Sunday, July 12, 2009

B. C. couple gets $5M in malpractice ruling

A B. C. couple has been awarded more than $5-million in a medical malpractice case, after the husband, a young teacher, was left crippled because he failed to follow up on test results.

In 1999, Shawn Kahlon sought help from his doctor to remedy lingering lower back pain. The physician ordered a CT scan, and the radiologist, who saw some abnormalities in the results, wanted Mr. Kahlon to return for a follow up scan with contrast dye.

But Mr. Kahlon, a 32-year-old teacher at the time, never returned -- which had devastating consequences because Mr. Kahlon had spinal tuberculosis that was about to migrate to his brain. The disease left him completely incapacitated, paralyzed on one side of his body and requiring full-time care.

The first set of films from the CT scan were filed by a clerk before being fully reported and weren't found until a year later when Mr. Kahlon was rushed to Vancouver General Hospital where he was finally diagnosed.

It is unknown if Mr. Kahlon was told he should come back for another checkup, as his cognitive impairments prevented him from testifying at the the four-week B. C. Supreme Court trial. His family doctor also was unable to shed light on the question, as he died last year from pancreatic cancer.

A note found in his file, however, suggests that Mr. Kahlon was hesitant about undergoing a test with dye.

In a 135-page decision yesterday, Justice Jon Sigurdson found the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and UBC Hospital 70% responsible, and Mr. Kahlon himself 30% at fault.

"Had the films been reported on at the time of the CT scan or within the several months following, it would have led to a chain of inquiry which would have resulted in diagnosis of spinal TB meningitis. Treatment would have been given and Mr. Kahlon would have recovered without consequence," said Judge Sigurdson.

Mr. Kahlon shared in the liability because he was told that he needed a follow up test but he failed to go.

"Why did he procrastinate? Perhaps because this occurred at a busy time in Mr. Kahlon's life. He was about to marry and was also presumably busy with his teaching career," Judge Sigurdson wrote. "There is a duty on the part of the patient to participate fully and honestly in his own health care."

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=1772560