 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Easum v. Miller6/24/2003
tensive diagnostic testing and was able to rule out rheumatoid arthritis, which had been suspected as the cause of the laboratory test abnormalities. After the extensive reports of these specialists were discussed with the Easums by Dr. Norris and Dr. Wurzel, Easum was referred to Dr. Hooshmand, a neurologist in Florida, specializing in electrical injury type cases. Dr. Hooshmand has identified electrical injury in thirteen other dairy farmers from different parts of the country suffering similar symptoms as Easum and concluded in all that "stray voltage" was the cause of their medical condition.
Under the direction of Dr. Hooshmand, Easum underwent fourteen days of extensive diagnostic testing, including qualitative sensory testing, infrared thermography imaging on two occasions, electroencephlography tests, visual evolved response tests, brain mapping tests, brain stem evoke response tests and neuropsychometric testing. The electroencephlogram test was abnormal, and another specialist, Dr. Weise, reported it to be consistent with electrical injury . The thermography test was also abnormal and determined consistent with tissue responses to electrical injury. From the use of differential diagnosis technique, Dr. Hooshmand concluded that Easum was suffering from Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) and an immune system dysfunction. Doctors Norris and Wurzel concurred in that diagnosis. Easum was prescribed treatment that is administered and monitored by the latter two doctors and, while he has shown improvement, continues to be afflicted by many of his symptoms.
Dr. Hooshmand concluded that the cause of Easum's RSD was his exposure to low levels of electrical current; however, RSD has no known etiology other than heredity and repetitive strain injury . Easum, nevertheless, filed suit against Appellees and presented Dr. Hooshmand as his expert on causation. Appellees moved for summary judgment on the basis that the technique of differential diagnosis is unreliable for determining general causation and contended that this technique was too unreliable to admit regarding the specific causation because it has not been scientifically proved that RSD can result from low levels of electrical current.
The trial court determined that the technique of differential diagnosis is reliable only if the remaining cause is one that is scientifically established and then concluded that the basic research had not been conducted in this case. The trial court stated:
The scientific method consists of 4 steps: gathering information, classifying those data, forming a theory or prediction of behavior, and testing that theory. Dr. Hooshmand skipped the first two steps and arrived at a conclusion based upon the common fallacy in reasoning known as "after this, therefore, because of this."
Dr. Hooshmand has treated 13 dairy farmers with similar symptoms. Even with this limited sample, there has been no rigorous collection of data. We are not told the medical histories of the patients, the durations and intensities of electrical exposure, the reactions of others who were exposed, and the incidence of this condition among the general population compared to the incidence among dairy farmers or some other group exposed to low levels of electricity.
The trial court dismissed Easums' case authority supporting the differential diagnosis as distinguishable either because causation was not an issue in those cases or because the causation diagnosis was supported by medical literature, peer-reviewed articles, clinical trials, and product studies. The trial court concluded that the claim of injury from exposure to low levels of electrical current was not based upon science but w
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Wyoming Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|