WILKES-BARRE — 2 days after Jennifer Sidari was confessed to Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center, Plains Township, medical staff remained perplexed regarding the trigger of her bruises and persistent headaches, jurors heard Thursday.
Sidari, a 26-year-old doctor that planned to begin a residency in Geisinger’s pediatric program, died of mind hemorrhaging early Could 29, 2013, after a blood clot caused a severe vein in her head to burst. Plaintiff’s attorney Matt Casey, of the Philadelphia law firm Ross Feller Casey, argued she was a rising star along with the potential for a 40-plus year occupation that could have actually turned her in to a highly paid executive — an argument that, if jurors agree along with it, could expenditure the good health system tens of millions of dollars.
During the second day of testimony in the medical malpractice lawsuit Thursday, jurors heard that a little much more compared to a half day prior to Sidari died, doctors and physician assistants were still debating just what was wrong — an infection, mind swelling, a disorder that affects blood platelet counts or a blood clot.
Dr. Jessica Zingaretti, Geisinger’s attending physician the morning prior to Sidari died, testified that she ordered an immediate CT scan of Sidari’s head prior to also meeting her due to the fact that Sidari wasn’t responding to treatment, her platelets were dropping and she had a history of headaches.
Casey noted that despite the rush order that scan wasn’t finish for much more compared to an hour.
Zingaretti said that once she met Sidari, the patient reported she had been avoiding the letter “P” while typing on a computer and that she was having trouble flipping pages. In a report, Zingaretti quoted Sidari as saying, “I’m actually at excellent at all of the time.”
Casey additionally played deposition testimony in which Zingaretti said she believed at the moment that Sidari was having a neurological emergency.
On the stand Thursday, however, Zingaretti maintained the very first “at” in the quote was a typo and that the behavior was “suspicious” yet not an emergency.
“At the moment I didn’t believe it was an emergency,” she said.
Casey noted that several examinations she ordered, including an MRI of Sidari’s brain, took regarding 2½ hrs to also grab scheduled.
“That’s unacceptable for your patient, isn’t it ma’am?” Casey said.
Zingaretti maintained that she couldn’t answer that due to the fact that she didn’t already know just what various other examinations were being performed at the very same time.
“I wanted it done as quickly as possible,” she said.
Hospital records showed the MRI wasn’t completed until much more compared to four hrs after Zingaretti ordered it.
Physician assistant Sandra Valenti, that was functioning along with Zingaretti, testified that once she watched Sidari the morning of Could 28, 2013, she was unaware test outcomes from a blood sample collected the night Sidari was confessed — 2 days earlier on Could 26, 2013 — showed Sidari’s degree of a healthy protein that can easily indicate blood clots was 36 times normal.
Although a blood clot would certainly have actually been a best concern, she said she didn’t already know why nobody repeated that test for 2 days.
When that finally happened, the degree was “off the charts,” Casey said.
Valenti said she believed it was a “possibility” Sidari was having a stroke once she said she was having trouble along with the computer yet that further testing was needed.
“Her neurological exam to me is normal. She’s sitting there. She’s talking to me,” Valenti said, explaining why she didn’t summon the hospital’s rapid response team.
Valenti, however, conceded that the tunnel vision Sidari went through a couple of hrs later was a symptom of a feasible stroke and that the quote attributed to Sidari regarding flipping the pages was problematic.
“That’s a patient who’s having a stroke, isn’t it?” Casey asked.
“Sure,” Valenti said.
Zingaretti’s testimony is scheduled to keep on this morning.