$1.5 Million Settlement for Nurse’s Failure to Properly Respond to Cardiac Emergency

In June of 2021 attorneys John M. Dodig and Jason A. Daria secured a $1.5 million settlement on behalf of the family of a 36-year-old Senior Corrections Officer who died after presenting to the Nurse’s Station at work with symptoms of a cardiac emergency only to receive substandard medical care. 

On July 1, 2016, Nikeelan Semmon presented to the Nurse’s Station at Albert C. Wagner Youth Correctional Facility with complaints of chest pains and trouble breathing. Semmon had reportedly presented to the Nurse’s Station earlier in the day with those symptoms, but was sent back to work. When he returned to the Nurse’s Station this final time, a corrections officer called an emergency code due to Semmon’s medical condition. 

Corrections officers who responded to the code reported that the nurse in charge failed to call 911 immediately, seemed overwhelmed, refused assistance from additional medical staff, and had to be instructed by them to get the proper medical equipment. Concerned about the treatment (or lack thereof) rendered by the nurse, the corrections officers performed CPR and otherwise attempted to provide medical assistance to Semmon. 

Semmon was subsequently transported by paramedics to Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in Hamilton, New Jersey, where he was later pronounced dead. 

Through medical experts, Dodig and Daria were able to establish that if Semmon had received timely and appropriate medical assessment and treatment and a timely hospital transfer earlier in the day or upon his final presentation to the Nurse’s Station, he would not have died from this cardiac event. The case was settled after two (2) Mediations in the amount of $1.5 million dollars.