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Cabaniss v. Anderson12/22/2000
Robert E. Anderson, M.D., the defendant in a medical-malpractice action pending in the Dallas Circuit Court, petitions for a writ of mandamus directing the circuit court to vacate its order compelling Dr. Anderson to comply with certain discovery requests and directing it to issue a protective order. We stayed enforcement of the trial court's discovery order pending our review of this petition. We grant the petition in part and deny it in part.
After finding a questionable bump on his forehead in January 1998, James Harold Trotter, Sr., was referred to Dr. Anderson for further consultation. Dr. Anderson, who had previously removed a cancerous tumor from Trotter's forehead, determined that this bump, a squamous cell carcinoma tumor, also needed to be excised. On February 5, 1998, Dr. Anderson performed an outpatient procedure at Four Rivers Medical Center ("Four Rivers"), in which he removed all tissue from Trotter's forehead and scraped all the way down to the bone. Dr. Anderson then performed a skin graft by which he removed skin from under Trotter's forearm and transferred it to the surgical site. At a follow-up appointment a few days later, Dr. Anderson noticed that the skin graft on Trotter's forehead did not seem to be "taking" properly. Because of this failure of the skin graft to adhere properly to the bone, Dr. Anderson scheduled for Trotter a debridement and granulation procedure at Four Rivers in which he would drill holes in Trotter's forehead, which would allow the transferred skin from the graft to grow toward the bone marrow between the inner and outer tables of the skull. During the drilling process, which took place on March 13, 1998, Dr. Anderson drilled through the inner table of Trotter's skull and into the dura (the outermost lining of the brain), resulting in a "gush of serosanguinous fluid (a mixture of cerebrospinal fluid and blood)." A postsurgery CAT scan revealed the presence of air in the intracranial space. Fearing that Trotter would suffer from infection, Dr. Anderson scheduled to have Trotter transferred to another hospital for a neurological evaluation. However, approximately 50 minutes postsurgery, Trotter suffered a serious and debilitating stroke; he was not transferred to the other hospital until two hours later. Because of the stroke, Trotter spent several weeks in the hospital and at a rehabilitation facility. He never fully recovered from the stroke before he died in June 1998.
Trotter and his wife, Annie Ruth Trotter, sued Dr. Anderson and Four Rivers, alleging that Dr. Anderson had breached the applicable standard of care in performing the skin-graft procedure. Annie Ruth Trotter claimed damages for loss of consortium. On Trotter's death, Trotter's daughter Diana Cabaniss, as personal representative of his estate, was substituted as a plaintiff. Cabaniss and Mrs. Trotter (hereinafter referred to collectively as "Cabaniss") made discovery requests to Dr. Anderson, asking for the following:
(1) "copies of all complaints" against Dr. Anderson filed within the five years before March 13, 1998, relating to his ability to perform surgery;
(2) acknowledgment of whether Four Rivers had been given notice of any complaints against Dr. Anderson;
(3) acknowledgment of whether Four Rivers had restricted Dr. Anderson's surgical privileges; and,
(4) acknowledgment of whether Dr. Anderson's "medical, surgical or staff privileges have ever been reviewed, restricted or cancelled by any hospital or by any Medical Licensure Commission in any state in which [he has] been licensed," along with a full explanation of any such actions taken.
In addition, Cabaniss requested the following items from all defend
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