$4,500,000 Settlement for Death Due to Medical Errors When a mother of two went to the emergency room on a Friday evening with symptoms of upper respiratory infection, her chest x-ray was read as negative by a moonlighting doctor. When told that no treatment could be provided to her over the weekend and that her x-ray was negative, the mother went home to help care for her two small children. To do so, she signed a "discharged against doctor's order" note. On Saturday, the hospital radiologist saw that the x-ray was positive for pneumonia, but no one contacted the woman. Feeling worse, she returned on Monday with full-blown pneumonia. When a breathing tube was inserted, it pierced her esophagus, causing oxygen deprivation and brain damage. She went into a coma and died. Raynes McCarty secured a $4.5 million settlement for the family.