Ryan family sues HUP for malpractice

Last Friday the family of College sophomore Anne Ryan, who died from meningitis at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania on Sept. 9, filed a lawsuit against HUP alleging misdiagnosis and mistreatment.

According to Thomas Kline, the family's lawyer, HUP emergency room doctors failed to properly diagnose Ryan when she first visited the hospital on Sept. 6 with meningitis-like symptoms. He claims doctors then performed an "unnecessary and unwarranted" spinal tap during her second visit on Sept. 8 that caused her brain to herniate.

The University released a statement later on Friday defending the actions of the medical team and denying allegations that Ryan was misdiagnosed.

"Although her unexpected death is a terrible tragedy and a great loss to the Penn community, the care she received in the Emergency Department was timely and appropriate," the statement said.

A copy of the complaint could not be obtained from the Court of Common Pleas.

According to Kline, Ryan displayed meningitis-like symptoms - fever, nausea and a head and neck ache - when she first visited HUP on Sept. 6.

Although blood tests revealed that she had a high white blood cell count and low spinal fluid sugar - evidence of a bacterial infection, according to Kline - an analysis of her spinal fluid came back negative for bacteria. She was diagnosed with a viral infection, given medicine for nausea and discharged from the hospital.

"There was a negligent failure to properly diagnose her and treat her with antibiotics," Klein said.

But the statement released by the University says that Ryan "unquestionably did not have meningitis when she was tested."

When her condition worsened on Saturday, Ryan returned to HUP, where doctors performed a CAT scan that revealed swelling of her brain, Klein said.

At that point, Klein said Ryan was given the antibiotics to treat meningitis, but doctors also performed a second spinal tap. He alleges that the procedure - risky to perform on a person with brain swelling - caused Ryan's brain to herniate.

Both a CAT scan performed after the spinal tap and an autopsy performed after her death confirmed evidence of a massive infection and a herniated brain, he added. The autopsy also showed a massive brain infection.

Due to the pending litigation, the University cannot comment beyond expressing "strong disagreement" with Kline's statements, said Susan Phillips, senior vice president and chief of staff for Penn Medicine.

P.J. Brennan, chief medical officer for the health system, said the lawsuit represented "shameful inaccuracies" in the facts. He refused to discuss the case further, saying "we are not in a position - and don't wish to be in a position - to debate this in the media, but we stand by our doctors and nurses."

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