Zenith Insurance Co. Sues Dallas Surgery Center Over Worker's Brain Injury

Tuesday, February 20, 2018 | 0

California workers’ compensation carrier Zenith Insurance Co. has sued the Texas Institute for Surgery over more than $1 million in medical bills associated with a brain injury sustained by an injured worker while she emerged from anesthesia after ankle surgery.

Zenith writes that 38-year-old Tyra Price’s brain injury “would not have occurred but for the negligent, careless and/or reckless conduct” of Texas Institute for Surgery, whose staff allegedly failed to keep Price’s airways clean, resulting in cardiac arrest.

The lawsuit, filed earlier this month in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, seeks damages and a jury trial.

As a result of the surgery center’s actions, Zenith wrote in its complaint, “Tyra suffered severe brain injuries, and [Zenith] was legally obligated to pay (and is still paying) substantial workers compensation benefits in an amount which is currently far in excess of $1,000,000.”

Zenith expects the amount it will have to pay to tend to Price’s brain injury to “increase substantially.”

Price broke her ankle in April 2016 in a slip-and-fall at the Dunkin' Donuts where she worked. The next month, she had surgery to repair the break at the Texas Institute for Surgery.

While emerging from anesthesia, she began to express visible discomfort, scratching at her rib cage and biting at the mask that had been used to administer the gas. 

She then sat up, ripped an IV out of her arm and vomited. Surgery center staff attempted to reinsert the IV, rolling her onto her side. She then sat up, vomited again, and collapsed, going into cardiac arrest, according to the complaint. 

A doctor intubated her and removed "a large amount of material" that had obstructed her airway, the complaint says. She remained in a flatline condition for 24 minutes before she was revived.

View the complaint, originally reported by the Dallas News, here.