State agrees to $3.7 million in settlements for alleged UIHC malpractice

IOWA CITY — The state has agreed to settle three University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics malpractice lawsuits by paying $3.7 million to three families, including one involving a Marion woman who died three years ago after family members say UI physicians improperly placed a feeding tube.

Iowa’s Attorney General’s Office on Dec. 1 recommended the State Appeal Board approve a $2 million settlement with the family of Sharon Roseann Wiese, who died Dec. 9, 2017, of a pneumonia that experts say caused her death.

UI Physicians will cover $500,000 of the payment, and the state’s general fund will cover the other $1.5 million — even as the state denies the allegations but agrees a settlement is in both parties’ “best interest.”

According to the lawsuit, Wiese’s husband and adult children filed in November 2019, she was admitted to UIHC on Nov. 12, 2017. UIHC practitioners Sumant Arora and Yehudith Assouline-Dayan on Nov. 29 — along with staff under their direction — examined the patient’s esophagus, stomach and small intestine and placed a feeding tube.

Read more: https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/health/uihc-malpractice-lawsuits-settlements-feeding-tube-pneumonia-20201207
(Cedar Rapids Gazette)