Hillel Yaffe Medical Center is being sued by the father of a woman who was administered a sedated CT Scan against her wishes and died.
Four years ago, the woman was washing the floors in her home when she slipped and hit her right eye. According to the lawsuit, the woman did not lose consciousness and was entirely lucid.
The next day, her family doctor referred her to the emergency room in Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera. According to her father, the woman was sent to do a CT scan, but she refused. After multiple failed attempts to calm her down, the doctors sedated her and did the scan against her wishes. After the sedation, the woman suffered from heart failure and after going through resuscitation, she was moved to intensive care on a ventilator.
Two-and-a-half years later, the woman died at the age of 49.
In the expert opinion of the head of the sedation department in Hadassah University Medical Center Dr. David Gozal, the decision to sedate the patient against her wishes was very wrong.
"It's an inconceivable decision whose place is in dark regimes that don't recognize human rights," he said. He added that, considering the patient was overweight, the risks should have been taken into consideration.
An expert for the defense claimed that the CT was essential for the patient in her state. "When there's a concern for a cerebral hemorrhage that is obviously life-threatening, the only way to be sure is with a CT," he said. "Clearly, if the patient had cooperated and lain quietly during the scan, there would have been no need to sedate her."
In a comment, the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center said that "the incident involved medical care in complicated professional conditions for the patient."