She Went to the Alaska Native Medical Center Three Times With a Worsening Infection and Was Sent Home With a Shingles Diagnosis Each Time. She Came Back in Septic Shock and Lost All Four Limbs.
After trial: A finalized settlement with the United States, reached in October 2018 after a March 2018 bench trial and before the court ruled, so the figure is final by construction and no cap was applied. Had the case gone to judgment on a negligence finding, AS 09.55.549 would have limited the noneconomic component; the recklessness exception that lifts it was never reached. The Federal Tort Claims Act bars punitive damages and Alaska Civil Rule 82 fee-shifting does not apply in federal court. Collectability: the payer is the United States and no source reports the payment itself, so the disclosure stays at not public. Attribution note: Alaska Public Media names Rick Vollertsen as counsel; his firm affiliation is confirmed by the Alaska Bar Association's member record, which lists him at Atkinson, Conway & Gagnon's address at 420 L Street.
Won by Atkinson, Conway & Gagnon, Inc..
In 2011 Mardi Strong, a construction worker and a member of the Yakama Nation, went to the Alaska Native Medical Center's emergency room and family clinic three separate times with worsening cellulitis and early sepsis. Staff diagnosed shingles each time and sent her home. She returned in septic shock, dry gangrene set in, and all four of her limbs were amputated. Her Federal Tort Claims Act case was tried in March 2018 and settled for $21,100,000 while the parties waited for the judge's decision.
What happened
Mardi Strong was a construction worker in Anchorage, a member of the Yakama Nation, and a student working toward engineering credentials. In 2011 she developed cellulitis, a skin infection, and it was getting worse.
She went to the Alaska Native Medical Center three separate times, to its emergency room and to its Family Medicine Clinic. Each time the staff diagnosed shingles and sent her home. She was in the early stages of sepsis. When she came back she was in septic shock. Dry gangrene set in, and surgeons amputated both of her arms and both of her legs.
The Alaska Native Medical Center is federally funded, so the claim had to be brought against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska. The litigation established more than a single missed diagnosis. The care providers had not been trained to recognize sepsis or its warning signs. The hospital had not adopted the Surviving Sepsis Campaign's international consensus guidelines. Peer review and quality assurance were inadequate, continuity of care was inadequate, and false and inaccurate records had been placed in her chart. In depositions taken in 2015, Strong's lawyer could not establish that the hospital had reviewed its procedures or disciplined anyone involved. "I was unable to ascertain from these care providers that they'd been properly trained in how to recognize sepsis," Rick Vollertsen told Alaska Public Media.
The case was tried to the bench in March 2018. While the parties waited for the decision they settled. The settlement was finalized in October 2018, at $21,100,000.
Vollertsen, the managing partner of Atkinson, Conway & Gagnon in Anchorage, represented Strong. The hospital said in a statement that it profoundly regretted her experience and that the outcome was in no way representative of its care. The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment.
Because it settled, the court never applied AS 09.55.549, Alaska's cap on noneconomic damages in malpractice cases. Had the judge ruled and found only negligence, the cap would have limited that component; only a finding of recklessness lifts it, which is how the state's other largest medical case, Aguchak v. United States, reached $22,000,000.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Alaska Public Media, 6 December 2018: Mardi Strong's three visits to the Alaska Native Medical Center in 2011, the shingles misdiagnosis, her return in septic shock and the amputation of all four limbs; the $21 million settlement reached in October 2018; the 2015 depositions on training and discipline; Rick Vollertsen as her attorney and his quoted statement; and the hospital's and U.S. Attorney's responses
- 2.Mealey's: the Federal Tort Claims Act litigation against the United States over care at the Alaska facility, the March 2018 trial before Judge Timothy M. Burgess and the $21.1 million settlement
- 3.Alaska Bar Association member record for Richard E. Vollertsen: active status, admitted November 1981, business address 420 L Street Suite 500 (Atkinson, Conway & Gagnon), no discipline history
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