Estate of McCall v. U.S.

• Citation: 663 F.Supp.2d 1276
• Decision Date: 30 September 2009
• Docket Number: Case No.: 3:07cv508/MCR/EMT.
• Parties: ESTATE OF Michelle Evette McCALL, et al., Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Florida

663 F.Supp.2d 1276

ESTATE OF Michelle Evette McCALL, et al., Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant.

Case No.: 3:07cv508/MCR/EMT.

United States District Court, N.D. Florida, Pensacola Division.

September 30, 2009.

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Henry T. Courtney, Sara Margarita Courtney-Baigorri, Courtney Law Firm, Coral Gables, FL, Stephen St. Remy Poche, Poche and Lorenz LLP, Shalimar, FL, Robert S. Peck, Washington, DC, for Plaintiffs.

Pamela A. Moine, U.S. Attorney, Pensacola, FL, for Defendant.

ORDER AND FINAL JUDGMENT

M. CASEY RODGERS, District Judge.

This tragic case arises out of the death of a young mother, Michelle Evette McCall, after the delivery of her son, W.W., in February 2006, while in the care of Air Force medical personnel. The Estate of Michelle Evette McCall, by co-personal representatives, who are her parents, Edward M. McCall and Margarita F. McCall; and her son's father, Jason Walley; filed this action against the United States pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act ("FTCA"), 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346(b), 2671-80. The case was tried to the court without a jury on August 31 and September 1, 2009. See 28 U.S.C. § 2402. On consideration of the evidence presented, the court now renders its findings of fact and conclusions of law pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52(a).

FINDINGS OF FACT

In February 2006, Michelle McCall was a bright, beautiful, and healthy, 20-year-old woman. She graduated from high school with honors and had attended one term of college at the University of Florida and a partial term at Florida State University before returning home to Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, in 2005 for medical treatment unrelated to this case. She subsequently returned to Florida State University but soon thereafter withdrew and again returned home.¹ In June 2005, while living at home with her parents and working, she maintained a relationship with her high school sweetheart, Jason Walley, and became pregnant. Michelle obtained prenatal care at the Eglin Air Force Base clinic as an Air Force dependent and continued to live at home with her parents. She elected to obtain her prenatal care and delivery services through the Air Force's family practice department as opposed to the OB/GYN department.² Her pregnancy progressed without incident until February 16, 2006, when she attended a routine prenatal checkup and was seen by Captain (now Major) Marvin Sineath, a third-year family medicine resident at the clinic. Since her last office visit, Michelle's blood pressure had increased considerably and she had gained six pounds. She was instructed to collect a 24-hour urine sample and return it to the lab after the holiday weekend. She did as instructed, and on Tuesday, February 21, 2006, test results revealed she had severe preeclampsia, a serious condition characterized by elevated blood pressure and an abnormal amount of protein in the urine and requiring immediate hospitalization for the induction of labor. At this point, the otherwise normal pregnancy became a high risk pregnancy.³

Michelle was admitted to the Fort Walton Beach Medical Center on February 21, where she received care from Air Force medical personnel, including Dr. Sineath and his supervisor, family practice physician Major Brian Crownover.⁴ On admission, Michelle was given five milligrams of Hydralizine intravenously for hypertension.⁵ Additional medication was given to induce labor and Michelle began laboring with mild contractions through the night. An epidural was placed for pain mid-morning on February 22. Examinations revealed that Michelle was four centimeters dilated and her contractions were noted to be adequate. A cervical examination in the afternoon revealed that she was five centimeters dilated, but her contractions had slowed and become inadequate. Drs. Sineath and Crownover discussed whether a cesarean delivery was warranted when Michelle's contractions slowed. They contacted Major Frank Archbald, an Air Force obstetrician, shortly after 5 p.m. concerning the possibility of him performing a cesarean section. Dr. Archbald, however, was performing another surgery and thus was not immediately available but said he would come as soon as he finished. Michelle was then prepared for a cesarean section, but Dr. Sineath and Dr. Crownover did not call another obstetrician because Michelle appeared to be stable at that time. Captain (now Major) Said Acosta, a certified registered nurse anesthetist, arrived on his shift around 3:00 pm that afternoon and was told that Michelle had severe preeclampsia. He checked her epidural and observed her to be comfortable. Dr. Archbald arrived later, but by that time Michelle's labor had resumed, so she was allowed her to continue with a vaginal delivery instead of cesarean delivery, and Dr. Archbald left.

At 1:25 a.m. on Wednesday, February 23, 2006, Michelle delivered a healthy son, W.W., attended by Dr. Sineath and Dr. Crownover. Family members attending the birth were concerned with the amount of blood loss during the birth but were assured by medical personnel that Michelle was fine. At 1:30 a.m. Michelle's blood pressure was 180/92. Dr. Sineath and Dr. Crownover waited a period of time for the placenta to be delivered, but by 2:00 a.m., when the placenta had not delivered as expected, they began unsuccessful attempts at manual extractions.⁶ Nurse Acosta was awakened to provide more epidural pain relief for Michelle during the attempted manual extraction, which can cause considerable pain. When the epidural was no longer effective in controlling Michelle's pain, Nurse Acosta gave her two separate doses of Morphine intravenously, one at 2:09 a.m. and the other at 2:50 a.m.⁷ At 2:15 a.m., Michelle's blood pressure was reported at 137/75. Nurse Acosta remained at Michelle's bedside throughout the doctors' attempts to manually extract the placenta and admits that his job was to monitor pain control and report Michelle's vital signs to the physicians.

When the manual attempts of Dr. Sineath and Dr. Crownover to remove the placenta proved futile, they called for assistance from Dr. Archbald, sometime between 2:30 and 2:40 a.m. The medical records show that Michelle's blood pressure dropped considerably around that time. At 2:31 a.m., her blood pressure was 125/80 but at 2:34 a.m., it dropped to 93/43; at 2:39 a.m., it dropped further to 86/36, and remained in this range for the next two and a half hours. Nurse Acosta did not notify the attending physicians of the sudden decline in Michelle's blood pressure. Dr. Archbald arrived at the hospital around 2:45 a.m. Dr. Sineath and Dr. Crownover told him that Michelle had not lost a high volume of blood; they estimated 500 milliliters.⁸ Dr. Archbald successfully removed the placenta within five minutes and in doing so noticed serious lacerations on the vaginal wall needing repair. He worked for approximately an hour (until 3:50 a.m.) to repair the lacerations, during which time Nurse Acosta was present and monitoring Michelle's vital signs. At 3:03 a.m., her blood pressure was 94/46; at 3:32 a.m. it was 90/36; and at 3:47 a.m. it was 88/34. Dr. Archbald testified he specifically asked for Michelle's vital signs several times during the repair and was told by Nurse Acosta that her vital signs were "stable." According to Dr. Archbald, he was never advised of the specific pressures or heart rate, and was never told there was any change in Michelle's vital signs.⁹ Dr. Archbald further testified he relied on Nurse Acosta to inform him of the vital signs and did not personally check them because his focus at the time was on the vaginal repair. The medical records indicate that at 4:00 a.m., Michelle's blood pressure was down to 71/35 and her heart rate had risen to 131 beats per minute.

Nurse Acosta readily admitted on the stand that Michelle's blood pressure was falling throughout this time, yet he did not advise Dr. Archbald, or the attending physicians, of the readings. Nurse Acosta's trial testimony on why he did not notify the physicians of the change in the pressure readings was unclear. At one point he stated he assumed her falling blood pressure was the result of the morphine he had administered, but he later admitted he did not know why he failed to report this information to the physicians and could not give a reason.

After completing the vaginal repair around 3:50 a.m., Dr. Archbald instructed Dr. Sineath to run a "stat" complete blood count and order two units of blood for transfusion if needed.¹⁰ Dr. Archbald did this because, although he estimated Michelle lost 1000 milliliters of blood during the repair, he was unsure of the precise amount of blood Michelle had lost since delivery of the baby.¹¹ At approximately 4:00 a.m. Dr. Archbald returned to the nurses' station area to write his notes; Nurse Acosta went to sleep; and Dr. Sineath and Dr. Crownover were writing notes nearby. At some point, Dr. Crownover went home. Dr. Sineath did not order the complete blood count requested by Dr. Archbald until 4:30 a.m., and a nurse did not attempt to draw blood until 5:08 a.m.—over an hour after Dr. Archbald asked that it be done immediately. None of the physicians observed Michelle or personally checked her vitals between 4:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. At 5:08 a.m., when the nurse went into the room to draw blood, Michelle was found to be unresponsive and an emergency code issued. Lifesaving measures were taken. Nurse Acosta intubated Michelle at 5:19 a.m., and four units of blood were ordered. Transfusion was begun at 5:30 a.m., but Michelle never regained consciousness. She was removed from life support a few days later and died at 10:23 p.m. on February 27, 2006. The death certificate lists the following events as leading to Michelle's death, with the final event resulting in her death: severe...