Schumacher v. Murray Hospital

• Decision Date: 08 November 1920
• Docket Number: 4158.
• Citation: 193 P. 397,58 Mont. 447
• Parties: SCHUMACHER v. MURRAY HOSPITAL ET AL.
• Court: Montana Supreme Court

193 P. 397

58 Mont. 447

SCHUMACHER v. MURRAY HOSPITAL ET AL.

No. 4158.

Supreme Court of Montana

November 8, 1920

Appeal from District Court, Silver Bow County; John B. McClernan Judge.

Action by H. J. Schumacher, as administrator of the estate of Edson Currier, deceased, against the Murray Hospital, a corporation, Dr. T. J. Murray, and others. From judgment for plaintiff and an order denying their motion for new trial defendants appeal. Judgment and order reversed, and cause remanded for new trial.

Brantly C.J., and Holloway, J., dissenting in part.

T. J. Walker, James E. Murray, and Kremer, Sanders & Kremer, all of Butte, for appellants.

A. A. Grorud, of Helena, Louis E. Haven, of Hardin, and Maury, Wheeler & Melzner, of Butte, for respondent.

HURLY J.

This is an action brought by the administrator of the estate of Edson Currier, deceased, for alleged malpractice growing out of the treatment of said Currier, following injuries which he had received in an accident.

Currier was employed by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company at the West Colusa mine in Silver Bow county on the 29th day of December, 1913, and for some time prior thereto, on which date he was injured, sustaining an impacted fracture of the right hip joint or neck of the femur, accompanied with a dislocation of the hip joint, while in the discharge of his duties. The Murray Hospital, under a contract between it and the mining company for the benefit of its employees, was obliged to furnish surgical and medical care, treatment, and attention to the employees of said mining company, for which service the employees, including Currier, had paid a stated sum per month during the time of their employment. After receiving the injuries referred to, and under the terms of said contract, Currier was taken to the hospital and placed under the care of the hospital and its physicians, among whom are the defendants above named. The evidence discloses that, after Currier was taken to the hospital, his hip was examined by its employees, who diagnosed his injury as a dislocation of the hip joint; and it is alleged in the complaint that the defendants treated his injuries as a dislocation for a period of about 50 days, during all of which time it is alleged that Currier was suffering from an impacted fracture of the hip joint, rather than a dislocation, and that the defendants carelessly and negligently failed to treat the said fracture as such until about 50 days after Currier received the same, and carelessly and negligently failed to properly treat the said fracture at any time or at all. It is further alleged that the defendants at all times in the complaint mentioned had at their disposal an X-ray apparatus for making examinations, but that they carelessly, negligently, and unskillfully failed to properly diagnose the said fracture by the means at their disposal, including said X-ray apparatus, and likewise failed to give to said hip the continued treatment which the same needed and required, and that by reason thereof Currier suffered great physical pain and mental anguish, and that an abscess developed on his hip, causing an infection which later caused his death.

At the close of the case defendants moved the court for a nonsuit upon the ground that the evidence was insufficient to justify a verdict in favor of plaintiff. The motion was granted as to defendant T. J. Murray, but denied as to the remaining defendants. Plaintiff had verdict. From the judgment thereon, and from an order denying a motion for a new trial, the defendants appealed.

There was testimony on the part of the plaintiff that Currier, when brought to the hospital, was suffering from wounds upon his head and also from injuries to his hip; that, because of the severity of the shock sustained, it was deemed inadvisable to attempt to put him under an anesthetic just then. His head wounds were dressed, and provision was made for keeping the patient at rest until the shock condition had subsided. Upon the following day the patient was removed to the operating room, placed under an anesthetic, and his head wounds further dressed and cared for. The physicians in charge examined the injury to the hip, and testified that all the conditions were typical of an ordinary posterior dislocation.

There is given in considerable detail the steps taken by them in handling, reducing, and treating the dislocation; that measurements were taken of Currier's limbs; that no shortening of the limb existed, etc.; that the leg was firm and rigid; that no evidence of a fracture was discovered by them; and that there was nothing to indicate such fracture. The patient was then removed to his room. On the thirteenth day the physicians in charge told the nurse to have the patient sit up in bed, and with the aid of pillows and other supports he was propped up in bed, and this was done each day following. Later one of the physicians (Dr. Blake) told Currier he should get up and move around on crutches. Dr. Blake brought him crutches, and, with the assistance of the doctor and of Mrs. Currier and a nurse, he got out of bed. Mrs. Currier testified that he was directed by the doctor to place his foot upon the floor and put his weight thereon and to walk around on the crutches, which he did thereafter every day, spending part of the time each day in a wheeled chair, until he was later operated upon. The testimony of Mrs. Currier as to the first occasion when he used the crutches is that this occurred about the twenty-second or twenty-third day after he came to the hospital. There is also testimony by Mrs. Currier that deceased complained of intense pain when propped up in bed and in getting out of bed and moving around. On the thirty-sixth day an X-ray picture of the hip was taken, which disclosed that Currier had an impacted fracture of the neck of the femur. After the discovery of this fracture no change was made in the treatment, and Currier continued to get up and move around the room at the request of the doctor in charge. On or about the fifty-second day, his leg being then swollen, he was taken to the operating room, and an incision made in his perineum, in which was found a considerable quantity of pus. Upon the following day another operation was performed and more pus removed. Mrs. Currier testified that at the time one of the physicians conducting the operation said, "That is where the trouble is coming from." Some time thereafter (as testified by Mrs. Currier, about 2 to 2 1/2 weeks) the doctors opened the incision and then found that the bone was honeycombed and broken, when the physicians cut away the decayed portions. She testified that one of the operators then said, "That was the seat of the trouble." No splints or supports were placed upon the hip at any time, though the wounds caused by the operation were dressed and bandaged. On or about the eighty-fourth day Currier died, concededly from septic poisoning.

It is conceded by practically all of the physicians, whether testifying for the plaintiff or the defendants, that an impacted fracture of the neck of the femur presents unusual difficulties in treatment and diagnosis, and that such an injury is of a very serious nature to the patient.

There is also testimony to the effect that Currier was suffering from stricture of the urethra. One of the physicians testified that Currier, shortly after coming to the hospital, informed him that he was suffering from the effects of gonorrhea, contracted some considerable time previously, and that he did not want the fact disclosed to his wife, and that it was not made known to her. For some days, to permit urination, he was catheterized. After his death an autopsy was held, when, in addition to the impacted fracture, the honeycombed condition of the bone, and a purulent condition in the hip, a slight amount of pus was found in the pole of the right kidney, about a dram in quantity. Otherwise his internal organs were found to be normal.

It is contended by the defendants that the septic condition which caused his death was because of the gonorrhea and stricture, and that, when injured by the accident, the germs passed through the lymphatic system and found lodgment in the hip, the spot of weakest resistance in his system, and that the purulent condition of the hip was in no wise caused by lack of care, nor could it have been prevented by the exercise of care and treatment. There is testimony as to the treatment given him for the stricture. Mrs. Currier denies that he suffered from gonorrhea, and testified that for about 18 years prior to the accident she had been his wife, during which time they had sustained the usual relations of husband and wife, and that she had never contracted the disease. There is also medical testimony that, had he suffered from gonorrhea, she would have been likely to contract the same. Special interrogatories were submitted to the jury as to whether Currier was suffering from stricture or gonorrhea, and as to whether the septic condition was caused by such afflictions. Upon these the jury found in the negative.

Appellants' first specification is based upon the court's statement of the issues in its instructions to the jury. We think the statement was sufficient. However, had defendants desired a more complete instruction, it was their duty to tender one.

Plaintiff's counsel, in examining physicians testifying in his behalf, in framing certain questions, included therein statements from text-books on medical subjects. This was objected to by defendants, and they now contend that such rulings constituted reversible error.

Experts are permitted to give their conclusions because of their presumed knowledge of subjects with which the ordinary layman or juror is not conversant. These opinions may...