Snyder v. Pantaleo

• Decision Date: 27 March 1956
• Citation: 143 Conn. 290,122 A.2d 21
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: Emma D. SNYDER, Administratrix (Estate of Shirley C. Snyder) v. Carl V. PANTALEO. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut

Page 21

122 A.2d 21

143 Conn. 290

Emma D. SNYDER, Administratrix (Estate of Shirley C. Snyder) v. Carl V. PANTALEO.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

March 27, 1956.

Cyril Coleman, Hartford, for appellant (defendant).

Alexander Winnick, New Haven, with whom were Gilbert H. Winnick, New Haven, and, on the brief, Sidney Gimple, New Haven, for appellee (plaintiff).

Before BALDWIN, O'SULLIVAN and DALY, JJ., and SHEA and BORDON, Superior Court Judges.

BALDWIN, Associate Justice.

The plaintiff, as administratrix of the estate of Shirley C. Snyder, brought this action for alleged malpractice against the defendant and had a verdict for damages. The defendant moved to set the verdict aside and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict because it was contrary to the law and the evidence. The trial court denied these motions, and the defendant has appealed. The question is whether there was evidence which reasonably and logically supported the verdict.

Shirley, who lived in West Haven, was sent by her family physician, Dr. Raymond J. Zagraniski, to the defendant, a specialist in radiology practicing in New Haven, for an intravenous pyelogram, a procedure used in diagnosing kidney ailments. An iodine compound called diodrast, which is opaque to roentgen rays, is administered intravenously and outlines the affected parts so that pathological conditions otherwise not observable are disclosed. The procedure is used quite generally, although it is attended with some danger because a small percentage of patients are allergic to the iodine contained in diodrast. Iodine is deleterious to bodily tissues, and there is no known antidote for a systemic reaction to an injection of it. Because of this fact, extreme caution is required in the administration of diodrast. There are two other methods of kidney diagnosis, but both of them subject the patient to greater hazards than an intravenous pyelogram does. The defendant learned upon taking the history of Shirley that she had no known allergies. So much of the facts are not in dispute.

A physician is under a duty to his patient to exercise that degree of care, skill and diligence which physicians in the same general neighborhood and in the same general line of practice ordinarily possess and exercise in like cases. Horton v. Vickers, 142 Conn. 105, 113, 111 A.2d 675; Marchlewski v. Casella, 141 Conn. 377, 380, 106 A.2d 466; Ardoline v. Keegan, 140 Conn. 552, 556, 102 A.2d 352. Usually, proof of the breach of this duty must rest upon the testimony of an expert witness qualified to state what the particular standard of care requires and to express an opinion that the treatment accorded the patient failed to meet this standard. Ardoline v. Keegan, supra; Frogge v. Shugrue, 126 Conn. 608, 612, 13 A.2d 503; Person v. Lilliendahl, 118 Conn. 693, 695, 172 A. 94; Huffman v. Lindquist, 37 Cal.2d 465, 473, 234 P.2d 34, 29 A.L.R.2d 485; Stryker, Courts & Doctors, p. 84; Herzog, Medical Jurisprudence, § 192. Cases in which the want of care and skill is so obvious as to compel a conclusion of negligence furnish the only exception to this rule. Slimak v. Foster, 106 Conn. 366, 370, 138 A. 153; Chubb v. Holmes, 111 Conn. 482, 486, 150 A. 516. The case at bar does not come within the exception.

The evidence submitted to the jury admits of two possible versions of what happened after Shirley was prepared for the examination. The jury could have found from the testimony of the defendant that he made a so-called skin test which produced nothing to indicate his patient's sensitivity to diodrast. He then injected one cubic centimeter of diodrast intravenously, waited two minutes and administered the remaining nineteen cubic centimeters from a vial containing twenty. When the needle was removed, Shirley began to 'flush up' and to sit up in a semierect position; she retched and called for water. The defendant immediately began to inject adrenalin, a specific remedy for this condition, but upon observing symptons of a convulsion he stopped the adrenalin and gave sodium luminal. Shirley became convulsed and violent. After the defendant had treated her and she was quiet, he tried without success to reach Dr. Zagraniski and order doctors. About an hour later, he talked with Dr. Zagraniski, who ordered Shirley removed to St. Raphael's Hospital, where she died the next day. Her death resulted from the administration of the diodrast. Two medical experts testified that the defendant in following the procedure outlined above, had used that degree of care, skill and diligence which radiologists engaged in the same general practice in the general neighborhood have and exercise. The plaintiff concedes that if the jury accepted the foregoing account of what happened she would not be entitled to a verdict.

The jury, however, could have found that the defendant, when he talked with Dr. Zagraniski later in the morning in question, gave him a substantially different version of what had taken place. Dr. Zagraniski made a note in the hospital records of what the defendant had said. It reads as follows: 'This A.M. [Shirley] was seen by [Dr. Pantaleo] who skintested her and got a one-plus reaction. He gave her a few cc. [of diodrast] intravenously and then gave her three minims adrenalin for her flush and feeling of weakness. He gave the rest of the 20 cc. of diodrast [and] she went into a convulsion. He gave her some...