Lawsuit Links Medical Oversights to Patient's Death

By Brittany Golledge

Published on September 27, 2005

The plaintiff, Wendy MacKenzie, filed the lawsuit in 2001, naming her husband's personal physician, Dr. David Bradeen, and the Penobscot Bay Medical Center as defendants.

According to court documents, Charles MacKenzie visited the emergency room at PMBC in September of 1999 complaining of pain in his shoulder, shortness of breath, and other symptoms. After being examined by a physician's assistant, he was sent home with a prescription for back pain. Over the next week and a half, MacKenzie continued to experience shortness of breath. He visited his physician, Dr. David Bradeen, who ordered a chest x-ray from PMBC, suspecting pneumonia.

The plaintiff, Wendy MacKenzie, claims that when she phoned the doctor's office the next day for the x-ray results she was told they hadn't been sent from the hospital. When she followed up with the radiology department at PMBC she was told to call Bradeen's office immediately. By the time she returned home, paramedics had already transported her husband to the hospital. He later died from multiple pulmonary embolisms, several of which had been developing for weeks.

In Maine, medical malpractice lawsuits are sealed until mandatory prelitigation screening can take place. In December of 2004, an independent panel reviewed the lawsuit and found that Dr. Bradeen and the Hospital had departed from the appropriate standard of care. The lawsuit is scheduled to proceed over the following months.

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