$2.5 Million Verdict After Doctor Missed Hemorrhagic Shock in Pelvic Fracture Patient

On May 15, 2007, Lawrence Dixon, a 59-year-old Maryland man, fell and fractured his pelvis. He was admitted to Montgomery General Hospital, where his primary care physician, Dr. David Harding, took over his care. Over the next two days, nursing staff observed that Dixon had produced virtually no urine for nearly 24 hours, his blood pressure was dropping, his heart rate was elevated, and his mental status was deteriorating. Those are textbook signs of hemorrhagic shock.

Dr. Harding did not respond adequately to those warning signs. According to Miller and Zois attorney Rodney M. Gaston, who tried the case, the intervention needed to save Dixon's life was minimal: two liters of saline solution and two units of red blood cells. Dixon died on May 17, 2007, two days after his fall, from what the plaintiffs argued was internal bleeding from the pelvic fracture leading to multiple organ failure.

The defense disputed that account. Defense counsel from Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman and Dicker argued that Dixon died not from hemorrhagic shock but from kayexalate asphyxiation, an unrelated complication. The jury, after six days of testimony and roughly ten hours of deliberation, rejected that alternative theory.

Judge Nelson W. Rupp Jr. presided over the trial in Montgomery County Circuit Court (Case No. 337718V). The jury awarded $1 million to Dixon's estate for pain and suffering, $1 million to his wife Kathleen Dixon, $250,000 to his son Michael Dixon, and $250,000 to his daughter Elizabeth Lessig, for a total of $2.5 million.

Because Dixon's cause of action arose in 2007, Maryland's statutory cap on noneconomic damages applied at $650,000 for a single claimant, with a 125 percent multiplier for wrongful death cases involving two or more beneficiaries, capping the noneconomic portion at $812,500. The Maryland Daily Record reported the verdict was likely to be reduced to that amount after post-trial proceedings.