Tentative Settlement Reached With Dead Patient’s 3 Children

The county of Los Angeles has tentatively reached a $210,000 agreement with the surviving children of a woman who died after surgery at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center when a catheter tube accidentally punctured the lining of her heart, lawyers on both sides said Monday.

In 1998, Teresa Contreras of Panorama City underwent surgery at the Sylmar hospital for a non-life-threatening condition involving her liver and gall bladder. About two weeks later, after the 33-year-old woman showed signs of an infection and returned to the hospital, medical personnel discovered that a surgical sponge had been left inside her abdomen from the first operation, according to the county counsel’s office.

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

The settlement amount, which includes $45,469 for each of Contreras’ three children for the “loss of care, comfort and companionship” of their mother, also provides more than $73,000 in attorneys fees and litigation costs.

The settlement amount only seems low because California law limits damages for pain and suffering in medical malpractice to $250,000, and Contreras was a nurse’s aide who earned minimum wage, said her lawyer, Stephen Bernard.

“Her loss of earning capacity was very little,” Bernard said, explaining why Contreras’s life, compared with that of others, was of low economic value in the eyes of the law. “These are people who are . . . one step above the poverty level,” said Bernard of Contreras’ family members, who include a husband and children ages 7 to 17.

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

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