State approves $4.5M deal over death at UI Hospitals

DES MOINES - State Appeal Board members voted 3-0 Monday to approve a $4.5 million claim involving a 34-year-old patient who died after elective surgery at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

Jeffrey Thompson, solicitor general for the Iowa Attorney General's Office, said the settlement would provide 'a very significant resolution” arrived at through a 'candor process” - a process allowed under Iowa code where alleged medical negligence cases can potentially be resolved out of court, in a confidential manner.

'Long story short - a very, very difficult situation,” Thompson told the board via a teleconference meeting. 'A healthy 34-year-old young woman went in for elective surgery and ultimately passed away as a result of kind of a series of things.”

There was a one-page document in the board packet indicating the date of the claim was Aug. 5, 2019, and stated 'surgery was complicated by injury. Patient passed away” but did not provide other details.

A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office office later provided information that identified the patient as Dawn Nicole Ecklund.

'Claimants alleged she died because of injuries sustained during treatment at U of I Hospitals,” the document said.

Under the resolution, the payment was split equally at $2.25 million between the state and the UI Physicians self-insurance mechanism.

'This is a case that was very difficult on a lot of layers, there were a lot of problems that occurred,” Thompson said. 'It was a patient who came to the hospital for a totally elective laparoscopic hysterectomy - a pretty typical type of service that's performed, and there were a number of problems with it and ultimately the patient died as a result of kind of the series of events that occurred related to this elective surgery.”

The settlement was with Michael Ecklund, who was identified in an obituary for the Wapello woman as her husband.