Kastler v. Iowa Methodist Hospital, 53668

• Decision Date: 15 December 1971
• Docket Number: No. 53668,53668
• Citation: 193 N.W.2d 98
• Parties: Betty Colleen KASTLER, Appellant, v. IOWA METHODIST HOSPITAL, Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 98

193 N.W.2d 98

Betty Colleen KASTLER, Appellant, v. IOWA METHODIST HOSPITAL, Appellee.

No. 53668.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Dec. 15, 1971.

Reynoldson, Brown & Van Werden, Osceola, for appellant.

Patterson, Lorentzen, Duffield, Timmons & Irish, Des Moines, for appellee.

UHLENHOPP, Justice.

The principal question to be decided here is whether a hospital patient generated a jury issue on the question of negligence in this action against the hospital for personal injuries.

Plaintiff Betty Colleen Kastler, 25 at the time of the events in question, is married to Howard Kastler and lives on a farm near Van Wert, Iowa. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Mrs. Kastler, the jury could find that from childhood she suffered from spells of headaches, rapid heartbeat, difficult breathing, and dizziness, followed by fainting. The spells grew worse after she became an adult. At the onset of a spell, she either got to, or was carried to, a bed or cot, and her head rolled from one side to the other. After she regained consciousness she was depressed and wept. Someone in the family stayed near her during her spells.

Mrs. Kastler received treatment in the form of medication from both Des Moines and Leon physicians, but she obtained no relief. In October of 1964 her difficulty became so severe that she and her family decided she should be hospitalized. Her physician contacted a Des Moines psychiatrist, who had her admitted to the psychiatric ward of defendant Iowa Methodist Hospital. A history was not taken by the admitting psychiatrist or entered on her chart until after the incident in question.

Mrs. Kastler entered the hospital on the afternoon of October 23, 1964. The psychiatrist directed that his standing orders should be followed, but he did not examine her until after the incident. His standing orders contained no reference to baths. The hospital regulations for hospital personnel contained directions for showers of patients at 9:00 p.m. daily.

Upon Mrs. Kastler's admission, her husband reported to the nurse on duty that Mrs. Kastler suffered from nerve trouble and fainting spells.

The evidence reveals that Mrs. Kastler is a cooperative and well-meaning individual and that in the hospital ward she was obedient and tried to follow hospital rules.

Mrs. Kastler spent October 24th in the ward. On the morning of October 25th she did not feel at all well, was dizzy, and felt 'in general sick all over.' She tried to do her personal laundry but could not complete it; another patient did it for her. As to her condition she testified, 'I had tried to tell the nurse that was in the nurse's station, tried to talk to her but all I done, the only way I could get her attention was peck on the window and what I would say was ignored, so I didn't get to talk to her.'

That noon Mrs. Kastler attempted to eat lunch but was unable to do so.

The nurses and aides change shifts at 3:00 p.m., and the outgoing shift reported to the incoming one that Mrs. Kastler was not feeling well.

Later in the afternoon of October 25th, Mrs. Kastler tried to play bingo, but she was too ill to do so. She asked the aide on duty if she could lie down because she was 'so sick.' She was allowed to do so. Later the aide came in and asked her how she was. Mrs. Kastler testified, 'I explained to her that I had--I got dizzy and sick and my heart beat rapidly. . . .' The aide suggested the cause might be excitement, but Mrs. Kastler responded in the negative and that 'I had these spells, that I had these spells.'

About time for the evening meal Mrs. Kastler got up. She was unable to take food, and when the aide made inquiry Mrs. Kastler responded she was just so sick she could not eat. She testified, 'I was feeling terrible at that time. I just felt like I had before, dizzy and light-headed, sick to my stomach and that surely I just wanted to get laid down and rest.'

The time for patients' showers came at 9:00 p.m. The area for female patients consists of a rectangular room containing lavatories and toilets, with an adjoining rectangular shower room containing the shower stall itself and an entry space to the shower. The female patients are individually called to the shower room by the aide on duty--in this case, the same aide with whom Mrs. Kastler had been conversing earlier. The aide sits just outside the shower room. The aide gave Mrs. Kastler an early number for her shower. At the trial the aide was asked:

Q. Was there any particular reason why she would have been that number?

A. Because as I have told you before, it was reported she was not feeling well.

The aide sent Mrs. Kastler into the shower room alone. The jury could find that Mrs. Kastler was about ten feet from the aide when she took off her clothing to shower. According to Mrs. Kastler, she next stepped into the shower and started washing her face. At that point she lost consciousness and fell, striking the side of her face on the shower wall. She then fell face down on the floor. The aide contends she tried to clutch Mrs. Kastler, but of course the truth of the aide's testimony was for the jury. As a result of the fall, Mrs. Kastler's lip was severely lacerated, her jaw was broken, and two of her teeth were knocked out--all of her upper teeth had to be removed later in consequence of injury from the fall.

Mrs. Kastler bled from the mouth, and the aide placed a washcloth in her mouth and covered her with a bath mat. In a short time Mrs. Kastler regained consciousness, and in due course she received treatment for her injuries.

The psychiatrist later examined Mrs. Kastler. He was of the opinion that she has epilepsy and that she had a seizure in the shower.

Sometime later Mrs. Kastler left defendant hospital and entered a hospital at Leon, Iowa. Still later she was a voluntary patient at the Iowa Mental Health Institute at Clarinda.

Mrs. Kastler commenced an action against Iowa Methodist Hospital for her injuries from the fall. The case was tried to a jury. At the conclusion of the evidence, the hospital moved for a directed verdict, mainly on the grounds of no proof of negligence or of proximate cause. The trial court stated, 'The Court, however, is constrained to view the testimony that's been introduced in this case in the light most favorable to the plaintiff in determining whether or not a jury question has been generated. Viewing the testimony in this light, and in the light of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Iowa in two recent cases, namely, the Bradshaw and Shover cases, the Court is constrained to overrule the defendant's motion for directed verdict.'

The jury returned a verdict for Mrs. Kastler. The hospital moved for judgment notwithstanding verdict. The trial court, concluding that the motion was good, sustained it. Mrs. Kastler appealed the case to us.

Two issues are before us: whether substantial evidence was introduced as to (1) the negligence of the hospital and (2) proximate cause.

I. Negligence. The first issue contains three parts: (a) whether the duty of the hospital was to exercise 'reasonable care in the light of the patient's known condition' or 'the care exercised by hospitals generally,' (b) whether evidence of the practice of hospitals generally was necessary in this case, and (c) whether Mrs. Kastler adduced substantial proof that defendant hospital breached its duty toward her.

(a) As to the standard of care of a hospital toward a patient, two rules are frequently enunciated. A host of decisions hold that a hospital must use the care which is exercised by hospitals generally (or by hospitals in the community). We recently so held in a case involving professional services by a hospital. Dickinson v. Mailliard, 175 N.W.2d 588, 596--597 (Iowa) ('The correct standard of care to which hospitals should be held is that which obtains in hospitals generally'); see also, Garfield Memorial Hosp. v. Marshall, 92 U.S.App.D.C. 234, 204 F.2d 721 (D.C.Cir.); Foley v. Bishop Clarkson Memorial Hosp., 185 Neb. 89, 173 N.W.2d 881; Annot., 37 A.L.R.2d 1285. On the other hand, a host of other decisions hold that the standard applicable to hospitals is such reasonable care as the patient's known condition may require. E.g., Schuster v. St. Vincent Hosp., 45 Wis.2d 135, 172 N.W.2d 421; see also, Annots., 22 A.L.R. 341, 343, 39 A.L.R. 1431, 1432, 124 A.L.R. 186, 187, 11 A.L.R.2d 751, 778, 70 A.L.R.2d 347, 348, 378, 72 A.L.R.2d 408, 409. Standard treatises lump the two rules together. 40 Am.Jur.2d Hospitals & Asylums § 26 at 869 ('that degree of care, skill, and diligence used by hospitals generally in the community' and 'such reasonable care and attention for their safety as their mental and physical condition, if known, may require'); 41 C.J.S. Hospitals § 8(3) at 349 ('such reasonable care toward a patient as his known condition may require' and 'that degree of care, skill, and diligence used by hospitals generally in that community').

By an exercise in sophistry, possibly the two rules can be made to mean the same thing, but one court has pointed out that they are actually different rules. White v. Baptist Memorial Hosp., 363 F.2d 37 (6th Cir.). In that case the court was not required to resolve the problem.

Several courts, however, confronted by the problem, have held that the two rules are not identical but that they apply to two different situations. If the conduct in question is professional in nature, then the applicable standard is the care exercised by hospitals generally (or by hospitals in the community). But if the conduct involves nonmedical, administrative, ministerial, or routine care, then the applicable rule is such reasonable care as the patient's known condition may require. Perhaps the earliest case clearly drawing the distinction is Hayhurst v. Boyd Hosp., 43 Idaho 661, 254 P. 528. Other decisions making the distinction are Gold v. Sinai Hosp. of Detroit, 5 Mich.App. 368, 146 N.W.2d 723; Stallman v. Robinson, 364 Mo. 275, ...