McCoy v. Physicians & Surgeons Hosp., Inc.
| Decision Date | 06 June 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 16,290-CA,16,290-CA |
| Citation | 452 So.2d 308 |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
| Parties | Justine Chanler McCOY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. PHYSICIANS & SURGEONS HOSPITAL, INC., Et Al., Defendants-Appellees. |
Fayard & Snell by A.R. Snell, Bossier City, for plaintiff-appellant.
Mayer, Smith & Roberts by Charles L. Mayer, Shreveport, for defendants-appellees, Physicians & Surgeons Hosp., Inc. and Jean Stone.
Cook, Yancey, King & Galloway by Samuel W. Caverlee, Shreveport, for defendants-appellees, Dr. James L. Zum Brunnen.
Before HALL, JASPER E. JONES and NORRIS, JJ.
Plaintiff sued a doctor, a nurse, and a hospital for injuries to her sciatic nerve resulting in leg and foot pain, weakness, and disability, allegedly caused by the defendants' negligence while she was in the hospital for a disc operation. Plaintiff alleges that the injury was caused by the negligence of the nurse in giving her an injection which damaged the nerve, and by the negligence of the doctor in damaging the nerve in the course of the operation, in failing to supervise and instruct the nurse who gave the injection, and in failing to promptly recognize the problem and to promptly call in a neurological specialist to treat the injury.
The defendant doctor filed a motion for summary judgment, relying on depositions of the plaintiff, her husband, nurses, the defendant doctor, a neurosurgeon who examined and treated plaintiff, and an affidavit and attached reports of a neurologist who examined and treated plaintiff. In opposition to the motion, plaintiff relied on the same items and the original report submitted by the medical review panel which found that a question of fact existed as to the negligence and liability of all the defendants. A later report of the medical review panel found that there was no fault on the part of the defendant doctor.
The trial court, upon review of the depositions and reports, found that the nurse who allegedly gave the injection was an employee of the hospital and not of the doctor, and that the doctor was not legally responsible for the improper administration of the shot, if such was the case. The court also found that although plaintiff may be suffering from some residual disability normally associated with major back surgery, there is nothing in the record to indicate any action by the doctor led to the plaintiff's severe disability in her leg which is normally not associated with such back surgery. The court found res ipsa loquitur to be inapplicable. The motion for summary judgment was granted and the plaintiff appealed. We reverse and remand.
On appeal, plaintiff does not contend that the doctor is responsible for the nurse's negligence in giving the injection, nor does plaintiff contend that the doctor was negligent in his treatment or lack of treatment of plaintiff after the injury caused by the injection was discovered. Plaintiff contends only that the material offered in support of the motion for summary judgment does not preclude the possibility that the surgery performed by the defendant doctor was a factor, along with the injection, which contributed to plaintiff's injury and resulting disability. Consequently, plaintiff argues there remains a genuine issue of material fact as to the doctor's negligence during surgery being a contributory cause of plaintiff's injury, and summary judgment is inappropriate.
The material presented in support of the motion for summary judgment indicates that the plaintiff's injury to her sciatic nerve was caused by an injection in the plaintiff's buttocks given by a nurse several hours after the surgery. The deposition testimony of the plaintiff and her husband is that she experienced severe pain in the buttocks and down her left leg at the time of the injection. The neurologist and the neurosurgeon, both of whom examined and treated plaintiff over an extended period of time, were of the opinion that her...
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Smith v. Our Lady of the Lake Hosp., Inc.
...Inc. v. Louisville and Nashville Railroad Co., 427 So.2d 1152, 1153-54 (La.1983) (collecting cases); McCoy v. Physicians & Surgeons Hospital, Inc., 452 So.2d 308, 310 (La.App. 2d Cir.), writ denied, 457 So.2d 1194 (La.1984) (noting that "[s]ummary judgment may not be used as a substitute fo......
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96 1134 La.App. 1 Cir. 3/27/97, Miceli v. Armstrong World Industries
...& Casualty Company, 254 So.2d at 496. A similar issue was thereafter presented to the second circuit in McCoy v. Physicians & Surgeons Hospital, Inc., 452 So.2d 308 (La.App. 2nd Cir.), writ denied, 457 So.2d 1194 (La.1984). In McCoy, the plaintiff alleged that her injury was caused by both ......
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Independent Fire Ins. Co. v. Sunbeam Corp.
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