$875,000 Dislodged Tracheostomy Tube Settlement
Hospital Patient Dies After Tracheostomy Tube Becomes Dislodged
After suffering a debilitating stroke, doctors performed a tracheostomy on our male client to assist him with breathing. The procedure involved creating an opening through his neck into the trachea, or windpipe, and inserting a tracheostomy tube through that opening.
While he was an inpatient at a major hospital, nurses were responsible for checking on him regularly to make sure the tube was properly aligned and clear of obstructions. Unfortunately, the lawsuit alleged that the nurses failed to monitor him properly.
As a result, this husband and father of three children died when the tracheostomy tube became dislodged and his airway became obstructed. A lawsuit was filed to help the family with financial obligations and to provide for the future needs of the children. Rather than proceed to trial, the medical insurance company agreed to an $875,000 settlement after lengthy negotiations.
Why Tracheostomy Tube Monitoring Is So Important
A tracheostomy can be lifesaving, but it also requires careful monitoring. MedlinePlus explains that a tracheostomy is a surgical procedure that creates an opening through the neck into the trachea. A tube is usually placed through that opening to provide an airway and help remove secretions from the lungs.
When a patient depends on a tracheostomy tube to breathe, hospital staff must take airway safety seriously. A tube that becomes blocked, displaced, obstructed, clogged, or improperly positioned can quickly become a medical emergency. Patients recovering from a stroke, surgery, sedation, or serious illness may be unable to call for help, reposition themselves, explain what is wrong, or protect their own airway.
MedlinePlus tracheostomy-care instructions state that a patient should call 911 or the local emergency number if a tracheostomy tube falls out and cannot be replaced. In a hospital setting, that risk underscores why nursing staff must monitor vulnerable tracheostomy patients closely and respond quickly to any breathing problem, tube-position concern, or airway obstruction.
Nursing Responsibility for Vulnerable Hospital Patients
Hospital patients and nursing home residents are placed in the care of medical professionals because they need help recovering, breathing, eating, moving, communicating, or remaining stable. Some patients can press a call button and explain what they need. Others cannot.
Patients who are post-surgical, immobile, sedated, cognitively impaired, or recovering from a stroke may be especially vulnerable. They may be unable to move, speak, call for help, adjust a tube, clear secretions, or alert staff that they are struggling to breathe. For these patients, scheduled checks and careful bedside monitoring are not optional details. They may be the difference between safety and death.
When a hospital accepts a patient with a tracheostomy tube, the nursing team may need to monitor tube placement, secretions, oxygenation, respiratory distress, alarms, suctioning needs, skin condition, infection signs, and changes in mental status. A potential medical malpractice claim may arise when hospital staff fail to provide reasonable monitoring and a patient is seriously harmed or dies.
Airway Obstruction Can Become Fatal Quickly
Breathing depends on an open airway. If a tracheostomy tube becomes dislodged or obstructed, the patient may be unable to receive adequate oxygen. Depending on the circumstances, a patient can suffer respiratory distress, oxygen deprivation, cardiac arrest, brain injury, or death.
A dislodged or obstructed tracheostomy tube may involve several possible failures, including:
- Failure to check tube placement regularly
- Failure to recognize that the tube had shifted or become blocked
- Failure to respond to breathing changes, alarms, or distress
- Failure to suction secretions when needed
- Failure to secure the tracheostomy tube properly
- Failure to communicate changes in the patient’s condition
- Failure to call a physician, respiratory therapist, rapid-response team, or emergency team in time
In a hospital negligence case, the legal investigation may focus on what the nurses knew, what they should have seen, how often the patient was checked, whether records were accurate, whether alarms sounded, whether respiratory therapists were involved, and whether the patient’s death could have been prevented with reasonable care.
Hospital Negligence, Nursing Negligence, and Wrongful Death
The original case facts involved a patient who died after his tracheostomy tube became dislodged and his airway was obstructed. When preventable hospital negligence causes death, the case may involve a wrongful death claim.
A wrongful death claim may seek compensation for the surviving family’s losses, including loss of financial support, loss of companionship, grief, funeral expenses, medical expenses, and the practical and emotional harm caused by losing a spouse, parent, or loved one.
When the death occurs in a hospital, the case may also require careful review of nursing notes, physician orders, respiratory therapy records, monitoring records, code records, hospital policies, staffing levels, and expert medical opinions. If the patient’s care involved a surgical airway, post-surgical care, or airway-management failures, the case may overlap with surgical negligence or broader hospital negligence issues.
Evidence That May Matter in a Dislodged Tracheostomy Tube Case
Tracheostomy tube negligence cases often turn on detailed records and timing. A hospital may claim that the death happened suddenly, that staff responded appropriately, or that the patient’s underlying condition caused the outcome. The family’s legal team must compare those claims with the medical records and expert review.
Important evidence may include:
- Hospital charting and nursing notes
- Physician orders and care plans
- Respiratory therapy records
- Tracheostomy tube placement and securement documentation
- Suctioning records and airway-care notes
- Vital sign records, oxygen saturation records, and monitor data
- Alarm records, call-light records, and rapid-response documentation
- Code blue records or emergency-response notes
- Staffing records and shift assignments
- Autopsy, death certificate, and expert medical opinions
These records can help determine when the patient was last checked, when the tube became displaced, how long the airway was obstructed, whether staff should have recognized the danger sooner, and whether timely intervention could have prevented death.
Damages After a Preventable Hospital Death
No settlement can replace a husband, father, or loved one. But a civil lawsuit can help surviving family members obtain financial support, seek accountability, and understand what happened. In this case, the lawsuit was filed to help the family with financial obligations and to provide for the future needs of the children.
Damages in a fatal hospital negligence case may include:
- Final medical expenses
- Funeral and burial expenses
- Loss of financial support
- Loss of household services
- Loss of companionship, guidance, and society
- Grief, sorrow, and mental suffering of surviving family members
- Other losses recognized under applicable law
When young children lose a parent, the settlement may also help address long-term family needs, including housing, education, daily support, and the loss of parental guidance.
Legal Help After a Tracheostomy Tube Injury or Death
A patient with a tracheostomy tube depends on medical professionals to keep the airway open and respond immediately to danger. When nurses, hospitals, respiratory therapists, or other healthcare providers fail to monitor a vulnerable patient and the tube becomes dislodged or obstructed, the result can be catastrophic.
Since 1990, Sexner Injury Lawyers LLC has represented patients and families in serious hospital negligence, nursing negligence, surgical negligence, and wrongful death cases in Chicago and throughout Illinois. If a loved one suffered injury or died because of a dislodged tracheostomy tube, airway obstruction, or negligent hospital care, contact us for a free case evaluation at (312) 243-9922 or contact us online.
