Hornbeck v. Homeopathic Hospital Ass'n of Del.

• Decision Date: 29 January 1964
• Citation: 57 Del. 120,197 A.2d 461
• Parties: , 57 Del. 120 Gladys M. HORNBECK, Plaintiff, v. The HOMEOPATHIC HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION OF DELAWARE, Maurice A. Turner, M.D., Raymond W. Hillyard, M.D., and Mary C. Davidson, Defendants.
• Court: Delaware Superior Court

Page 461

197 A.2d 461

7 Storey 120, 57 Del. 120

Gladys M. HORNBECK, Plaintiff, v. The HOMEOPATHIC HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION OF DELAWARE, Maurice A.

Turner, M.D., Raymond W. Hillyard, M.D., and Mary

C. Davidson, Defendants.

Superior Court of Delaware, New Castle County.

Jan. 29, 1964.

David C. Rittenhouse (of Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell), Wilmington, for plaintiff.

Rodney M. Layton and Max S. Bell, Jr. (of Richards, Layton & Finger), Wilmington, for defendants Homeopathic Hospital Ass'n of Delaware, Maurice A. Turner and Raymond W. Hillyard.

Clyde M. England, Jr. (of Killoran & VanBrunt), Wilmington, for defendant Mary C. Davidson.

STIFTEL, Judge:

This is a medical malpractice case. Plaintiff's amended complaint relies solely on the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur. Defendants move for summary judgment claiming that the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is inapplicable under the facts of this case and have filed an affidavit of an anesthesiologist to support their motion, which plaintiff moves to strike because it fails to comply with Superior Court Rule 56(e), Del.C.Ann.

Plaintiff went to the defendant hospital for the removal of a herniated disc. Prior to the operation on March 2, 1961, plaintiff was given a spinal injection without any difficulty. She was then turned prone on the operating table; whereupon she immediately propped herself on one elbow, took a sitting position, and proved very restless. She also complained that she was unable to breathe properly, although it did not appear to the anesthesiologist that she was having any trouble breathing. Repeated attempts were made to quiet her and to get her to reassume the prone position so that the operation could proceed. These attempts proved unavailing. The doctors decided that it was best to put her to sleep with surital, a trade name for thiamylal sodium, an ultra-short-acting barbiturate. According to the deposition of the defendant anesthesiologist, Dr. Turner, the surital was injected into the patient's left hand. Dr. Hillyard, the operating neurosurgeon, indicated in the hospital record that he believed the injection of surital was made on the volar surface of the patient's forearm. In his deposition, however, he seems uncertain of where the patient received the injection. When plaintiff awoke in the recovery room, she noticed a granulating wound on her left inner forearm. There was no wound on her hand. In a very short time a necrosis developed on her left forearm which is both unsightly and uncomfortable and has caused pain, embarrassment and expensive medical treatment. The nurse-anesthetist said that she learned in school that surital can cause a necrosis if it comes in contact with the skin, but the anesthesiologist is doubtful of this when the anesthetic is used in its present two and a half per cent solution. Plaintiff alleges in her amended complaint that her left arm was healthy before the operation, that she was injured while unconscious, when defendants were in control of the disc operation, and that this injury, which is located outside the operative area, was so unusual that it would not normally occur in the absence of negligence of one or more of the defendants. Thus, plaintiff claims that the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is available to her because this injury was outside the operative area and because it was unusual, thus giving rise to an inference of negligence.

This action is brought against many defendants based on their participation in the operation and their activities in relation to the plaintiff patient immediately following the operation. The action is against the anesthesiologist, Dr. Maurice A. Turner, the nurse-anesthetist, Mary C. Davidson, and the neurosurgeon, Dr. Raymond W. Hillyard, and against the Homeopathic Hospital Association of Delaware (the Memorial Hospital), on the contention that some of the persons who assisted with the operation or in the recovery room were in the employ or control of the Memorial Hospital.

Res ipsa loquitur is not a stranger to Delaware negligence practice. Delaware Coach Co. v. Reynolds, 6 Terry 226, 71 A.2d 69; see, also, Ciociola v. Delaware Coca Cola Bottling Company, 3 Storey 477, 172 A.2d 252, 259. Its use in medical malpractice has been tried in Delaware before, but never permitted insofar as the reported cases demonstrate. DiFilippo v. Preston, 3 Storey 539, 173 A.2d 333; Mitchell v. Atkins, 6 W.W.Harr. 451, 178 A. 593; Christian v. Wilmington General Hospital Ass'n, 11 Terry 550, 135 A.2d 727. Nationally, as the number of malpractice cases increase, its use by plaintiffs is being requested more and more, 77 Harv.L.Rev. 333 ('Malpractice and Medical Testimony'), supposedly for the reason that it is difficult to obtain the services of a doctor who is willing to testify against his professional brother, who has been charged with negligence by an unhappy patient. See, Roady and Anderson, Professional Negligence, p. 85; Louisell and Williams, Trial of Medical Malpractice Cases, par. 14.02, p. 421; McCoid, 'Liability of Medical Practitioners', 12 Vanderbilt L.Rev. 549, 621. This is apparently a problem in Delaware as well.

The Court determines in the first instance if plaintiff is entitled to rely on res ipsa loquitur. See, Delaware Coach Co. v. Reynolds, 6 Terry 226, 71 A.2d 69, 74. To be entitled to this procedural advantage, plaintiff's injury must be of a kind which ordinarily does not occur in the absence of defendant's negligence. See, Skipper v. Royal Crown Bottling Co., Del., 192 A.2d 910, 912; Prosser on Torts, 2d ed., p. 205. Res ipsa, however, is subject to the same limitation as the rule permitting inference of negligence from proven circumstances; that is, if the injury is as consistent with the absence of negligence as with the existence of negligence, neither conclusion can be said to have been established by legitimate proof, and no issue is made for submission to the jury. Skipper v. Royal Crown Bottling Co., supra; Ciociola v. Delaware Coca Cola Bottling Co., 3 Storey 477, 172 A.2d 252, 257, 259. Normally, however, res ipsa loquitur raises an inference of negligence which gets a plaintiff to the jury. See, Delaware Coach Co. v. Reynolds, supra, 71 A.2d at p. 73; Christian v. Wilmington General Hospital, supra, 135 A.2d at p. 731. The jury is not compelled to find for the plaintiff, but the inference is evidence to be weighed and considered with the other evidence, not necessarily to be accepted as sufficient. Delaware Coach Co. v. Reynolds, supra; Sweeney v. Erving, 228 U.S. 233, 33 S.Ct. 416, 418, 57 L.Ed. 815; Christian v. Wilmington General Hospital, supra. Where the principle is applied, the occurrence of the injury calls for explanation or rebuttal on the part of the defendant and when all the evidence is before the jury, the question for them is whether the preponderance of the evidence is or is not with the plaintiff.

In a medical malpractice case, in order that a jury might be able to draw an inference of negligence from the circumstances, they must be able to understand the nature of the doctor's failure to exercise the proper standards of competence and care which other doctors in good standing would ordinarily adhere to in this or similar communities. See, DiFilippo v. Preston, supra; 70 C.J.S. Physicians and Surgeons § 62, p. 1006. Normally, in order for a jury to determine this, it is essential that plaintiff supply expert testimony to enable the jury to decide intelligently if the doctor has departed from the proper standards of his profession. See, Christian v. Wilmington General Hospital 11 Terry 550, 135 A.2d 727, 730; Cyr v. Giesen, 150 Me. 248, 108 A.2d 316, 318. In fact, only on a rare occasion should a jury be permitted to draw an inference of negligence without the assistance of an expert. See, Christian v. Wilmington General Hospital supra, 135 A.2d at p. 730; see, also, Ayers v. Parry, 3 Cir., 192 F.2d 181, 184; Hawkins v. McCain, 239 N.C. 160, 79 S.E.2d 493; Toy v. Rickert, 53 N.J.Super. 27, 146 A.2d 510, 513; and 'Malpractice--Expert Witness', 81 A.L.R.2d 597, 608. This rare occasion presents itself where the lack of skill of the physician is clearly within the understanding of a layman and where only common knowledge and experience are required to comprehend the nature of the cause of injury. Larrimore v. Homeopathic Hospital Ass'n, Del.Super., 176 A.2d 362, aff'd Del., 181 A.2d 573; Christian v. Wilmington General Hospital, supra, 135 A.2d at p. 731 (recognizing rule, but holding it inapplicable). The negligent act must seem reasonably apparent from the facts. Goodwin v. Hertzberg, 91 U.S.App.D.C. 385, 201 F.2d 204; Note: 60 Mich.L.Rev. 1153, 1159.

Plaintiff claims her forearm injury is unusual because it is outside the operative area and to a portion of her anatomy which had been healthy prior to the operation. She argues that these facts point to someone's negligence.

Plaintiff's argument that res ipsa loquitur should be available where a part of plaintiff's body is injuried, which is not under treatment, receives substantial support in many jurisdictions, especially California. See Anno.: 'Malpractice--Res Ipsa Loquitur', 162 A.L.R. 1265, recently supplemented in 82 A.L.R.2d 1262; Anno.: 'Malpractice--Anesthetist', 53 A.L.R.2d 142, 148; Lesnick & Anderson, Nursing Practice and the Law, p. 298; Belli, 'Silent Medical Treatment', 1 Vill.L.Rev. p. 250. In most jurisdictions where this doctrine is applied, the negligent act generally seems readily apparent from the facts. Louisell and Williams, Trial of Medical Malpractice Cases, par. 14.06, p. 439; but compare Rosen, 'Defense to Malpractice--Res Ipsa', 13 Cleveland-Marshall L.Rev. 128. Is this true here? This Court must now decide if it is within the ability of a court and lay jury, without the help of an expert, to say that in a spinal operation, where an intravenous injection of the hand or arm takes place, a patient does not, without the probability of...