Cynthia Adae Case Summary

Nessa G. Cynthia A. Adae v. University of Cincinnati, Case No. 2007-08228
10/3/17

Cynthia Adae was taken to Clinton Memorial Hospital on June 28, 2006. She was taken to the hospital with back and chest pain. A doctor concluded that she was at high risk for acute coronary syndrome. She was transferred to the Clinton Memorial hospital emergency room. She reported to have pain for two or three weeks and that the pain started in her back or her chest. The pain sometimes increased with heavy breathing and sometimes radiated down her left arm. Cynthia said she had a high fever of 103 to 104 degrees. When she was in the emergency room her temperature was 99.3, she had a heart rate of 140, but her blood

Dr.Bain ordered a CT scan of Cynthia’s chest to rule out a possibility of an aneurism. Dr. Bain also did another CT scan of Cynthia’s abdomen to evaluate her liver. Additional lab work and thyroid testing was done. Around 5:00pm she was discharged with instructions to follow up with her primary care physician Leah Avera, M.D within one week. In Cynthia’s discharge summary that was signed by Dr. Pesante, states, in part, "it just seems like Cynthia’s problem may have more so been either some kind of infectious process or possibly a thyroid

Adae Cynthia’s husband telephoned Dr. Avera about Cynthia’s hospitalization and relayed that she was suffering from continuing pain. Upon Dr. Avera's recommendation that he should transport his wife to the Middletown Regional Hospital emergency room, where Cynthia was seen by Tao Nguyen, M.D. They started by giving Cynthia a CT scan of her chest and head, which ended up being negative result for pulmonary embolism but it did reveal a sinus infection. Dr. Nguyen requested copies of her medical records from Clinton memorial hospital but Clinton’s record department was closed for the weekend. Dr. Nguyen discussed Cynthia’s case with Dr. Avera and instructed her to follow up with Dr. Avera on Monday, July 3. She was discharged with a prescription for pain medication. On the same day laboratory reported to a resident on duty that Cynthia’s blood cultures were showing gram positive cocci in clusters. The next day the laboratory reported to Dr.Pesante the Cynthia’s blood cultures were positive for staphylococcus aureus. Neither the resident on duty nor Dr. Pesante contacted Dr. Bain or the attending physician on-call about Cynthia’s blood culture results. The trial court found it unclear whether any Clinton memorial hospital employee attempted to contact appellees or Dr. Avera. Dr. Avera said if he would have learned of the positive blood culture she would have admitted her immediately to hospital and would have empirically started her on antibiotics and then