On Aug. 15, 2009, plaintiffs’ decedent Kha Troung, 42, a medical technician, underwent an embolization by Dr. John Bellville, an interventional radiologist, at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital. Troung had contracted tuberculosis in his native country, Vietnam, in the early 90s, and was previously embolized by Bellville in May 2009 after an episode of hemoptysis (coughing up blood), which recurred on Aug. 15, 2009. While Troung was hospitalized after his second episode and embolization, his nurse called Dr. Hoang Le, a critical care pulmonologist, at 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 17, 2009, and reported that Troung was coughing up blood. Le subsequently told the nurse to monitor the patient and follow up with him later. Nearly four hours later, Troung experienced another coughing episode and went into cardiac arrest. Resuscitation efforts failed and Troung passed away at approximately 2:30 p.m. The decedent’s wife, Hoa Phan, acting individually and as guardian ad litem of their children, Ni and Vi Troung, sued Fountain Valley Regional Hospital, Le, and hospitalists Sheela Raja Ph.D., Inderjit Singh M.D. and Chan Nguyen M.D. Phan alleged that the defendants were negligent in the post-operative care and treatment of her husband, resulting in his wrongful death, and that the defendants’ negligence constituted medical malpractice. Prior to trial, Raja, Singh and Nguyen were ultimately dismissed from the case and Fountain Valley settled for a confidential amount. Thus, the matter proceeded to trial against Le only. Plaintiffs’ counsel noted that the nurse monitoring Kha Troung on Aug. 17, 2009, claimed that she told Le that the patient was coughing up fresh blood. Thus, counsel contended that Le was negligent in his response to the nurse’s phone call, in that he should have come in and evaluated the decedent after being informed that the patient was coughing up fresh blood. Plaintiffs’ counsel further contended that had Le evaluated the decedent and transferred him to the Intensive Care Unit, the decedent would have survived. Le claimed that the nurse did not tell him that the patient was coughing up fresh blood during the phone call on Aug. 17, 2009, but, rather, was told that the patient was coughing up from old blood clots. As such, Le claimed his conduct fell within the standard of care, by instructing the nurse to continue monitoring the patient and follow up him later about the patient’s status. He further claimed that even if he had he been told the decedent was coughing up fresh blood, and had come in to evaluate the decedent, the death would not have been prevented., Kha Troung experienced an episode of coughing up blood and went into cardiac arrest. When resuscitation efforts failed, he was pronounced dead at approximately 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 17, 2009. He was 42. Troung was survived by his wife and two children. The decedent’s family sought recovery of $250,000 in general wrongful death damages for the loss of the decedent’s love, care, comfort and society. They also sought recovery of $800,000 in economic damages for their loss of the decedent’s earnings and household services. Troung’s family claimed that the decedent would have worked as a medical technician for another 20 plus years, earning an annual salary of roughly $60,000 plus benefits. Le’s counsel argued that the decedent had a spotty work history in the United States and never worked as medical technician, but only worked as a medical biller up until the time of his death.