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Duncan v. Kansas City Southern Railway Co.10/30/2000
beyond. In addition, both economists performed their calculations based on an 81-year life expectancy for Rachel . Dr. Pettingill explained that calculating costs for an 81-year life expectancy simply involved multiplying the cost for a 57-year life expectancy by the additional percentage of years. In other words, if the life expectancy increases from 57 years to 81 years, that equates to a 58% increase. Thus, the cost for future medical expenses with 24-hour LPN care at $22.00 per hour would increase from $10,528,722.00 to $16,635,380.00. According to Dr. Kurth, the present value for future medical expenses to age 81 would be $2,606,166.00.
The jury also heard testimony from Dr. Frank Lopez, plaintiff's expert in physical medicine and rehabilitation and Rachel's treating physician. He recommended 24-hour LPN care with RN supervision from a home health agency for Rachel. Dr. Lopez testified that he agreed with Dr. Voogt's testimony that the invasive nature of certain procedures required a LPN as opposed to a home health aide, and that the Voogt Plan was the more reasonable plan.
The jury was presented with the deposition testimony of Dr. Kathryn Zidek, Director of Pediatric Rehabilitation Program at The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research ("TIRR"). Dr. Zidek performed a comprehensive evaluation of Rachel in January, 1998, and recommended skilled care (either LPN or RN) until Rachel's present medical problems are corrected. According to Dr. Zidek, once Rachel's decubitus ulcers are healed, her normal skin integrity is restored, and she has a better state of nutritional health, then unskilled care may be used. Dr. Zidek opined that correcting these problems would take at least one year. She was also of the opinion that Rachel's life expectancy would be approximately 57 years. She based this opinion on statistics for persons with spinal cord injuries similar to Rachel's. While she admitted that life expectancies for persons with spinal cord injuries have increased over the years, she noted that the increases have not reached the level of persons without spinal cord injuries.
Having reviewed the record before us, it seems clear the jury based the award of $17 million on the testimony of plaintiffs' experts, Drs. Voogt and Pettingill. This award allows for the life- expectancy of 81 years. As an appellate court, we are bound to resolve cases based on the record before us. But, based on this record and readily available scientific data, we conclude that the lower courts have erroneously allowed and adopted inaccurate expert testimony given the facts at issue.
In the case at hand, the trial court adopted expert testimony regarding Rachel's life expectancy and the costs of future medical care based on this life expectancy. Plaintiff's experts testified that Rachel has a life expectancy of 81 years. Based on our review of the record, we find that a reasonable factual basis does not exist for the finding of this 81- years life expectancy, and this finding was manifestly erroneous. Stobart, supra, at 880. This estimate is based on the latest figures for persons of the same race, sex, and age in life expectancy tables published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Thus, no consideration is given to the fact that Rachel has a spinal cord injury which significantly impacts her life expectancy. In fact, an 81-year life expectancy far exceeds any estimated life-expectancy for persons with spinal cord injuries.
The term "spinal cord injury" refers to any injury of the neural elements within the spinal canal. Spinal cord injuries are classified as either complete (nerve damage obstructs every signal coming from the brain to body parts below the injury
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