Wilson v. Teng

• Decision Date: 08 December 2000
• Citation: 786 So.2d 485
• Parties: Stacia Lynn P. WILSON v. Bibi L. TENG, M.D.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

786 So.2d 485

Stacia Lynn P. WILSON v. Bibi L. TENG, M.D.

1982180.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

December 8, 2000.

Charles C. Tatum, Jr., Jasper, for appellant.

Michael A. Florie, Joseph S. Miller, and J. Wilson Axon, Jr., of Starnes & Atchison, L.L.P., Birmingham, for appellee.

JOHNSTONE, Justice.

The plaintiff, Stacia Wilson, brought a medical malpractice wrongful-death action against Athens Limestone Hospital and Dr. Bibi L. Teng, a pediatrician employed by Athens Limestone Hospital. The plaintiff complains that, after she brought her four-year-old daughter Starsha Wilson to the hospital for treatment for an infection, Dr. Teng, who regularly treated Starsha for sickle-cell anemia, wrongfully caused Starsha's death by causing or allowing her to be discharged without admission to the hospital and without proper care by Dr. Teng. The plaintiff claims that Starsha would not have died had Dr. Teng complied with the applicable standard of care and admitted Starsha to the hospital for treatment. Dr. Teng and Athens Limestone moved for summary judgment. Finding that no physician-patient relationship existed between Dr. Teng and Starsha, the trial court granted a summary judgment in favor of Dr. Teng, but denied a summary judgment in favor of Athens Limestone. The plaintiff appeals from the summary judgment in favor of Dr. Teng. We reverse that summary judgment.

On July 2, 1999, the trial court entered the following order:

"The above-styled matter came before the Court on a Motion for summary Judgment as filed by the Defendant, Dr. Bibi L. Teng. The allegations of the complaint in the case herein address the treatment rendered to the plaintiff's daughter in the emergency room of Athens-Limestone Hospital on the morning of May 19, 1994. The Defendant, Dr. Bibi L. Teng, is a pediatrician in private practice in Athens, Alabama, and was at the time of this event a salaried employee of the Defendant Hospital. She was not an emergency medicine physician. She did not work any shifts in the emergency department. Athens-Limestone Hospital had its emergency department staffed at all times with subcontractor emergency medicine specialists. The plaintiffs daughter herein, Starsha Wilson, had been a pediatric patient of Dr. Teng in the past. Dr. Teng had serviced the said Starsha Wilson and her disease, sickle cell anemia, both in her office and as her attending physician during prior hospitalizations.

"With regard to the allegations of this complaint alleging negligence by medical personnel, the child was initially seen at the Athens-Limestone Hospital emergency room by emergency medicine specialist, Dr. J.P. Tucker. Dr. Tucker went off shift at 7:00 a.m. and Dr. Dianna Osborn took over. Dr. Osborn is an emergency medicine physician. On the morning in question, Dr. Osborn made the exclusive treatment decisions for Starsha Wilson in the emergency room. Dr. Osborn made the decision to discharge Starsha Wilson. On the morning in question Dr. Teng, in passing through the emergency department, became aware that Ms. Wilson and Starsha were in the emergency department and visited with them for a short time.

"The threshold question in this case as to the liability of the said defendant herein is based upon whether or not there was a physician-patient relationship between the child and Dr. Teng on this date. This doctor's involvement with this child must be resolved on a question of fact. No similarly situated pediatric doctor in reviewing anything in regard to this case can speak to the facts of what happened that particular morning. This court has conducted a careful review of those facts in looking at all the evidence before it and particularly with regard to the affidavit and deposition of Dr. Bibi Teng, the deposition of Dr. Dianna Osborn and the deposition of the mother, Stacia Lynn Wilson. Both doctors in question clearly verify that the treating physician this morning for the child was Dr. Dianna Osborn. Dr. Teng testified that she never even went behind the curtain to specifically be with or care for the child. In evaluating the mother's deposition taken May 16, 1997, it is clear that she is not alleging that Dr. Teng undertook any treatment. She further indicated in her testimony that Dr. Teng was only there approximately `three to five minutes' and testified `I guess it really wasn't her case' (Deposition of Wilson, P. 136,7.) She further indicated that Dr. Teng told her, the mother, `Do what the doctor tells you' (Deposition of Wilson, p. 137), referring to Dr. Dianna Osborn. The mother subsequently on August 31, 1998, filed with the Court an affidavit which attempts to create a fact question with regard to the involvement of Dr. Teng. This Court has struck this affidavit and will not consider it because the law will not allow a party to create an issue of fact by providing an affidavit that contradicts, without explanation, her prior deposition testimony. Robinson v. [Hank] Roberts[, Inc.], 514 So.2d 958 (Ala.1987). While Dr. Teng had served in the past as this patient's private pediatrician, she was not the child's attending physician in the emergency room on the morning in question and did not make any medical decision for the administration of any medication or for the discharge of the child from the hospital. All of those medical decisions were made by the attending emergency room physician, Dr. Dianna Osborn. Dr. Teng simply conducted a `social visit' with the family. Dr. Osborn testified that Starsha Wilson was her patient in the emergency room on the morning of May 19, 1994, and the decisions made that day with regard to the appropriate treatment as well as to the discharge were her decisions. She did not consult Dr. Teng to examine or take over the care of the patient or to make any decisions. A physician's liability to a patient is predicated on the existence of a physician-patient relationship. There was no physician-patient relationship between the child and Dr. Bibi Teng during the time period made the subject matter of this complaint.

"It is, therefore, ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED by the Court that summary judgment in favor of the Defendant, Dr. Bibi L. Teng, is hereby granted."

(R. 375-77.) After determining that there was no just reason for delay, the trial court, pursuant to Rule 54(b), Ala.R.Civ.P., declared its summary judgment in favor of Dr. Teng final on August 2, 1999. Asserting that an issue of fact existed as to whether a physician-patient relationship existed between Dr. Teng and Starsha and that the trial court's August 2, 1999, order of summary judgment in favor of Dr. Teng did not comply with Rule 54(b), the plaintiff moved the trial court to alter, amend, or vacate the judgment in favor of Dr. Teng. The trial court denied the motion.

Before ruling on Dr. Teng's motion for a summary judgment, the trial court heard oral arguments from the parties' counsel and considered evidentiary materials submitted by the parties. In her motion for summary judgment, Dr. Teng asserted that she had not rendered any treatment to Starsha on the day of her death and that "no doctor/patient relationship existed between Dr. Teng and Starsha Wilson on the morning of the emergency department visit in question." (Motion, p. 3.) In support of her motion, Dr. Teng submitted her own deposition testimony, the deposition testimony of the emergency room physician Dr. Dianna Osborn, and her own affidavit, in which she stated:

"On the morning of May 19, 1994, I was in the nursery at Athens-Limestone Hospital attending to two babies. I left the nursery and walked through the emergency department on my way out of the hospital. I had completed my morning hospital rounds and was going to my office to see patients. I did not at that time know that Starsha Wilson was in the emergency department that morning. As I was passing through the emergency department, I was told that Mrs. Wilson and Starsha were there. I stopped briefly to speak to Mrs. Wilson. I looked into the cubicle where Starsha was situated. She was under the care of Dr. Dianna Osborn, an emergency medicine physician. I glanced at the pulse oximeter. I cannot recall the specific numeric value, but I recall that it showed a good level of oxygenation. I spoke briefly with Dr. Osborn at the desk, and I looked briefly at the preliminary lab report on blood work. I did not examine Starsha. I was not consulted by Dr. Osborn. I was not asked to examine or attend to Starsha. Dr. Osborn was in charge of her care. I prescribed no medicine. I was not advised of the details of Starsha's clinical presentation that morning. I did not participate in any way in the decision to discharge Starsha from the emergency department. I did not participate in the selection of her antibiotic medications. I spoke briefly with Mrs. Wilson as a social visit. I explained the emergency department physician would take care of Starsha. I stayed only a few moments, and I left to go to my office to see patients. I was not present in the hospital when Starsha was discharged. I did not bill the Wilson family for any services on the morning of May 19, 1994, in the emergency department, because I did not render any medical care or treatment. To my knowledge, the hospital did not bill for my services either. The standard of care in the national pediatric community did not (and does not) require me to take over the treatment of a patient under the care of a qualified emergency medicine specialist in the ER who has not consulted me.

"I was not Starsha's attending physician on the morning of May 19, 1994, in the emergency department at Athens Limestone Hospital. Starsha was at that time under the care of Dr. Dianna Osborn. Some hours later, on the afternoon of May 19, 1994, I was notified at my office that Starsha was en route back to the hospital in full arrest. I hurried to the hospital and participated in the resuscitative efforts, which were lengthy but unsuccessful. All of the care and

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