Thomas v. Newnan Hosp.

• Decision Date: 22 January 1988
• Docket Number: No. 75458,75458
• Citation: 185 Ga.App. 764,365 S.E.2d 859
• Parties: THOMAS, et al. v. NEWNAN HOSPITAL, et al.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 859

365 S.E.2d 859

185 Ga.App. 764

THOMAS, et al. v. NEWNAN HOSPITAL, et al.

No. 75458.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

Jan. 22, 1988.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 9, 1988.

Certiorari Denied March 10, 1988.

James M. Poe, Theodore E.G. Pound, Atlanta, for appellants.

David H. Tisinger, Carrollton, C. Jerry Willis, LaGrange, Sidney F. Wheeler, Atlanta, Robert Sullivan, Carrollton, for appellees.

McMURRAY, Presiding Judge.

Appellants Ronald Fred Thomas and Sandra Lynn Thomas brought suit as parents of their deceased infant daughter and as temporary administrators of her estate against appellees Newnan Hospital, Boyce Thomas, M.D. and Kamil S. Cankir, M.D. The complaint alleged that the defendants were negligent, jointly and severally, in failing to render medical care and treatment to Jeanette Thomas with the degree of care, skill and attention required by Georgia law, thereby causing her death. Damages were sought for the full value of her life, for her pain and suffering, for the parents' pain and suffering and for medical and funeral expenses. After an eight-day trial the jury returned a verdict in favor of all the defendants, and this appeal was filed.

The evidence, construed in a light most favorable to support the verdict, was as follows: On Sunday, September 12, 1982, at about 7:20 p.m., three-year-old Jeanette Thomas was taken by her parents to the emergency room of Newnan Hospital. Her vital signs and history were taken by nurse Shirley Henson, who noted that the chief complaint was stomach cramps. The child's temperature was 98.3, her pulse and respiration were regular and her skin was warm, which did not indicate that she was critically ill. She was given a general examination by a pediatrician on call, Dr. Boyce Thomas, including her ears, nose and throat, heart, rectum, palpation of her abdomen and urinary analysis. The examination revealed normal bowel sounds, normal heart rate, no rectal abnormalities and a normal rectal temperature, with no vomiting or observable intervals of pain. At no time did she show symptoms of intestinal prolapse and Dr. Thomas was able to exclude the presence of intussusception (telescoping of the bowel); his impression at the time was that she had a gastrointestinal disorder. The child was given an enema, which seemed to relieve her discomfort, and the parents were told to take her home with instructions to administer paregoric and call Dr. Thomas if her condition changed.

At about 11 p.m. the father called Dr. Thomas to say that the child had begun vomiting, but did not describe the appearance of the vomit as being unusual, nor state that there was a recurrence of severe pain. Dr. Thomas got the impression that she was developing an intestinal virus because her symptoms were not consistent with an abdominal obstruction. He called the emergency room of Newnan Hospital to order a shot of dramamine to be administered, and instructed Jeanette Thomas' father to notify him if the injection did not stop her vomiting. Nurse Ella Ivey gave Jeanette Thomas the dramamine shot, but because this emergency room visit occurred only a few hours after the first one and was only for the purpose of getting a dramamine shot, there having been no apparent critical change in her condition, the nurse did not perform a full nursing assessment at that time. Mr. Thomas testified that he gave nurse Ivey a bowl into which his child had vomited on her way to the hospital, the vomitus being a very foul-smelling, green-tinged mucous, which the nurse disposed of. Neither nurse had any recollection of the events, which had occurred four years previous to the trial, and their testimony was based upon their medical charts and notes.

When Jeanette Thomas' condition did not improve during the night, she was taken by her parents to Dr. Cankir, their family doctor, the next morning. After taking her history from the mother and examining the child, he asked that she be brought back that afternoon for blood work as she seemed anemic. The child was not in severe pain nor vomiting during this office visit. However, after her father went to fill a prescription from Dr. Cankir, Jeanette Thomas became very weak and the parents took her immediately to Newnan Hospital. Shortly after their arrival there the child went into cardiac arrest. Dr. Thomas, along with other emergency room personnel, resuscitated her and she was transferred to intensive care. Dr. Thomas told the parents he suspected a ruptured appendix and peritonitis and would arrange a consultation with a surgeon, Dr. Matthew Burns. Before the consultation or surgery occurred, Jeanette Thomas stopped breathing at 5:19 p.m. Despite repeated efforts she could not be revived and was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m. Her death was determined to have been caused by a volvulus resulting from a rare congenital anomaly, or birth defect, a rotation of the small intestine which gradually cut off its blood supply and precipitated gangrene within the child's abdomen. The resultant chemical deterioration ultimately brought about the cardiorespiratory arrest and Jeanette Thomas' death.

At trial, Dr. Sanford Matthews, a practicing physician specializing in pediatrics, presented expert testimony on behalf of Dr. Thomas and Newnan Hospital. Dr. Matthews stated that the initial tentative diagnosis made by Dr. Thomas of gastroenteritis and prescribing paregoric, as well as his later decision to administer an injection of dramamine based upon the telephone conversation with Jeanette Thomas' father, was appropriate and well within the proper standard of care. Dr. Matthews also considered the resuscitative actions taken not only met the standard of care, but were excellent. In his view, the child probably did have gastroenteritis, which precipitated the volvulus through excess activity of the intestines; but when her condition worsened "it was nine hundred and ninety-nine chances out of a thousand that it was appendicitis and one chance out of a thousand it was volvulus, and indeed the greater weight of the evidence would suggest that the child had peritonitis, which in ... an overwhelming number of instances comes from a ruptured appendix.... It was UNKNOWABLE at that time." In his thirty years of practice Dr. Matthews had never treated a child with a volvulus. The vomiting and other symptoms related by the parents and shown by the child upon examination were commonly exhibited symptoms in early childhood, so that the diagnoses and treatment were logical and there was no departure from the standard of care required by OCGA § 51-1-27 as to any of the actions taken. Dr. Cecil Major testified as an expert witness that Dr. Cankir also complied with this standard of care in his treatment of Jeanette Thomas. Held:

1. Appellants contend that the trial court erred in ruling that they could not cross-examine Dr. Matthews in regard to his relationship as a consultant to the insurance carrier for Dr. Thomas and Newnan Hospital. They argue that the credibility of the expert witnesses of the parties was critical to the question of liability in this case; that Dr. Matthews was the only witness to testify that Jeanette Thomas was suffering from gastroenteritis when she first sought treatment; and that thus the probative value of showing the extensive relationship between Dr. Matthews and the insurance company for these two defendants outweighed any danger of prejudice to them.

Dr. Matthews testified on direct examintion that he had only testified in one medical malpractice action about six or seven years previously, but had given depositions in such cases five or six times. He stated that he had received about seventy-five medical files for review in the last three or four years and revealed what he charged for consultation and depositions. On cross-examination he was questioned as to how much consulting he did for defendants in medical malpractice cases, the rates charged and how much he had been paid as a consultant for defendants in each year since 1982, including the instant suit. The point was clearly made to the jury that Dr. Matthews frequently did consultations for defendant doctors in medical malpractice actions and made considerable sums of money doing so. Dr. Matthews was not allowed to answer whether he had "received more than sixty five percent of consultations requested from sources other than doctors, lawyers and hospitals ..." Variations on this question were also ruled inadmissible upon objection, as well as the answer that most requests for consultation on cases which might potentially be medical malpractice actions came from insurance companies.

It seems self-evident that insurers when called upon to defend their insureds must have expert advice as to how strong the case is against them, and will employ only the most competent persons for this purpose. It was brought out that Dr. Matthews' professional competency and opinions were highly regarded by other physicians and pediatricians, as evidenced by his service as a guest examiner for the American Board of...