A jury awarded $1,315,276 to the family of a woman who died just hours after being sent home from the emergency room. In 2007, Stacy Meaux, 46, presented to Christus St. Mary Hospital in Port Arthur. According to her family, Meaux's chief complaints were pain and tightness in the chest. She was diagnosed with high blood pressure, given medicine and discharged. Less than 10 hours later, Meaux went into cardiac arrest and died. Her family sued the hospital, alleging its nurses failed to inform the ER doctor of Meaux's chest complaints. The hospital denied that Meaux had mentioned chest pain and it argued that it followed the doctor's discharge instructions. The jury found the nurses 80 percent liable and the doctor, who settled before trial, 20 percent liable. The hospital is jointly and severally liable for the entire award, which is subject to caps on damages.
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