Mistakes Correcting Sodium Levels in the Blood and Your Legal Options when Hyponatremia Malpractice Causes Serious Injury
It is common knowledge inside and outside of the medical profession that sodium is essential to the body’s proper functioning. However, too little or too much sodium in the blood can cause health problems, some of which are severe. As such, regulating a person’s sodium levels is essential to proper healthcare. Equally so, medical professionals must take extreme care to properly adjust a person’s sodium levels, as mistakes when making these corrections can spell catastrophic injuries.
When sodium levels drop, an individual may experience dangerous symptoms that could seriously harm them unless treated quickly. A healthcare provider’s response to dangerously low sodium, a condition called Hyponatremia, should be carefully adjusting the patient’s sodium levels to normal. However, when a doctor does not adjust sodium levels properly, a patient can suffer brain and neurological damage. Tragically, errors in treatment for hyponatremia can even lead to death. If you suspect that medical malpractice occurred in the diagnosis or treatment of hyponatremia, ultimately leading to injuries for you or someone close to you in New Jersey, it is highly advisable to have an experienced attorney review your case to assess your potential grounds for a lawsuit. Contact Fronzuto Law Group anytime for a free consultation.
What is Sodium and Why are the Right Levels Crucial?
Sodium is a mineral (electrolyte) that keeps the body’s blood pressure stable and keeps nerves, muscles, and tissues working properly. It also maintains the water balance inside and outside of the body’s cells. When sodium levels are too high or too low, the entire body is affected and must fight off conditions affecting the brain.
About Hyponatremia
When sodium levels drop too low, the body’s water levels surrounding cells rise, causing swelling and debilitating symptoms that can leave an individual weak and sick. This condition is referred to as Hyponatremia and mandates urgent medical attention.
Why Hyponatremia Commonly Occurs
Fluid imbalance due to low sodium in the body can have many causes. One is medicines that affect organs that keep sodium in balance, such as the kidneys. Diuretics can cause too much water loss, and sodium is flushed out with the water. As such, it is unsurprising that conditions affecting the heart, liver, and kidney can cause Hyponatremia.
When the heart, liver, or kidneys are not functioning correctly due to congestive heart failure, kidney disease, or liver failure, these vital organs cannot flush water out due to high levels of anti-diuretic hormone (ADH). When ADH builds up, the body retains water, causing SIADH, or the syndrome of inappropriate anti-diuretic hormone. Certain diseases affecting the organs cause rising ADH levels.
In addition, losing too much bodily fluid can cause sodium losses and ADH increases. Excessive vomiting or diarrhea can cause dehydration and Hyponatremia. Balancing water intake and elimination is crucial to regulating sodium and maintaining good health. By contrast, another cause of sodium imbalance is too much water. Drinking water to excess works the kidneys too hard, causing an imbalanced ratio of water to sodium. Too much water and not enough sodium define Hyponatremia. Athletes who overhydrate can suffer from this condition.
Hormonal conditions can also affect sodium balance. For example, diseases that prevent the production of hormones critical to balancing water, sodium, and potassium levels (the thyroid and adrenal glands) can cause the condition. Lastly, ecstasy is a recreational drug that causes users to drink a lot of fluids and produce anti-diuretic hormones. Thus, the drug is a recipe for Hyponatremia.
Who is More Likely to Develop Hyponatremia?
Hyponatremia is more common among those at risk, such as older adults who take medications that induce it or experience hormonal changes that affect sodium levels. People taking medications that are diuretics, pain relief drugs, and some antidepressants are also more susceptible to Hyponatremia, as are those with medical conditions affecting the kidneys, heart, or liver, and those with SIADH.
Ultra-marathoners, triathletes, and other high-intensity athletes may be vulnerable because they drink an excessive amount of water to stay hydrated during hours of intense exercise.
Understanding the Guidelines to Restore Sodium Balance
Correcting sodium to treat Hyponatremia requires a doctor’s thorough understanding of the patient and the process. While each patient is unique, specific correction guidelines help protect the patient from complications. The first rule is to replenish sodium gradually. Correcting sodium levels too quickly can injure the patient’s brain. Afterward, the patient requires sodium level monitoring and adjustment as necessary.
Supplying hypertonic saline intravenously at a controlled, slow pace over several hours is recommended to replenish sodium safely so as not to create an imbalance of excess sodium, which could cause a more serious condition. The recommended dosage is 6 to 12 mEq per L for 24 hours and no more than 18mEq per L for the next two days.
At the same time, doctors must locate the condition’s cause to determine treatment. So, when Hyponatremia results from dehydration, the treatment involves careful fluid replenishment. Sometimes, medication changes are enough treatment, but the situation is more complex when heart or liver failure is the cause. A doctor must treat those conditions and the low sodium problem.
Potential Complications from Negligent Treatment of Hyponatremia
When a doctor does not properly correct the sodium deficiency, the patient can suffer brain damage due to a neurological disorder called central pontine myelinolysis (CPM). CPM causes the brainstem nerves to malfunction, leaving the patient with fundamental bodily function difficulties with speech, swallowing, and behavior. Severe CPM can result in paralysis and coma.
CPM results from negligent sodium replacement. When sodium levels rise too quickly, the myelin sheath protecting the brain’s nerve cells in the brain’s pons region, the central part of the brain stem, is damaged. Common symptoms include confusion, tremors, imbalance, hallucinations, swallowing problems, drowsiness, slurred speech, and muscle weakness.
Though some patients recover from CPM due to negligent sodium replacement, others go into a coma, die, suffer paralysis or sustain brain damage. A victim of sodium replacement malpractice may have to live with chronic fatigue, psychosis, lethargy, assisted feeding, and other lifelong care needs. In fact, permanent damage from negligent hyponatremia treatment may require ongoing medical treatment, assistive medical devices, and home or institutional care. The financial and emotional losses may be catastrophic.
Discuss Your Potential Claim for Hyponatremia Malpractice in New Jersey with an Attorney at Fronzuto Law Group
If a doctor, hospital, or medical team negligently treated your Hyponatremia or the low sodium levels of someone you love, seek counsel from a lawyer at Fronzuto Law Group to explore potential avenues to recover compensation for your injuries through a medical malpractice claim. You may also have grounds to pursue a lawsuit for your loved one’s wrongful death. With our decades of experience, our medical malpractice attorneys diligently work to identify when and how negligence occurred in your Hyponatremia and establish the medical provider’s fault in causing your injuries or your loved one’s death.
Establishing medical malpractice in New Jersey requires extensive evidence in the form of medical records, medical expert reports and testimony, and knowledge of the legal and medical laws, rules, guidelines, and regulations. Our team of attorneys will handle the laborious preparation of your case to recover the full reimbursement and damages to which you are entitled. Contact our office at 973-435-4551 to speak with an attorney and receive a free review of your hyponatremia negligence claim. We are prepared to put all of our knowledge, experience, and resources to work for you.
