$1.27 Million Verdict After ER Physician Missed Obvious Heart Attack in 23-Year-Old Army Reservist

On the evening of March 12, 2016, Ruben Jonathan Bastien, a 23-year-old Army Reservist, arrived at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring complaining of chest pain that had started during a workout. The emergency room physician on duty, Dr. Guy Patrick Murphy, ordered an electrocardiogram. The EKG came back showing clear signs of a heart attack in progress.

Despite the abnormal reading, Dr. Murphy did not call a cardiologist. Instead, Bastien received pain medication and stayed in the ER for hours without a definitive diagnosis. A physician's assistant finally identified the heart attack around 1:30 a.m. -- more than four hours after Bastien had walked through the door. By then, the window for early intervention had closed.

A cardiac catheterization and stent placement were attempted the following morning, March 13. During the procedure, Bastien went into cardiac arrest. Medical staff restarted his heart, but he never regained brain function. He died on March 16, 2016, three days later. He was survived by his parents, M.L. Bastien and his co-plaintiff.

Jonathan Goldberg, Tara Clary, and Jonathan Huddleston of the firm then operating as Schochor, Federico and Staton P.A. in Baltimore filed suit in Montgomery County Circuit Court. The case went to trial before Judge Sharon V. Burrell. Plaintiffs argued that Dr. Murphy had all the information needed for a heart attack diagnosis within the first hour of Bastien's arrival and that immediate cardiology consultation would have saved his life. The jury agreed. After more than six hours of deliberation on November 20, 2018, jurors found Dr. Murphy and Silver Spring Emergency Physicians P.C. liable. Three other defendants -- a hospitalist physician, an inpatient consultants group, and a cardiology practice -- were found not liable.

The jury awarded $300,000 to Bastien's estate and $1 million to his parents for noneconomic damages, plus $10,000 in funeral expenses. Maryland's statutory caps reduced the parents' award to $962,500 and the funeral component to a capped amount, bringing the total collectible verdict to approximately $1.27 million. The Maryland Daily Record reported the verdict on November 29, 2018.