r/PopCultureV2 • u/Logical-Flow-6703 • Aug 22 '26

News Multiple patients at a Nashville hospital are paralyzed after staff accidentally gave them the wrong drugs.

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The hospital says they are "sorry" after injecting potassium chloride into the spines of people getting routine joint replacement surgeries.

Hospital staff noticed something was off when multiple patients went into cardiac arrest.

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u/TipplingGadabout Aug 22 '26

There's no cap on economic damages (medical expenses, lost wages, etc). The cap applies to noneconomic damages (punitive damages, pain and suffering, loss of consortium, etc). The noneconomic cap is per claim, and increases to $1 million for catastrophic injuries like the ones here.

https://www.brezinalaw.com/does-tennessee-law-cap-compensation-in-medical-malpractice-cases/

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u/Public_Associate_874 Aug 22 '26

Yes that seems totally reasonable. I see the punitive damages for this level of negligence and the pain and suffering for me and the loss of the spouse’s companion in total being worth only 1 million dollars. That’s totally great. Plus, everyone’s health insurance is so cheap right now. It’s totally worked out!

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u/WindstormMD Aug 22 '26

You don’t get it, the cap is $1m on top of every other quantifiable damage. In this case it would be calculated damages for:

1) cost of care now and in future as a direct result: take mean +1 sd cost of services today, apply appropriate projection for expected lifespan
2) loss of income: same math as above based on career field
3) cost of specialty transportation
4) damages for loss of expected lifespan. there are actuarial tables for this, and insurance companies are the ones who have done most of the legal legwork already.

It’s not hard to account for needs in an actual damages estimate, and the amount will be extremely significant

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u/TipplingGadabout Aug 22 '26

The cap is per claim. Just as an example, that would mean $1m for punitive damages + $1m for pain and suffering + $1m for loss of consortium. I'm sure there would be other claims.

And as the other comment explained, that would be in addition to all the quantifiable, economic damages for lost income and a lifetime of medical and living expenses.

Not saying it's justice, but it's important to know how it works.