 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Masters v. Khuri11/18/2004
s medical records, showed that blood was drawn at 11:05 P.M., an impossibility if intubation and CPR had occurred earlier. The respiratory therapist who supervised the logs testified that the figures on the log were approximations, noting that the data on the log were recorded in exact five minute intervals. The emergency room nurse, Virginia DeSorgher, placed the time of intubation on exhibit 6 as 11:00 P.M., and noted the time for the arterial blood gas result at 11:06 P.M. She also testified that she was not certain that the time recorded for drawing the blood was exact; the efforts in the emergency room were primarily directed to taking care of the plaintiff and not to the charting. Indeed, she stated, some of the recording was after the fact.
As Dr. Selim Suner, one of the plaintiff's experts pointed out, the records showed "conflicting times, and conflicting sequence of events." He and the plaintiff's other expert testified, based primarily on the medications given at 11:15 P.M., that the record was incorrect as to the time of intubation.
In this posture of the case, it was within the judge's wide discretion, see Commonwealth v. McDonough, 400 Mass. 639, 648 (1987), to allow the defendant's experts to state their opinions that the plaintiff's medical records reflected the time the blood results were received, rather than when the blood was drawn. See Liacos, Massachusetts Evidence ยง 7.7.3, at 408 (7th ed. 1999) ("Whether an expert has sufficient knowledge of the particular facts of the dispute to be qualified to render an opinion is in the discretion of the trial court, which will seldom be reversed").
Where, as here, the conflicting times were in evidence, "the question whether the basis of doctor's opinion is sound goes to the weight of the evidence, not its admissibility." Sacco v. Roupenian, 409 Mass. 25, 30 (1990), quoting from Baker v. Commercial Union Ins. Co., 382 Mass. 347, 351 (1981).
Judgment affirmed.
Page 1 2 3 4 Massachusetts Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|