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Muir v. C.R. Bard Inc.6/21/1999
s been in a stable, monogamous marriage for forty-two years; (5) has traveled to Malaysia to visit Bard's plant there; (6) is not a homosexual; (7) had not received any blood transfusions prior to the transfusions to treat the aplastic anemia; (8) had no exposure to blood, blood products, or bodily fluids except in his employment with Bard; and (9) used paint thinners occasionally, but only in well ventilated areas. Muir's wife did not have hepatitis. She was responsible for yard work, including application of herbicides and fertilizers.
Dr. Campbell admitted she would defer to a hepatitis C expert on whether blood transfusions are the major cause of hepatitis C and on whether Muir, in fact, has hepatitis C, if she thought the expert was reputable. She said: "I feel comfortable enough with hepatitis to sit down and have a Discussion about it with my patients; but in a deposition if somebody is going to try to pin me down to a fact, no, I don't feel comfortable enough to swear by it unless I have the open volumes in front of me." However, she opined "the most probable origin [of Muir's hepatitis C] is contamination via bodily fluids with which he came into contact while working with the catheters at C.R. Bard."
Dr. Elizabeth Christian is a specialist in internal medicine, hematology, and oncology. She admitted she is not an authority in hepatology. Nonetheless, she gave her opinion that Muir most likely contracted hepatitis C from the catheters. Dr. Christian testified: "I feel that the most likely area [for Muir contracting hepatitis C] is going to be from the catheters." See Madison v. Brantley, 302 S.C. 282, 395 S.E.2d 190 (Ct. App. 1990)(testimony of medical malpractice plaintiff's expert using phrase "more likely than not" satisfied "most probably" standard required for finding of causation).
Dr. Paul Yantis is board certified in internal medicine with a subspecialty in gastroenterology. Dr. Yantis testified:
According to records, the only risk factor I can see for Mr. Muir developing hepatitis C would be the exposure he had at work to the catheters that he inspected on a regular basis. All it would take would be one catheter that had blood on it from a person who was infected with the hepatitis C virus.
Mr. Muir coming into contact directly with this catheter and having any kind of open cuts or sores on his hands would certainly have had enough exposure in order to contract the disease.
According to the records provided me, Mr. Muir had no other known risk factors for contracting hepatitis C virus, that is, IV drug abuse, multiple sexual partners, either heterosexual or homosexual, or previous blood transfusions. . . .
It is my opinion, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that Mr. Muir has chronic hepatitis C and most probably contracted this disease from an infected urinary catheter that was contaminated with the blood of a person infected with the hepatitis C virus.
When asked if he would defer to a hepatitis C expert, Dr. Yantis responded: "I am not saying there are not some out there that, like you say, specialize only in--they don't see any patients that don't have hepatitis or hepatitis C. Yeah, they may see more than I do, but I don't think that makes their opinion any different than mine, or them any more of an expert than myself."
Dr. Roger Russell is certified in clinical pathology. He considers his areas of expertise to be clinical chemistry, a subspecialty in toxicology, and clinical pathology, including all aspects such as transfusion medicine, microbiology, immunology, clinical chemistry, and hematology.
Dr. Russell reported "EtO sterilization was never in
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