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Williamson v. Hospital Service Dist. No. 1 of Jefferson12/1/2004
Not every unintentional tort committed by a qualified health care provider falls within the Medical Malpractice Act, only those "arising from medical malpractice." La. Rev. Stat. 40:1299.41(l). Plaintiff alleges in her petition, as supplemented and amended by her second supplemental and amending petition, that she was being pushed in a wheelchair by an employee of the defendant, West Jefferson Medical Center, when the wheel fell off causing her to fall and suffer injury. She further alleges that the defendant and its employee negligently failed to repair the wheelchair and negligently failed to insure that the wheelchair was in proper working condition prior to returning it to service.
Finding that the plaintiff should have presented her claim to a medical review panel, the district court sustained the defendant's exception of prematurity, and the court of appeal affirmed that ruling. Williamson v. Hospital Service Dist. No. 1 of Jefferson Parish, 03-1066 (La. App. 5 Cir. 1/27/04), 866 So.2d 962. We granted the writ to consider the correctness of the appeal court's analysis in which it employed a "broad interpretation" of the Act's definition of medical malpractice before determining whether the plaintiff's claim fell within the purview of the Medical Malpractice Act. Williamson v. Hospital Service Dist. No. 1 of Jefferson Parish, 04-0451 (La. 4/8/04), 870 So.2d 261. For the reasons assigned below, we find the court of appeal erred in not strictly construing coverage of the Medical Malpractice Act. See Sewell v. Doctors Hosp., 600 So.2d 577, 578 (La. 1992). Instead, we find that the plaintiff's petition, as supplemented and amended, alleges a claim of ordinary negligence that does not fall within the provisions of the Medical Malpractice Act. Accordingly, we reverse the court of appeal, as well as the ruling of the district court, and remand the matter to the district court for further proceedings.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
The facts of the case at this interlocutory stage of the proceedings are taken from the plaintiff's original petition as amended by her second supplemental and amending petition. In her petition as supplemented and amended, the plaintiff alleges that on July 31, 2000, after she was discharged from West Jefferson Medical Center, and as she was being pushed in a wheelchair by an employee of the defendant, a wheel on the wheelchair fell off causing her to be thrown to the ground resulting in injury . She alleges that, according to the defendant's risk management officer, the wheel of the wheelchair had been repaired by the defendant's personnel several days before the incident. She alleges that her injuries were caused by the fault of the defendant or its personnel in negligently failing to repair the wheelchair, negligently failing to supervise the repair of the wheelchair, and negligently failing to insure the wheelchair was in proper working condition prior to returning the wheelchair to service. She further pleaded the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur.
The defendant filed an exception of prematurity in response to the plaintiff's original petition asserting her claim was a medical malpractice claim that should have been, but was not, presented first to a medical review panel, as required by the Mecial Malpractice Act. One day prior to the hearing on the defendant's exception of prematurity, the plaintiff filed the second supplemental and amending petition. At the hearing on the defendant's exception of prematurity, the plaintiff argued her petition as that supplemented and amended by the second supplemental and amending petition, rather than argue the allegations of her original petition. The defendant referred primarily to the original allegations
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