$2.86 Million Wrongful Death Medical Malpractice Settlement for Failed Intubation

A daughter secured a wrongful death recovery after her father went to the hospital for an infected tooth and never came home. The man, in his mid-fifties, went to the emergency department with severe pain and swelling from an infected lower molar. He was admitted, and an oral surgeon planned a routine incision and drainage procedure under general anesthesia. The infection had caused trismus, or lockjaw, which prevented him from opening his mouth. The care team’s plan was to attempt intubation under anesthesia and wake him up if it failed. The anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetist made repeated attempts using only one intubation technique. When they tried to wake him, his airway was compromised, and he went into respiratory arrest. The team revived him with CPR, but the lack of oxygen caused profound brain damage. Three days later, his family made the difficult decision to remove him from life support.

To prove malpractice, we had to show that his care team was unprepared for a known, foreseeable airway challenge and then failed to act when it became an emergency. A patient with trismus requires providers who are trained in alternative intubation techniques designed for patients who cannot open their mouths, and those techniques were never used. When the team could not get him air, they never attempted an emergency surgical airway, even though an oral surgeon was still in the room. We held the providers accountable for a death that began with a toothache. The recovery compensates his daughter, his only survivor under Florida’s wrongful death laws, for the loss of her father’s companionship and the mental pain and suffering of losing him.