialist at Schneider Children's Hospital in Petah Tikva) and neurosurgery intern Dr. Ziv Rosenbaum (today a senior neurosurgeon at Beilinson and head of technologies in the hospitals division of Clalit Health Services). The doctors did not detect evidence of cerebrospinal fluid leakage and released him with a recommendation to continue medical follow-up and orders to return to the emergency room if fluid continued to leak from his nose. According to the court ruling, the leaking of cerebrospinal fluid (which was not diagnosed by the doctors in the emergency room) led to the development of meningitis, which was detected only a few months later. In November 2000, the patient was operated on to correct the complication that resulted from the first operation. The meningitis caused permanent damage to the patient's brain, impairing his memory, his hearing and ability to think, among other things. In February 2004, attorney Jonathan Davies filed a suit for damages, on the patient's behalf, against Beilinson and Clalit Health Services, which is responsible for the hospital. The suit raised a series of claims concerning the patient's medical treatment, all of which were rejected by Beilinson in its statement of defense. At the beginning of September 2008, Judge Pilpel accepted the patient's claims of negligence on the part of the doctors who examined him on the second visit to the emergency room, but rejected all the patient's claims concerning the original operation and the other treatments and examinations he underwent at Beilinson. Pilpel noted that during the patient's second visit to the emergency room, the interns did not consult with the senior doctors who had operated on the patient two months before, and were not aware that this was his second visit to the emergency room. The judge ruled that this constituted negligence that did not meet the standard of treatment expected from a normal physician. "A reasonable doctor would not have made do with a short, cursory examination, and would not have hastened to send the plaintiff home," wrote Pilpel, who felt that the doctors should have asked questions concerning the patient's previous visits to the emergency room. "It is unreasonable that such a patient be sent home with a vague recommendation, when there is a risk that he is suffering from a [cerebrospinal] fluid leak, and which could then result in an infection of his meninges .... in this behavior, the defendants violated their obligation to be cautious, and were negligent vis-a-vis the plaintiff." In conclusion, Pilpel stated that there was "a causative, factual and legal connection between the defendants' negligence in the follow-up, and the treatment of the plaintiff after the first operation, and the meningitis that he contracted and the damage he suffered as a result." "After studying the court ruling, the hospital has decided to file an appeal on the determinations in the ruling," said a source at Beilinson Hospital. "The hospital believes some fundamental errors were made [in the ruling] that could lead to a change in the court's conclusions. It should be stressed that after [his] meningitis, the plaintiff returned to his job and normal life, and six years later contracted meningitis again, and this resulted in the deterioration of his condition. These issues and others will be brought for a decision by the Supreme Court in the framework of the appeal that will be filed." Last week the hospital and Clalit Health Services filed a petition to the District Court to postpone execution of the ruling until the Supreme Court makes a decision on the appeal. In the petition, the appellants enumerated some of their arguments against the ruling. Among other things, the appellants contend that during the trial, "it was not proved that there were additional tests that the hospital could have and should have done, and the non-execution of which constitutes negligence on its part," and that "there was no ... discussion and decision concerning the question of how, in practice, by releasing the plaintiff from the emergency room, [the defendants] did not prevent the meningitis that he contracted half a year later." Attorney Jonathan Davies, who represents the plaintiff, is also considering filing an appeal, on the grounds that the compensation ruled by the court is insufficient. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Damaging remarks Right-wing MK Lieberman says Egyptian president Mubarak can "go to hell." Joe on Israel Overnight media sensation says Obama presidency would spell "death of Israel."

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