Florida doctorâs mistake cost woman hands, feet and him $9,444 in professional discipline

An Ocala doctor missed the signs of sepsis during a woman’s emergency room visit and it cost a woman her limbs, according to a state complaint. What did it cost the doctor?

A $5,000 fine. And, $4,444 in Florida Department of Health case costs.

That’s from the state Board of Medicine’s final order approving the settlement agreement between the department and Dr. Donald Crowe. Crowe’s also ordered to complete a three-hour continuing medical education class on Diagnosis and Treatment of Sepsis and a five-hour class on risk management.

Crowe’s professional discipline cost of time and $9,444 comes two years after a legal settlement with the patient that Crowe’s Department of Health liability listing puts at $1 million.

A Marion County court filing said the patient’s sister had power of attorney to sign documents and filings for her after she “suffered the loss of all of her limbs as a result of the negligence” of Crowe and AdventHealth TimberRidge’s ER.

Crowe’s been licensed in Florida since February 1984. He’s board certified in emergency medicine since 1987, most recently re-certified this year, according to the American Board of Emergency Medicine. This is his third time being disciplined by the state Board of Medicine, the first since 1997. His 1995 case involved a charge of slipshod record-keeping with a patient and a dismissed charge of misdiagnosing that patient. Crowe paid an $1,100 fine.

What is sepsis?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bluntly says sepsis “is a life-threatening medical emergency.

“Sepsis happens when an infection you already have triggers a chain reaction throughout your body,” the CDC continues. “Most cases of sepsis start before a patient goes to the hospital. Infections that lead to sepsis most often start in the lung, urinary tract, skin, or gastrointestinal tract. Without timely treatment, sepsis can rapidly lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death.”

Not hyperventilation

Officially, Crowe neither admits nor denies the allegations in the most recent administrative complaint from the Department of Health.

The complaint says a 58-year-old woman showed up at AdventHealth TimberRidge ER in Ocala with chills, fever and numbness in her hands and face. She had a temperature of 100.4 degrees, a her racing heart measured 105 and her blood pressure was a normal 133/90.

Crowe ordered a chest x-ray, an EKG, blood work and other tests of “electrolytes, blood cultures, and lactic acid level for sepsis,” the complaint said.

The tests, the complaint said, showed “a blood gas consistent with hyperventilation” but elevated white blood cell count and lactic acid that were “concerning for sepsis.”

With the white blood cell count, lactic acid, a temperature that had risen to 102 degrees, the rapid heart and respiratory rates, the patient, “met the criteria for sepsis,” the complaint said.

“The standard of care required (Crowe) to administer a broad-spectrum antibiotic within one hour of recognition of sepsis,” the complaint said.

Instead, she was given IV fluids, acetaminophen (brand name: Tylenol) for her fever and an anxiety drug. She “improved clinically and was discharged home with instructions for hyperventilation,” the complaint said.

Afterwards, however, her “condition deteriorated and she required amputation of all four extremities due to sepsis.”

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