 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Wolbers v. Finley Hospital12/17/2003
ink there was a lot of deficiency in the management of the patient.
We are satisfied that this evidence was sufficient to allow the jury to find the hospital vicariously liable for the failure of its emergency-room physician to comply with the applicable standard of care.
3. Proximate cause
On the issue of proximate cause, Dr. Raphael was asked the following question:
Q: I'm asking you for an answer to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, can you testify as to whether or not it was more likely than not that had an airway been successfully established as you would have-as the standard of care you have required-would Mr. Wolbers have survived?
A: Again, it depends how late in the course because there's a point after which brain death intervenes, but had the airway been established and they had a viable patient, I think they could have brought him back yes.
In response to a later question, Dr. Raphael testified:
On the assumption that the people were in place at the time of the arrest and they established an airway, I think without a doubt he would have been survivable, yes.... I would say somewhere in the neighborhood of six minutes, seven minutes, eight minutes, perhaps ten minutes at the outside, you might have brain damage, but you would have a live patient.
We believe that this testimony was sufficient to permit the jury to find that inadequate emergency response by the hospital emergency-room staff was the proximate cause of the death of plaintiff's decedent.
IV. Whether the District Court Erred in Its Instructions to the Jury
A. Eggshell Plaintiff
The hospital asserts it was inappropriate for the district court to give an "eggshell plaintiff" instruction in a case involving a claim of medical malpractice. It urges that every patient can be considered to be an "eggshell plaintiff." The instruction of which the hospital complains was as follows:
If the decedent, Samuel Wolbers, had a condition which made him more susceptible to injury than a person in normal health, then the Defendant is responsible for all injuries and damages which are experienced by the decedent proximately caused by Defendant's actions, even though the injuries claimed produce a greater injury than those which might have been experienced by a normal person under the same circumstances.
We believe that the objection lodged to this instruction in the trial court was inadequate to preserve the challenge now being made on appeal. The hospital's objection to this instruction was as follows:
We object to the use of the word normal health. The Court hasn't defined normal health and the point is that the reason for this instruction as urged by the Plaintiff and accepted by the Court is that Mr. Wolbers had a condition which was a consequence of long-term smoking. There's been evidence in this case of that effect. You heard it-heard it as recently as yesterday, your honor, yet one reads these instructions and they're innocent of any suggestion that smoking is an issue in this case and the failure to instruct on that gives grievous harm to the Defendant and I think puts the court in equally grievous error.
The objection appears to have been an attempt to reassert the issue concerning comparative fault, which was disposed of in Division I of this opinion. It was insufficient to preserve the challenges to the instruction that are being made for the first time on appeal.
B. Presumptive Evidentiary Value of Death Certificate
1. Arguments
The hospital asserts the cause of Mr. Wolbers' death was an impor
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Iowa Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|