Hospital prevails in suit, blames infected tooth
Missouri Lawyers Media
May 22, 2011
A Springfield hospital avoided a wrongful death verdict in part by claiming a lingering dental infection eventually caused a man’s organs to break down until he died.
Ronald Creach, 48, died June 3, 2009, after an infection spread to his kidney, stomach, intestines, spleen and liver.
Creach’s wife and two children sued the Lester E. Cox Medical Center, claiming Dr. Randolph Mullins improperly performed a procedure that they claim allowed a clotting medication to travel to Creach’s other organs and block blood flow.
Creach arrived at Cox Medical Center on May 13, 2009, with a 10 cm rupture in the celiac artery, a major artery that allows blood to flow out of the abdomen. Mullins decided to repair the hole with intravascular coiling, a procedure where long metal coils are inserted in a blood sac to help seal an aneurysm.
“This one was so big it wouldn’t work,” said Randy Cowherd, the Springfield defense attorney for Mullins. “So [Mullins] used a drug called Thrombin to help clot the blood. That worked.”
But over the next two weeks, Creach’s condition worsened. He developed sepsis and his liver, left kidney, spleen and intestines failed. On June 3 he suffered cardiac arrest and died.
Creach’s family contended Mullins shouldn’t have used Thrombin while repairing the aneurysm.
The defense countered with a hematology expert who testified that Mullins met the standard of care and that the clotting drug wouldn’t have blocked blood flow in other parts of the body.
“He explained to the jury the properties of Thrombin itself and how … the body naturally has the ability to break down a clotting agent when it’s gone places it’s not supposed to go,” said Catherine A. Reade, another defense attorney for Mullins.
Defense experts also opined that Creach’s infection started with a tooth infected with staph-based bacteria that eventually traveled through the bloodstream to Creach’s heart.
The plaintiffs disputed that theory, Cowherd said. They insisted the dental problem wasn’t so severe as to enter Creach’s bloodstream and instead claimed the infection began with a case of pancreatitis, he said.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys Mathew Placzek and Jenifer Placzek of Springfield didn’t return messages seeking comment.
The plaintiffs had sought nearly $1 million in future lost earnings and services. Creach had been a manager at the Branson Variety Theater, formerly known as the Bobby Vinton Theater.
After a two-week trial in Greene County, the jury deliberated less than two hours before returning with a defense verdict. The plaintiffs have filed an appeal with the Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District.
