Milestone One
The case involves a wrongfully perpetrated medical procedure that leads to the death of a patient by the name Arturo Iturralde. The plaintiff-appellant and in equal capacity cross-appellee is Rosalinda Iturralde who serves as the personal representative of Arturo Iturralde who is the plaintiff posthumously. On the other end, the defendants-appellees cum cross appellants are Hilo Medical Center (HMC), a non-profit organization based in Hawaii, Hawaii health organization, a community benefit corporation, and the State of Hawaii. Other participants in the case serving as defendants-appellees are Robert Ricketson, M.D., and Medtronic Sofamar Danek, USA, which is a Tennessee licensed business corporation. The settings of this case involve the factors that culminated in the demise of Arturo. Tests on Arturo’s body reveal that he suffers from degenerative spondylolisthesis L4-5, a condition that necessitates surgery involving the implantation of two rods in the spine. Dr. Robert Ricketson requests the Hilo Medical Center make an order to Medtronic to deliver M8 Titanium CD Horizon Kit, which would contain the required surgical equipment to facilitate Arturo’s surgery to fix his condition. Upon delivery from Medtronic, the staff at HMC did not perform an inventory of the kit. Before the surgery, the nurse in charge informs Dr. Ricketson that the delivery inventory was not done, an issue Dr. Ricketson underestimates and proceeds to surgery. About two hours in the theatre, he realizes that the two titanium rods required for implantation in Arturo’s spine were missing. Dr. Ricketson opts to implant screwdriver shafts on the patient’s spine in a dangerous risky procedure without the patient’s or his family’s consent (Idemoto, 2007). During the surgery recovery process, Arturo sustains numerous falls, which shattered the screwdriver shafts necessitating yet another surgical process to clear the fragments. Arturo’s condition deteriorates progressively, subsequently leading to his death. Circumstances surrounding Arturo’s condition are questionable and require intervention.
The circumstances leading to Arturo’s death are a manifestation of medical negligence and clinical malpractice. Medtronic Company fails to check the presence of titanium rods in the delivery kit before delivery, exhibiting negligent behavior of the staff serving the order. Further, the HMC staff fails to ascertain whether the contents of the order match their demand. Dr. Ricketson proceeds with surgery notwithstanding that, the inventory was unperformed (Idemoto, 2007). He implants screw shafts into the spine, which are inappropriate and unfit for human use to remedy Arturo’s condition. Dr. Robert fails to inform the patient about the shafts after surgery, which illustrates negligence in his code of practice.
Various policies and strategies established in risk management aim at preventing medical practices and errors that could depict health care workers as careless in practice. Medical practitioners ought to operate within their field of practice and adhere to the set guidelines and protocols by the hospital to avoid miscellaneous errors that could harm patients and in turn avoids potential liability and reduces the risk of lawsuits (Chen et al., 2017). Simple set protocols such as handwashing and sanitization before or after a process may reduce the risk of infection to patients (Pawar &Biswas, 2016). Had Dr. Ricketson observed the hospital’s guidelines and protocols, the death of Arturo would have been evaded. An inventory was crucial to ensure all required surgical instruments were present before setting out to the theatre. The staff would have noted that the required rods were missing and possibly postpone the procedure until the necessary rods were available. Medical personnel is to obtain consent from patients and their families before the administration of treatment. Physicians are also to explain the diagnosis to patients, treatment options, benefits, and risks on the patients if any (Chen et al., 2017). They should obtain informed consent, which aids them to make informed less risky decisions on patient’s treatment. In this case, Dr. Ricketson fails to notify neither the patient nor the family about the screwdriver rods placed into Mr. Iturralde’s spine, fails to explain the resultant risks of their implantation and does not seek informed consent from Arturo’s sister.
Standard of care as it applies to medical practitioners is the skill and precaution applied by medical practitioners as dictated by their state certification or license, which a ‘reasonable’ person would apply in similar circumstances (Chen et al., 2017). In this case, a reasonable doctor would have considered suspending the surgery on learning there was no inventory done; he would not consider implanting screwdriver shafts, as they were unfit for human use. However, Dr. Ricketson proceeds with the above wrong procedures without consent, thereby displaying a low standard of care.
Health care due to its diversity faces cultural racism, as healthcare is a basic need for everyone; it is at offer distinctively to different people of different religions, languages, customs some of which complicate healthcare delivery. Cultural racism dictates the standard of care provided in healthcare (shepherd et al., 2018). Racism, as observed in the justice system presents a field where less privileged and economically struggling people are given different rulings according to their socioeconomic backgrounds. Like in court systems, these people have lost trust in the healthcare institutions to address their health concerns.
In conclusion, medical practitioners, in the public eye are custodians of human life and should account for their actions. I believe that justice prevailed at last with Dr. Ricketson accounting for his negligent actions that ended up with the death of Arturo Iturralde. Dr. Robert fails to follow the hospital’s protocols and violates the care standards required during surgery.
References
Chen, Y., Yang, K., Marušić, A., Qaseem, A., Meerpohl, J. J., Flottorp, S., … & Ahmed, F. (2017). A reporting tool for practice guidelines in health care: the RIGHT statement. Annals of internal medicine, 166(2), 128-132.
Idemoto, S. K. (2007). Medical Malpractice in Hawai’i: Tort Crisis or Crisis of Medical Errors. U. Haw. L. Rev., 30, 167.
Pawar, A. Y., & Biswas, S. K. (2016). Postoperative spine infections. Asian spine journal, 10(1), 176.
Shepherd, S. M., Willis-Esqueda, C., Paradies, Y., Sivasubramaniam, D., Sherwood, J., & Brockie, T. (2018). Racial and cultural minority experiences and perceptions of health care provision in a mid-western region. International journal for equity in health, 17(1), 33.