County Offers $210,000 to Settle Death Suit

Los Angeles County tentatively has agreed to pay $210,000 to the children of a woman who died after a surgical sponge was left in her abdomen and a catheter punctured her heart at Olive View/UCLA Medical Center, lawyers on both sides said Monday.

In 1998, Teresa Contreras, 33, of Panorama City underwent surgery for a non-life-threatening condition involving her liver and gall bladder. About two weeks later, when she returned to the hospital showing signs of infection, medical personnel discovered the overlooked sponge, the county counsel’s office said.

She continued to deteriorate, and a catheter tube was inserted to monitor her heart and provide a nutritional solution, according to lawyers on both sides. But the tube pierced her heart lining, causing it to fill with fluid, which an autopsy cited as the cause of her death.

The settlement, which includes $45,469 for each of Contreras’ three children, provides more than $73,000 in attorneys’ fees and litigation costs.

California law limits damages for pain and suffering in medical malpractice to $250,000. Another factor in the settlement amount is that Contreras was a nurse’s aide who earned minimum wage, said her lawyer, Stephen Bernard.

In the eyes of the law, he said, her earning capacity, now lost, “was very little. These are people who are . . . one step above the poverty level.”

The county counsel’s office had estimated that Contreras’ three children would seek $836,000 if the case had gone to trial.

The county Board of Claims recommendation Monday on the settlement amount still requires the approval of the Board of Supervisors, said Principal Deputy County Counsel Gary Miller.