Baptist Hospital dismissed from med-mal

Memorial Hermann Baptist Beaumont Hospital has been dismissed from a suit alleging a patient sustained a hip fracture while staying in the intensive care unit.

As previously reported, Sheila Antoine filed suit against Baptist on March 15 in Jefferson County District Court.

Court records show Antoine filed a motion to dismiss the hospital on Nov. 9.

That same day, Judge Milton Shuffield, 136th District Court, dismissed Baptist with prejudice.

In her suit, Antoine claims an ambulance transported her to Baptist Hospital on Feb. 10, 2010, after she began complaining of severe shortness of breath, cough and fever.

Medical personnel decided to take an X-ray of Antoine’s chest. While the hospital staff was positioning Antoine on the table, she began to feel discomfort in her legs, according to the complaint.

Antoine’s pain continued for the next few days and was so severe that she could not rotate her hip, the suit states. When medical staff was eventually able to take an X-ray of Antoine’s left leg and hip on Feb. 17, 2010, they discovered that she had suffered from a fractured left hip, the complaint says.

“No indication is made in the plaintiff’s records of how or when she sustained this fracture from the time she arrived at the facility and through her admission,” the suit states.

In addition to the fracture, Antoine claims she suffered from decubitus ulcers while hospitalized.

Antoine was seeking an unspecified judgment, plus pre-judgment interest, costs and other relief the court deems just.

Mark A. Weycer and Bonnie Rogers of The Weycer Law Firm in Bellaire represent her.

Case No. D192-184