A New York jury has returned a plaintiff's verdict against NYC Health + Hospitals in a wrongful death case involving a 23-year-old woman who died after a 12-hour delay in receiving insulin treatment for diabetic ketoacidosis at Woodhull Hospital. The verdict, reached after less than two hours of deliberation, carries implications beyond the individual tragedy, spotlighting systemic failures in emergency care that disproportionately affect low-income and minority patients.
The lawsuit centered on the care the woman received in February 2020, when she arrived at the emergency room with severe abdominal pain and vomiting. Lab results available within hours showed signs consistent with pancreatitis, but physicians treated only that condition and failed to address the underlying diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening condition that occurs when a lack of insulin allows the blood to turn acidic. Attorneys Kevin Lee and Rikki Dascal of the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Firm, who litigated the case on the family's behalf, were able to get the treating physician to concede during cross-examination that the delay in starting insulin fell below an acceptable standard of care. By the time physicians administered insulin, they gave the wrong type for her condition. Her condition worsened due to blood loss, and she died two and a half weeks after arriving at the hospital.
Physician experts from Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins Medical School testified that the 12-hour treatment delay significantly reduced her chance of survival. "She did not receive the medication she needed. She did not receive the fluid that she needed. And we will contend the evidence will show that she lost a substantial chance at surviving," Lee told the jury in his opening statement. In closing arguments, Dascal urged jurors to hold the hospital to the same standard as any other New York City facility. "This trial is your opportunity to hold a hospital in your community to the same standard of care as any other hospital in New York City," Dascal said. "Regardless of which hospital our client walked into, she should have received the same level of care."
NYC Health + Hospitals argued at trial that a busy emergency room contributed to the delay, an argument the jury rejected. The firm's wrongful death lawyers point to research showing that low-income and minority patients face longer emergency room wait times and lower quality care more often than other patients. They say the outcome underscores the need for consistent treatment standards regardless of a hospital's location or patient population. The verdict adds to the firm's record in wrongful death litigation against public and private medical providers and reinforces the principle that public hospitals must be held to the same standard of care as any other facility in the city.
