CLEARWATER — On the day of his out-patient procedure to remove a kidney stone, Chad Gerlaugh drove himself to Morton Plant Hospital in a specially modified van.

A quadriplegic since a 1998 car accident damaged his spinal cord, he was confined to a wheelchair and had only limited motion in his arms. Kidney stones were a frequent problem caused by the catheter he relied on to drain his bladder through a hole in his abdomen.

But he refused to let his disability hold him back.

Gerlaugh, 46, earned about $70,000 doing technical support at Spectrum. He hunted with his dad using a modified bow and rifle. To brush his teeth, the Pinellas Park resident would squirt toothpaste into his mouth and then reach inside with his toothbrush.

The April 2019 hospital procedure should have been routine. But while in recovery, Gerlaugh’s blood pressure dropped dramatically, the result of an infection that developed into sepsis, and he suffered a heart attack.

When he was discharged 23 days later, he couldn’t drive himself home. His legs and arms had been amputated. The independence and self-reliance that was his greatest source of pride was gone.

“My life is never going to be the same,” he said in a family video. “I gotta ask for help. For everything.”

Gerlaugh in 2021 filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Morton Plant and BayCare, the nonprofit that runs the hospital. The case was scheduled to go to jury trial later this month but the two sides this week agreed to a settlement. The terms of any payment to Gerlaugh is confidential.

Speaking before the case went to mediation, Gerlaugh’s attorney, Steve Yerrid, said the hospital failed to recognize that his client had developed sepsis and delayed treatment that could have spared his limbs even as vital sign monitoring equipment was sounding the alarm.

“I hope to give this young man some accountability because it’s been years and this hospital needs to be held responsible,” Yerrid said. “You go in for kidney stones and you come out without legs and arms? Give me a break.”

BayCare officials said in a statement that Morton Plant Hospital is committed “to maintaining the highest standards of patient care possible.”

“Our team makes patient safety a top priority and has carefully reviewed this patient’s journey to find any opportunities to learn from his experience,” the statement continued.

The kidney stone procedure was done early on April 9. Physicians inserted a small flexible scope into Gerlaugh’s urethra to remove the stone.

He was recovering in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit when problems began.

Gerlaugh’s blood pressure plummeted. He had trouble breathing and panted excessively. Later, he developed a fever, court records state. He was moved into intensive care but his condition continued to deteriorate.

The next day, Gerlaugh’s heart stopped for seven minutes before he was resuscitated. A doctor noted that the cardiac arrest was the result of his body not receiving enough oxygen. Yerrid said that is evidence of the hospital’s mistreatment of Gerlaugh. Had he been intubated, Yerrid wrote in a motion for a jury trial, he would not have nearly died.

Yerrid said that the hospital also failed to diagnose sepsis. The life threatening infection requires intravenous antibiotics to be administered quickly.

Around one-quarter of all sepsis cases are considered to be caused by infections in hospitals, according to a review by the National Institute of Health. Morton Plant performs better than average with fewer cases of such infections, according to Leapfrog, a nonprofit that ranks hospitals on patient safety.

Doctors put Gerlaugh on a course of vasopressor drugs, a class of medication used for people with low blood pressure. It causes blood vessels in the body’s extremities to constrict so there is more blood flow to vital organs.

But that loss of blood to limbs can lead to necrosis, or rotting, of the flesh. Gerlaugh was on the drugs, which Yerrid characterized as a last resort to keep a patient alive, for several days.

“The longer the vasopressors are used, the more likely you’re going to lose a lot,” Yerrid said.

Gerlaugh had to watch as his arms and legs rotted and the decay advanced. The hospital eventually determined that amputation was the only option.

Both his legs were amputated well above the knee. His left arm had to be cut above the elbow, halfway up the bicep. His right arm was cut mid-forearm but is missing part of the muscle so its movement is constricted.

It’s unlikely that there is enough of any limb to be able to support a prosthetic, Yerrid said.

Before the amputation, Gerlaugh relied on his parents to dress and to get from the bed into his wheelchair.

After that, the day was his own.

He would take his 10-year-old sister out for coffee and donuts or to the park. Other days, he would disappear into the woods or to St. Pete Beach.

His vehicle was his freedom. He had a cooler in the back of his van filled with water bottles that he could crack open using his teeth. He could cut his own food using cutlery strapped to his hand.

“Being able to just jump in my van and go get coffee sounds like the simplest thing in the world,” he said. “But I remember being so thankful for what I was able to do.”

His ability to overcome his disability became an inspiration for other paraplegics that he met online and in person.

Tavares resident Melissa Walsh, who suffered a spinal cord injury in 2008, was among those whose life was changed by meeting Gerlaugh.

One of the first times they spoke by phone, Gerlaugh mentioned that he had just driven to Dunkin Donuts to get coffee. It encouraged her to learn to drive a modified vehicle.

They became friends and she was “super, super inspired” that someone like her was so independent and able to hold down a job, she said in a deposition.

“I was like, ‘How do you do that?’” she said. “I was so motivated to figure out what I can do to max out my potential as an individual also living with a cervical spinal cord injury and just get to where he was at.”

Now, Gerlaugh is completely dependent on his parents and cannot be left alone. The loss of his legs means he has to be strapped into his wheelchair.

He can no longer drive and is dependent on his parents to eat, dress, wash and go to the toilet. He has to call them just to scratch his nose or head, his mother Joy Gerlaugh said.

When he wants to be alone, his only option is to sit in his garage.

“He was so independent,” she said. “We can’t leave him; we can’t afford a nurse. So my husband and I just get through it the best way we can because we’re a family.”

The Gerlaughs relocated to Hickory, North Carolina, to live in a more rural setting but also to lower their living expenses. His father retired early to help his wife take care of their son.

It’s been tough for Gerlaugh to adapt. He feels like a burden to his parents. He grew a beard solely to spare his mother the task of shaving him every day.

The family still have a home video, taken by Gerlaugh’s dad on the spur of the moment, of his son setting off for his kidney stone procedure at Morton Plant.

“That was the last time I drove,” he said, “and that’s a heck of a thing to keep thinking about.”