Howard Holmes was 79 years old when he presented to the emergency department at his local hospital after falling in his kitchen earlier that day. Mr. Holmes was admitted to the hospital for further testing. One of those tests should have alerted hospital personnel that Mr. Holmes had a significant breathing problem. Unfortunately, no one ever looked at the results.
The next day, Mr. Holmes was found unresponsive in his bed. The medical records showed that no "code blue" was called for emergency resuscitation because it was too late. Greene & Eisen doubted that explanation and pressed witness after witness until it got stunning testimony: an inexperienced nurse admitted that she had tried to call a "code blue" using the hospital's phone system but got a "busy signal." She panicked and did not do anything further.
A confidential settlement was reached shortly thereafter.
