Mount Nittany Health has settled a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the parents of a Penn State freshman who said their son failed to receive proper evaluation that would have diagnosed a serious blood clot days before he died in August 2021.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann on Monday approved the $3 million settlement between the State College-based health system and the parents of Patrick Tomany, who alleged that negligence by Mount Nittany Health providers led to the death of their 19-year-old son.
According to the complaint filed in 2023, Patrick Tomany went to the Mount Nittany Medical Center Emergency Department on the afternoon of Aug. 26, 2021, during the first week of his freshman year at Penn State, for evaluation of right buttock pain that had worsened in the two days since it started. Tomany had a history of blood clots and protein C deficiency, and was concerned he could have a deep vein thrombosis.
Physician’s assistant Brooke Koch ordered an ultrasound of Tomany’s right lower extremity, but did not order a test that would have revealed deep vein thrombosis in the right common iliac vein, according to the lawsuit.
Koch diagnosed Tomany with “right leg pain” and discharged him without medical intervention, attorneys for his family wrote. Dr. Roderick Cross signed Koch’s emergency department note and diagnosis with no changes.
On the morning of Aug. 30, 2021, Tomany developed pain in his right thigh and asked his resident assistant to call an ambulance because he believed he had a blood clot. Tomany experienced two seizures before EMS personnel arrived and another after, according to the lawsuit.
As EMTs moved him to an ambulance, he began to struggle breathing and then became unresponsive. At the hospital, the code team performed CPR for 44 minutes before Tomany was pronounced dead.
An autopsy found Tomany died from a saddle pulmonary embolism that originated from a thrombus of the right common iliac vein, according to the lawsuit.
Mount Nittany Health, Mount Nittany Medical Center, Centre Emergency Medical Associates, Koch and Cross were named as defendants in the case.
Mount Nittany maintained that its personnel “did not breach any applicable standard of care,” nor did they cause or contribute to Tomany’s death.
Patrick Tomany’s parents, Sean and Jodi Tomany, of Connecticut, are the beneficiaries of the settlement and will receive about 60% of the $3 million. The lawsuit was brought by Sean Tomany as executor of his son’s estate.
Their attorneys, the Philadelphia law firm Kline & Spector, will receive 40% of the settlement plus costs.
Pennsylvania’s Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error Fund, a special fund within the state Treasury used to pay claims against participating healthcare providers, will pay $1 million of the settlement.
