Attorney Outlines Case Against Physicians Accused of Medical Malpractice

By Brittany Golledge

Published on September 21, 2005

The lawsuit revolves around the death of the young boy at Mercy Hospital on July 19th, 2001. According to an attorney representing the plaintiffs, the boy had been taken to Mercy for treatment after vomiting repeatedly throughout the course of the day. One of the defendants, Dr. Alex Huang, ordered the boy to be moved from the emergency room to the pediatric ward. Several hours after the move, the boy went into cardiac arrest and died.

During opening arguments, the attorney for the boy's family outlined the case against the doctors and Mercy Hospital, raising such issues as the hospital's failure to diagnose the boy's bowel obstruction and their failure to treat his rising potassium levels, which triggered his cardiac arrest. Among the contested issues in the trial will be the initial examination and transfer of the boy, who, according to the family, was displaying obvious symptoms of illness and should never have been taken out of the emergency room.

In their own opening argument, attorneys for the doctors said they would counter each allegation of medical malpractice and give jurors a full picture of the boy's condition when he entered the hospital. The trial is expected to last for four weeks.

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