Whitehead v. Linkous
| Decision Date | 24 September 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. WW-299,WW-299 |
| Citation | 404 So.2d 377 |
| Parties | Sharon B. WHITEHEAD, as the Personal Representative of the Estate of Jimmy Ray Whitehead, Appellant, v. Clayton E. LINKOUS, M.D., and Sacred Heart Hospital of Pensacola, Inc., Appellees. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Antony E. Fiorentino, Pensacola, for appellant.
Danny L. Kepner of Shell, Fleming, Davis & Menge, Pensacola, and Charles C. Sherrill of Sherrill, Moore & Hill, Pensacola, for appellees.
LILES, WOODIE A. (Retired), Associate Judge.
At approximately 7:45 P. M. on May 26, 1975, Jimmy Ray Whitehead was brought by ambulance to the Sacred Heart Hospital's emergency room in Pensacola, Florida. Upon his arrival, he was examined by the defendant, Dr. Clayton E. Linkous, who determined that the deceased was suffering from an overdose of Valium and Darvocet taken in conjunction with a large amount of beer in an apparent suicide attempt. Dr. Linkous directed that Whitehead be orally given an ounce and one-half of Ipecac, a medicine to induce vomiting. The Ipecac was administered at approximately 8:00 P. M. by a registered nurse, Sandra Morgan, an employee of the Sacred Heart Hospital. When she gave the Ipecac to Whitehead, she advised him and his wife, who was present in the cubicle, that she wanted Whitehead to drink water. She further instructed the wife to make Whitehead drink the water. Both his wife and a friend, Jack Hurry, were unable to induce Whitehead to drink any water. Hurry eventually left the emergency room, but before doing so advised Nurse Morgan that the deceased was not drinking water. He also noted that, when he left the emergency room, Whitehead appeared to be unconscious.
Approximately thirty-eight minutes later, Morgan walked by Whitehead's cubicle in the emergency room and noted that his color had changed. She immediately reported to the nurse's station that someone needed to check Whitehead, for his color "didn't look right." When Morgan advised the nursing station that Whitehead needed to be checked, Dr. Linkous, Anita Wilson, a second registered nurse, and Sandra Hartley, a unit secretary, were in the station. Sandra Hartley then left the station on an errand. Upon returning, she passed by Whitehead's cubicle and noted that his color was much darker than when he first came in. She, too, advised Dr. Linkous of the color change. He in turn told her to request Nurse Wilson to do the gastric lavage. She noted that he was less responsive and variously described his color as being "dusky or grey" and"very dusky, very dark." Upon placing her hand on his chest and stomach, she found that there was no movement. She lowered his bed, established an airway, and immediately went back to the nurse's station to ask Hartley to call a Code 3, meaning a cardiac and pulmonary arrest. The deceased was resuscitated and moved to the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital. However, he never regained consciousness and died twenty-seven days later on June 22, 1975.
Sharon B. Whitehead, the deceased's wife and personal representative of his estate, brought a malpractice suit against Dr. Linkous and the Sacred Heart Hospital. In the presentation of its case, the Estate called as an expert witness Dr. Henry Harden, an emergency room doctor practicing in Pensacola, Florida. Dr. Harden testified that, based upon the emergency room records, the hospital records, and the autopsy protocol, he believed that Mr. Whitehead's death was due to brain damage caused by lack of oxygen. He also testified that in his opinion the care received by Whitehead deviated from the standard practice in the community, because a qualified nurse saw a color change ("cyanosis") in a patient that had taken an overdose and did not immediately check to see if he required supportive care. Harden further opined that, had the deceased been checked immediately and supportive care been given immediately upon the cyanosis being observed, the deceased would be alive today. The defense called no witnesses.
In charging the jury, the trial judge gave the following instructions, which were timely objected to by the Estate:
On the first defense the issues for your determination are whether Jimmy Ray Whitehead intentionally acted in such a way that his actions were a contributing, legal cause of his death.
On the second defense the issues for your determination are whether Jimmy Ray Whitehead was himself negligent and, if so, whether such negligence was a contributing, legal cause of the injury or damage complained of.
If the greater weight of the evidence does not support the defenses of the Defendant and the greater...
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