NYC Man Paralyzed After Spending Two Hours Untreated in Lincoln Hospital ER

A Lincoln Hospital patient was left paralyzed after having to wait two hours in the ER before receiving treatment. In Sep. 2014, Anthony Medlin was brought into the hospital by ambulance and was wrongfully declared low risk by the staff. His condition was labeled as a minor facial injury, but it was far more severe in reality. 

Medlin was examined by a physician after his two-hour wait and was immediately taken for surgery. But by the time the surgery was done, he was irreversibly paralyzed from the waist down. 

Background

The night that the incident unfolded, Medlin was mugged just a few blocks away from Yankee Stadium. In his attempt to flee from the attackers, he rushed into E —167th Street, where he was hit by a car. An ambulance arrived at the scene at 11:13 pm, only to find him lying flat on the street and unable to get up. EMT Shawn Healy later stated that Medlin’s condition was a clear sign that he was severely hurt. 

The ambulance reached Lincoln Hospital at 11:29 pm, but Medlin couldn’t speak with the triage team until 11:48 pm. The EMT team filed an electronic report stating that he had been hit by a car. However, this report wasn’t handed over to the nurse on duty, Lindsay Diaz, because it was computerized. 

Diaz’s triage report wrongly stated that Medlin’s condition wasn’t high risk and described it as “facial trauma.” The nurse later admitted that her “level of concern” would’ve been higher had she seen the report and that there’s no set protocol in place at Lincoln for the hospital staff to go over ambulance reports. 

At 1:30 am, around two hours after Medlin’s arrival, he was examined by Dr. Jason Greenman and Dr. Yocheved Rose because somebody pointed out that he had been “acting strangely.” The doctors noticed a problem with his lower spine and performed emergency surgery. However, he ended up permanently paralyzed from the waist down due to the delay in his initial checkup. 

Medlin has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the city for his suffering. His attorney has been digging into the details of what happened that night. But, this wasn’t the only case of medical malpractice at Lincoln Hospital. According to an investigation, Lincoln has one of the worst ER wait records in the city. Federal data shows that the average patient has to wait 93 minutes in the ER, a whopping 17 minutes higher than the NYC average!

The Legal Aspect

Any damage caused by medical negligence entitles the victim to fair compensation. If you or anyone you know has had to suffer because of a medical professional’s tardiness, be sure to contact a medical malpractice attorney at your earliest. However, before making any rash calls, make sure that the medical malpractice lawyer handling your case has ample experience in other lawsuits similar to yours.

A good medical negligence lawyer will guide you towards the best course of action and collect the appropriate evidence and present a strong lawsuit.