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Batson v. South Louisiana Medical Center12/22/2000
This case is before us on remand from the Louisiana Supreme Court with instructions to this court to review damages awarded under the $500,000.00 cap for each of the multiple injuries sustained by plaintiff, Deborah Batson, while hospitalized at South Louisiana Medical Center (SLMC) in Houma, Louisiana. After a thorough review of the extensive record herein, we find no abuse of discretion by the trial court in its award of damages.
With regard to SLMC's claim of entitlement to a credit as the result of a settlement between Ms. Batson and certain defendants, for the reasons discussed more fully below, we pretermit this claim and remand this matter for a determination by the trial court as to whether SLMC is entitled to a credit and, if so, the amount of the credit due.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
On July 24, 1990, Deborah Batson, a thirty-seven year old woman, was brought to the emergency room at SLMC, with symptoms of vomiting blood and having black, tarry stools. Ms. Batson, who previously had a peptic ulcer condition, was admitted to the hospital for observation and treatment. Ms. Batson's ulcer began bleeding again during her hospitalization on July 26, 1990. Thus, at that time, she underwent a routine surgical procedure known as a Billroth I anastomosis. This procedure involved removing the very end of the stomach and the first portion of the small intestine, where the bleeding was occurring, and surgically reconnecting the remaining portion of the stomach to the intestine. Despite having knowledge that her stomach was filled with old blood and that her stomach acidity was reduced due to the administration of antacids, a situation that allowed for the growth of more bacteria, the treating physicians failed to prescribe antibiotics either pre-operatively or post-operatively to prevent Ms. Batson from developing an infection.
Within hours after surgery, Ms. Batson began to exhibit signs of infection. She developed a fever in excess of 102 degrees, which continued for at least five days, and she also exhibited symptoms of rapid heartbeat and respirations, sweating, restlessness and severe abdominal pain. On July 30, 1990, four days after surgery, Ms. Batson's surgical incision opened up, and purulent drainage began emanating from the wound. It was determined that a leak had developed in the anastomosis, causing fluids from the intestinal tract to leak into the subcutaneous tissues and, ultimately, to escape through Ms. Batson's incisional wound, which led to the development of a fistula. A culture of the drainage from the wound tested positive for e-coli.
On the evening of July 30, 1990, a third-year surgical resident who was treating Ms. Batson ordered intravenous antibiotics. However, his order was not carried out that evening. Moreover, on the following morning, July 31, a first-year surgical resident who was also treating Ms. Batson ordered that the IV antibiotics, which had never been initiated, be discontinued. Thus, it was not until later that day, five days after the onset of Ms. Batson's symptoms of infection, that broad-base antibiotics were ordered and administered.
By the time antibiotics were finally administered, Ms. Batson had developed sepsis, an infection of the blood that one of her treating physicians described as "the most devastating complication that a patient can have." As a result of this life-threatening complication, Ms. Batson went into multi-organ system failure, which continued for most of the six and one-half months she spent in ICU. In the first few days that she was in ICU, she suffered a massive heart attack, and she remained in critical condition and near death for a prolonged period of time thereafter
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