Mark Chalos Talks to Fox17 About Ascension Saint Thomas Medical Mixup That Leaves 72-Year Old Tennessee Woman Paralyzed

Fox17 Nashville reports that a medication mix-up before “routine” knee replacment surgery has left a 72-year old Tennessee woman partially paralyzed and caused harm to three other patients at Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown in Nashville. The now-paralyzed patient was supposed to receive anesthetic prior to surgery, and instead was given potassium that led to T6 paralysis. As Fox17 details, potassium chloride can be extremely dangerous when administered incorrectly, and has even been used as a part of Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol in the past.

Many unanswered questions remain. “It’s certainly hard to imagine that they had adequate safety procedures in place,” notes Mark Chalos, Managing Partner of Lieff Cabraser Nashville, who spoke with Fox17 about the incidents. The hospital indicated it had reported the incidents to state regulators, but has not publicly reported the cause or any changes made in the wake of the horrific mistakes.

“The first question that comes to mind is, how in the world does something like this happen?”
–Mark Chalos

“The fact that multiple patients were affected here suggests a system-wide breakdown,” Chalos noted. Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown was directly involved in the 2012 medication meningitis contamination that killed 64 people nationwide and 16 in Tennessee. As Chalos acknowledged, “That meningitis medication case came to mind immediately when I heard about this tragedy.”

“What happened to Glenda should also renew a conversation about accountability in Tennessee,” added Chalos, noting that arbitrary state damages caps imposed on patient recoveries even in tragedies like this one are “sending the wrong message to the medical community and to Tennesseeans — it says ‘you can do bad things, and we’ve got your back at the Tennessee state legislature.'”

You can watch the full report with Mark’s comments on the Fox17 website.

About Mark Chalos

The Managing Partner of Lieff Cabraser’s Nashville office, Mark P. Chalos (twitter/X: @mpchalos) represents individuals who have suffered catastrophic personal injuries and families whose loved ones died due to the negligence or misconduct of others. Mark has tried cases before juries and judges across the country and serves in the leadership of numerous class actions and multidistrict litigations, including the national opioids litigation. He is a Past-President of the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association, an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University Law School teaching The Practice of Aggregate Litigation, a frequent speaker at legal seminars nationwide on a variety of civil litigation topics, and is regularly cited by top-tier media outlets.