Carter v. Anderson Memorial Hosp.
| Decision Date | 16 October 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 0360,0360 |
| Citation | 325 S.E.2d 78,284 S.C. 229 |
| Court | South Carolina Court of Appeals |
| Parties | Thomas F. CARTER, Respondent, v. ANDERSON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, Appellant. . Heard |
H. Grady Kirven, of Watkins, Vandiver, Kirven, Gable & Gray, Anderson, for appellant.
Karl L. Kenyon and Robert P. Lusk, both of Kenyon & Lusk, Anderson, for respondent.
Thomas Carter sued Anderson Memorial Hospital for damages allegedly resulting from personal injuries he sustained due to the negligence of hospital employees. The jury awarded him a verdict of $17,500 actual damages, and Anderson Memorial appeals. We affirm.
Carter testified he was admitted to Anderson Memorial for hemorrhaging, and within one or two days, 10-15 percent of his stomach was removed during surgery.
According to Carter, he was feeling much better after the operation and was on the road to recovery, when two student nurses brought a portable x-ray machine into his room, got the wheels tangled in the cord and caused the machine to fall on him. Carter testified that the 24-inch-square head of the machine fell on his abdomen, which still contained large metal sutures from surgery, and pinned his left arm and hand, causing him excruciating pain and slightly cutting his left hand or wrist. He also testified that he had to assist the student nurses in raising the machine and, when he did so, he "[felt] like everything in [him] was tearing loose." He further testified that within a short period of time after the accident he was examined by one of his doctors and was given morphine. (He had been taking morphine before the accident as well.)
Carter went on to testify that the pain in his lower abdomen and left lower back which began at the time of the accident continued, he became nervous and weak, began violently hemorrhaging and vomiting blood again and had to undergo a second operation. Carter further testified he was released from Anderson Memorial approximately one month after his admission and took six months to recover. His hospital bill from the date of the accident involving the x-ray machine until his release was introduced into evidence without objection and totaled $9,581.50. Carter testified, also without objection, that his doctors charged an additional $1,081.00 for the second operation.
Carter's wife testified he had been doing better shortly before the accident but appeared to be in pain and highly emotional afterward. In addition, two friends testified they had visited Carter the day before the accident and he was in good spirits and appeared to be doing well and making progress from the first operation. According to their further testimony, when they visited after the accident, he looked weak and was depressed and despondent.
One of the radiological technologists who took the x-ray machine into Carter's room testified that the head of the machine slid 40 inches down its arm and struck his hand. She further testified there was a 1 1/2-inch scratch on Carter's hand after the accident. The nurse in Carter's intensive care unit testified he told her that the machine struck both his hand and abdomen. She also testified that she saw the scratch on his hand but noted no redness or swelling of his abdomen, and his incision was intact and dry. The nurse's further testimony attributed Carter's worsening condition to the removal of a nasalgastric tube resulting in increased pressure on his abdomen or to the development of "ileus," a condition where the bile organ looses its tone and fails to contract and relax so that distention is unable to be moved through the bowel. The radiological technologist supervisor testified that Carter complained only of the injury to his hand, but she also testified she did not talk to him. The supervisor of intensive care confirmed that Carter complained of injury to both his hand and abdomen, but testified there were no signs of injury to the latter.
The doctor who examined Carter shortly after the accident testified, in his opinion, the accident had nothing to do with the "course of his illness." He further testified as to certain findings which he said supported his opinion. He said Carter's hemorrhaging following the first operation began after the removal of the nasalgastric tube and led to the second operation being performed to locate the source of the bleeding. He also said he had been concerned about possible abdominal distention which he thought was due to...
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