Thompson v. St. Anne's Hosp., 89 C 2869.
| Decision Date | 24 July 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 89 C 2869.,89 C 2869. |
| Parties | Michelle THOMPSON, Plaintiff, v. ST. ANNE'S HOSPITAL, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois |
James G. McConnell, Jeffrey M. Goldberg & Associates, Ltd., Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff.
Cecil A. Partee, State's Atty. of Cook County by Frank J. Oles, Asst. State's Atty., Chicago, Ill., for defendants.
Plaintiff Michelle Thompson has brought this action alleging that the defendant doctors and hospitals failed to provide her with proper medical treatment in connection with the premature delivery of her baby. Thompson claims that at 12:00 a.m. on the morning of April 8, 1988, she presented herself at the emergency room of defendant St. Anne's Hospital. Thompson, who was seventeen weeks pregnant at the time, was experiencing labor pains and vaginal bleeding. Thompson alleges that St. Anne's personnel failed to properly examine her or stabilize her condition and then inappropriately transferred her to defendant Cook County Hospital, where she arrived at 3:30 a.m. that same morning. Thompson claims that Cook County Hospital's personnel also failed to properly examine her, monitor her, or stabilize her condition. She further asserts that when she went into active labor about an hour after arriving at Cook County Hospital, the hospital's personnel left her unattended to deliver her baby in unsterilized surroundings. The premature infant survived for only five hours.
42 U.S.C. § 1395dd(b)(1)(A,B). Subsection (c) of § 1395dd provides that patients in labor or having an emergency medical condition can be transferred only under certain limited circumstances. The Act allows for civil actions in federal court to enforce its substantive provisions. 42 U.S.C. § 1395dd(d). See Bryant v. Riddle Memorial Hospital, 689 F.Supp. 490 (E.D.Pa. 1988).
Defendants Cook County Hospital, the Board of Commissioners of Cook County, Christine Skorberg, M.D., and Prakash Khatkhate, M.D. (collectively, "the County defendants") have moved to dismiss Counts II, V and VI of the complaint on the grounds that the facts Thompson alleges fail to support a § 1395dd claim against them. According to the County defendants, the purpose of the Act is to prevent "patient dumping," i.e., the practice of transferring indigent patients from one hospital to another because they are uninsured and cannot afford the medical treatment they are seeking. The County defendants maintain that since ...
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