Mansmith v. Hameeduddin
| Decision Date | 04 December 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 1-04-1243.,1-04-1243. |
| Citation | 307 Ill.Dec. 741,860 N.E.2d 395 |
| Parties | Harold MANSMITH, Individually, and as Special Administrator of the Estate of Delphine Mansmith, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Anjum HAMEEDUDDIN, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | United States Appellate Court of Illinois |
Dykema Gossett, Rooks, Pitts PLLC, Chicago (Marc D. Ginsberg, Cheryl A. Warzynski and Sonia A. Desai, of counsel), for Appellant, Anjum Hameeduddin, M.D.
Briones, Harvey, Trevino & Cruz, Homewood (Samuel Briones, of counsel); Peter V. Bustamante, Chicago, for Appellee, Harold Mansmith.
On January 14, 1998, Delphine Mansmith died of a brain stem abscess caused by an acute staph infection that developed after she received an epidural steroid injection for back pain. Her husband, the plaintiff Harold Mansmith, sued the defendant, Anjum Hameeduddin, M.D., and R. Lawrence Ferguson, M.D. for medical malpractice. The plaintiff and Dr. Ferguson reached a settlement agreement before the jury reached its verdict. A jury found for the plaintiff and awarded damages in the amount of $1,198,734.94. After a setoff in the amount paid by Dr. Ferguson of $750,000, judgment was entered against Dr. Hameeduddin in the amount of $448,734.94.
On appeal, Dr. Hameeduddin argues that the trial court erred when it denied her pretrial motion for summary judgment, her motions for a directed verdict at the close of the plaintiff's case in chief and at the close of all of the evidence, and her posttrial motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict because the plaintiff did not prove she deviated from the standard of care and did not and could not prove that she was the proximate cause of Mrs. Mansmith's pain and suffering and ultimate death under both survival and wrongful death causes of action. She also contends that the trial court erred when it (1) refused to instruct the jury that Dr. Ferguson reached a settlement agreement with the plaintiff and (2) taxed the costs of Dr. Ferguson's videotaped evidence deposition to her. For the reasons that follow, we affirm in part and vacate in part the judgment of the trial court.
Dr. Hameeduddin was Mrs. Mansmith's primary care physician. Mrs. Mansmith was an insulin-dependent diabetic and obese. In February 1996, Mrs. Mansmith first complained of back pain. Dr. Hameeduddin prescribed conservative treatment, which consisted of back exercises, injections of DepoMedrol for pain, and physical therapy. By June 1996, Mrs. Mansmith's pain returned, and she experienced numbness in her left leg and had difficulty walking. Dr. Hameeduddin ordered an MRI scan for Mrs. Mansmith. The MRI report dated June 28, 1996, stated that Mrs. Mansmith had a small focal herniation at the L5-S1 vertebra, a large left lateral bulge at the L4-L5 vertebrae, and a mild bulge at L1-L2.
Dr. Hameeduddin referred Mrs. Mansmith to Dr. R. Lawrence Ferguson, a neurosurgeon. In August 1996, after examining Mrs. Mansmith, Dr. Ferguson diagnosed her with spinal stenosis1 and a bulging disc at the L4-L5 vertebrae. Dr. Ferguson recommended surgery. Specifically, he recommended that Mrs. Mansmith undergo a decompressive laminectomy2 to remove the bulging disc at the L4-L5 area of her spine. While the surgery would not necessarily alleviate Mrs. Mansmith's back pain, it would help relieve the numbness in her leg. Prior to surgery, Dr. Hameeduddin prepared Mrs. Mansmith's preoperative history, which detailed she had spinal stenosis at the L4-L5 area.
On August 12, 1996, Dr. Ferguson performed surgery on Mrs. Mansmith. Instead of operating at the L4-L5 level, he performed the laminectomy at the L1-L3 level. In essence, Dr. Ferguson left untreated the stenosis and bulging disc at the L4-L5 level. In his postoperative report, which he sent to Dr. Hameeduddin, Dr. Ferguson stated that he performed the laminectomy at the L4-L5 level. Following surgery, Mrs. Mansmith was treated by both Drs. Hameeduddin and Ferguson for a postsurgical wound infection. By December 1996, the infection had healed.
In April 1997, Mrs. Mansmith again complained of lower back pain and pain radiating down her left leg. Once again, Dr. Hameeduddin prescribed physical therapy. Although her pain subsided for a time, by August 1997, Mrs. Mansmith was in excruciating pain with numbness in her lower extremities. Because she was not responding to conservative treatment, Dr. Hameeduddin ordered a second MRI. The MRI report received by Dr. Hameeduddin showed that Mrs. Mansmith had surgery at the L1-L3 vertebrae. It also showed that the presurgery pathology, the spinal stenosis and bulging disc at the L4-L5 vertebrae, remained unchanged. Dr. Hameeduddin recognized the inconsistencies between Dr. Ferguson's postoperative report and the second MRI, but she did not inform Dr. Ferguson or Mrs. Mansmith about those inconsistencies. Dr. Hameeduddin explained:
Mrs. Mansmith indicated that she did not want to go back to Dr. Ferguson and the Mansmiths requested a referral for a second opinion; Dr. Hameeduddin referred Mrs. Mansmith to Dr. George Miz, an orthopedic surgeon. In the course of her referral of Mrs. Mansmith to Dr. Miz, Dr. Hameeduddin provided only the second MRI scan report and film; Dr. Hameeduddin did not forward to Dr. Miz the report of the first MRI scan (presurgery) showing stenosis at the L4-L5 level; nor did Dr. Hameeduddin forward Dr. Ferguson's postoperative report in which he wrongly stated that he performed the laminectomy at the L4-L5 level.
Based on his review of the second MRI report, Dr. Miz recommended that Mrs. Mansmith lose weight and that she receive an epidural steroid injection, so long as she did not have an infection in her spine. He did not recommend surgery because Mrs. Mansmith had undergone a laminectomy at L1-L3 by Dr. Ferguson the previous year and he wanted to attempt conservative treatment first. If, however, the epidural did not relieve Mrs. Mansmith's pain, Dr. Miz would have considered surgery.
In correspondence dated August 28, 1997, to Dr. Hameeduddin, Dr. Miz stated, In correspondence dated October 7, 1997, to Dr. Hameeduddin, Dr. Rene Santos, an infectious disease specialist who examined Mrs. Mansmith for infections before the epidural steroid injection was administered, stated, "She underwent a lumbar laminectomy (L1-L3) by Dr. Ferguson last year for diskitis and spinal stenosis."
On December 23, 1997, Dr. Holly Carobene, an anesthesiologist and pain management specialist, administered the epidural steroid injection. In early January, Mrs. Mansmith complained of severe headache and back pain. On January 14, 1998, Mrs. Mansmith died from an acute staph infection. The epidural injection introduced bacteria into Mrs. Mansmith's spinal canal, which, after it reached her brain, caused a brain stem abscess that killed her. The initial autopsy indicated only that Mrs. Mansmith died as a result of a brain stem abscess. An exhumation performed in April 2002 showed that the brain stem abscess was caused by bacteria introduced during the epidural steroid injection.
In December 1999, the plaintiff sued Dr. Hameeduddin for medical malpractice pursuant to the Survival Act (755 ILCS 5/27-6 (West 1998)), and wrongful death pursuant to the Wrongful Death Act (740 ILCS 180/0.01 et seq. (West 1998)).3 In his third amended complaint, which was based on the autopsy, the plaintiff alleged that Dr. Hameeduddin breached her duty of care in that she did not tell Mrs. Mansmith that she had a vertebral bone infection.
In June 2003, Dr. Hameeduddin filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that no evidence in the record existed to support the claims that (1) any of her acts or omissions were the proximate cause of Mrs. Mansmith's death or (2) that her failure to report impacted Mrs. Mansmith's subsequent treatment. Later that month, the plaintiff filed a motion for leave to amend his third amended complaint to correspond to the exhumation report, which the trial court granted. In the fourth amended complaint, the plaintiff specifically alleged: (1) Dr. Hameeduddin did not inform Mrs. Mansmith or Dr. Ferguson, or the other physicians, that Dr. Ferguson had intended to, but did not, operate on the L4-L5 vertebrae and (2) had Mrs. Mansmith been informed of the mistake, she would have gone to the University of Chicago medical centers for the surgery and would not have agreed to an epidural steroid injection. On July 31, 2003, the trial court denied Dr. Hameeduddin's motion for summary judgment, treating the motion as if it related to the fourth amended complaint.
At trial, Dr. Larry Lustgarten, plaintiff's retained neurosurgeon, opined that if Dr. Ferguson had performed Mrs. Mansmith's surgery at the L4-L5 vertebrae, Mrs. Mansmith would not have needed the epidural steroid injection that caused her death. However, he testified that in Mrs. Mansmith's case, an epidural steroid injection was appropriate and that its administration was within the standard of care. He opined that it was appropriate for a family practitioner, like Dr. Hameeduddin, to defer to a specialist about orthopedic and neurological issues. He also testified that a person could get an infection from an epidural injection even with the best care.
Dr. Finely Brown, plaintiff's retained family practice expert, opined that Dr. Hameeduddin violated the standard of care by not telling Mrs. Mansmith that Dr. Ferguson...
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