Family says veteran died at GA medical center from dye allergy. Feds sued in a Macon court
The U.S. government was sued Tuesday in Macon federal court after a patient at a veterans medical center died from complications after being injected with a contrast agent — also called an MRI dye — which he was allergic to, federal court records show.
Gaylord Harold Winge Jr. filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government Tuesday, claiming it’s liable for the actions from staff at the Carl Vinson Veterans Administration Medical Center in Dublin, 50 miles east of Macon, that caused the death of Gaylord Harold Winge III.
Winge III suffered complications from being injected with an MRI dye that the lawsuit says he was allergic to and died from. He was 56 years old.
The lawsuit claims that Winge III’s medical history was in the hospital’s system and the doctor should have known his allergy before injecting him with the MRI dye.
Winge III’s wife, Romina Espina Riva, joined Winge Jr. in the lawsuit against the government. They’re requesting a jury trial and at least $75,000 for medical, funeral and burial expenses, at least $75,000 for his pain and suffering and at least $75,000 for the full value of his life, according to the lawsuit. Their request totals roughly $225,000.
Lawsuit: Vet’s medical history was on file
Winge III’s doctor ordered him to get an MRI at the Carl Vinson Veterans’ Administration Medical Center because a diabetic ulcer on his right foot was healing poorly. Other than his diabetic ulcer, his medical history at the veterans hospital recorded several other issues: hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus, diabetic retinopathy, congestive heart failure, varicose veins, and a documented allergy to iodinated contrast media resulting in nausea, vomiting and edema dating back to at least July 27, 2011, according to the lawsuit.
He underwent the MRI on March 24, 2023. After an MRI image was obtained without contrast, Winge III was injected with 17 ml of Multihance, a Gadolinium-based contrast agent, to obtain images with contrast of the problem area. He started feeling nauseous and vomited before the MRI scan took place, the lawsuit said.
Winge III was feeling “tingly” before he became unresponsive and lost his pulse, the lawsuit said.
He was taken to Fairview Park Hospital, where staff determined he had severe anoxic encephalopathy and anaphylactic shock “secondary to MRI dye causing cardiac arrest,” the lawsuit said.
“Due to his ‘grim’ prognosis, his family requested hospice care at the Carl Vinson VAMC,” the lawsuit said. “He was transferred back ... on March 31 and passed away two days later on April 2, 2023.”
The physician who interpreted the MRI, Dr. Barry Parker, noted in his impression that “it is not clear at this point if the patient had a true anaphylactic reaction to the MRI contrast or simply vomiting with subsequent cardiopulmonary arrest,” according to the lawsuit. He also wrote in the radiology report that Winge III had no allergies.
What experts say
The lawsuit introduced the opinions of Dr. Neel Dewan Gupta and Chaundria Singleton, two experts in radiology that reviewed Winge III’s case. Both argued that Parker and other staff working on Winge III’s MRI scan that day “practiced beneath the applicable standard of care” for radiology providers and technologies, the lawsuit said.
Parker was deemed negligent by Gupta after he allegedly failed to note Winge III’s allergy to iodine and iodinated contrast media and allowed the Gadolinium injection without pre-medicating him or having appropriate protocols in place in the possibility he experienced a “foreseeable allergic reaction.”
The alleged negligence resulted in Winge receiving the Gadolinium injection that caused the allergic reaction that led to his cardiac arrest and, ultimately, his death, Gupta argued.
Singleton argued two radiology technologists assisting Winge in his MRI were negligent as well because they allegedly failed to get approval from a radiologist to give contrast to a patient with a known allergy. They also shouldn’t have injected him with Gadolinium without pre-medicating or having protocols in place in order to address the possibility he had an allergic reaction.
A lawsuit only represents one side of a case and the allegations haven’t been proven or disproven in court. Defendants haven’t filed a legal reply. Representatives of the Carl Vinson VAMC didn’t respond to The Telegraph’s request for comment prior to publication.
