$5 million award in negligence case

A jury has awarded a Seattle family $5.39 million, finding an emergency-room physician working at Swedish Medical Center guilty of medical negligence after a patient died four days after visiting the hospital's emergency room.

Tri Hoang, 30, died Aug. 21, 2004, of an aortic rupture -- a tear in the major artery coming from the heart -- four days after visiting the hospital's emergency room, the family's attorney, Felix Luna of the Peterson, Young, Putra law firm, told the Seattle P-I Thursday.

Luna said Hoang visited the emergency room with pain and was seen by Dr. Grace Dy, who prescribed heartburn medication and sent him home. Two days later, Hoang went to the University of Washington Medicine-Belltown Clinic, where he was diagnosed with a heart infection.

He died two days later.

The suit claimed the tear subsequently found in his aorta should have been discovered four days earlier while he was at Swedish, Luna said.

Hoang's sister, Marie Hoang, filed the lawsuit against Dy and the UW clinic. The jury trial began July 30. On Tuesday, the jury found Dy negligent, clearing the UW clinic of any wrongdoing.

"We are very happy with the verdict, which validated a major loss for his family," said Luna, who added that jurors spent two hours after the trial talking to attorneys on both sides about the case and about Hoang.

Born in Vietnam and raised in the United States, Hoang was described by Luna as a highly skilled computer systems engineer who supported several members of his family, including a younger brother.

Dy's attorney, David Martin of Lee Smart, P.S. Inc., said that the verdict was an "unfortunate circumstance."

He said that they are reviewing options for an appeal.

"Dy is a fine physician, and we believe she complied with the standard of care," Martin said.

A spokeswoman for Swedish declined to comment.

"Because Swedish was not named as a party in this case, we feel it is inappropriate to comment, except to say this is a tragedy for all," said communications director Melissa Tizon.

Tizon said although Dy was working in the hospital's emergency room, she was technically not a Swedish employee, because the hospital contracts emergency room doctor services through a company called Seattle Emergency Physicians.