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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Woman Blames Kaiser for Multi-Organ Failure

PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) - A Kaiser patient started to bleed internally during an elective surgery to remove a mass from her kidney, and within days she was debilitated due to Kaiser's slow response, she claims in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

Patricia and Joseph Moore sued Northwest Permanente, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Kaiser Foundation Healthplan of the Northwest dba Kaiser Permanente for $9.5 million for medical malpractice and loss of consortium.

Within hours of the surgery Moore's abdomen was distended. Other symptoms "consistent with acute hemorrhage" followed, but it was not until shortly after midnight the next day that Kaiser "initiated their rapid transfusion protocol," according to the complaint.

Over the next two days Moore's complications escalated, including falling blood pressure, increasing abdominal distention, rapid heart beat and breathing problems, the complaint says.

"Following numerous transfusions, Patricia Moore sustained respiratory failure and was intubated. During the intubation she aspirated abdominal contents into her airway."

The next morning, "Patricia Moore was diagnosed with acute renal failure," and this was followed by removal of her left kidney and three months on a ventilator, after which she was discharged to a care facility, according to the complaint.

Moore blames Kaiser's failure to timely diagnose and surgically correct the internal bleeding for a host of problems she has experienced, including hemorrhagic shock, multisystem organ failure, acute respiratory failure, gangrene of her left leg and foot, anoxic brain injury and prolonged ventilator dependence.

The plaintiffs are represented by Timothy J. Jones and Ken L. Ammann of Salem, Ore.

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