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Family Files Wrongful Death Suit after Hospital Patient Falls Through Surgical Table

A family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the staff of Boston Medical Center after its mother fell through an opening in an operating room table and fractured her skull when she struck the floor. Catherine O’Donnell, 86, was again operated on to relieve pressure from internal bleeding in the brain but died a week later, reported The Boston Globe.

A nurse had removed a support strap from around the patient’s torso and moved to the side of the table to transfer her to a waiting bed. In the time the nurse walked those few steps, O’Donnell had fallen -- buttocks first -- through the orthopedic surgical table opening, according to the state’s Department of Public Health. The nurse reached for O'Donnell, but not in time to prevent the fall, according to the globe.

O'Donnell, 5-feet-tall and 123 pounds, was under anesthesia and had a breathing tube in her mouth when she fell, the Health Department report said.

"Obviously, everyone has to go, but for her to go in this manner and for us to have to make those decisions is terrible," said her son, Tom O'Donnell, who decided with his two sisters to remove their mother from life support after doctors said O’Donnell’s chances for survival were minimal. "We want assurances that you can go into that hospital and not have this happen to someone else," the son said.

Protocol Changed to Prevent Similar Incident from Reoccurring

Ellen Berlin, spokeswoman for the medical center, said the hospital has changed procedures to prevent similar accidents from occurring. Boston Medical determined doctors and nurses in the operating room were preoccupied with standard duties and the "removal of the patient’s safety belt wasn’t verbally communicated to each staff member."

The hospital since has adopted a protocol requiring all nurses and doctors hold onto the patient before removing the safety belt and making sure staff is standing on both sides of the table during that procedure, said the Globe.

Paul Dreyer, director of the Health Department's Bureau of Heath Care Safety and Quality, annually reviews 800 injuries involving patients at 90 Massachusetts hospitals. Four hundred to 500 accidents involve patients hurt in falls. Dreyer had no figures on falls from surgical tables, but said that occurrence was unusual.

O’Donnell initially had entered the hospital to have her broken left hip repaired. That surgery went without complication, said the Health Department report.

<>The O'Donnell family's lawyer, Andrew Meyer said, "This is a case involving clear neglect with a horrifying outcome.

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