Every hospital in America has a system for reporting critical lab results. Rory Staunton's death proved that having a system and having one that works are two very different things.
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A previously healthy 48-year-old father was found unconscious on his lawn one evening. He arrived at a certified primary stroke center roughly one hour after he was last seen normal — with most of the treatment window still intact. Over the next three hours, the hospital's own stroke protocol was never activated, advanced imaging was delayed, and the on-call neurologist wasn't contacted for nearly two hours. A clot-dissolving medication was finally administered just minutes before the treatment window closed. He was never transferred to a facility capable of performing a clot-retrieval procedure. The litigation lasted four and a half years, featured a digital audit trail that contradicted a key witness's sworn testimony, and settled the night before jury selection.
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30 May 2026
"Four Hours"
A 51-year-old man walked into a community emergency department on a Sunday evening with word-finding difficulty, dizziness, headache, and elevated blood pressure. His family used the word "stroke" at triage. Four hours later, he was discharged with a diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea. Fifteen days later, he presented to a different hospital with aphasia, right-sided weakness, and multiple brain infarcts on imaging. The case settled weeks before trial. We break down the clinical decision points, the imaging workup that stopped too early, and the discharge instructions that became the centerpiece of the legal defense.
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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecharteddefense.substack.com/subscribe (https://thecharteddefense.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
18 May 2026
No Note, No Defense
A college student walks into a community emergency department after a reported fall. The CT shows bilateral frontal hemorrhages. A neurosurgeon directs her care by phone from home — orders are placed, but no narrative note explains the reasoning. Over the next thirty hours, the patient deteriorates through documented changes that no single provider connects. By the time decompressive surgery begins, it is near midnight on hospital day two. A diagnosis that was visible on imaging at 12:31 PM was not reported. A risk factor that fit the picture was not on the chart. Seven defendants are dismissed on summary judgment. One is left to settle. The seven-figure resolution of a case that turned, more than anything else, on what was — and was not — written down.
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