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Gomez v. Try City Community Hospital5/19/1999
Dissenting opinion by: Sarah B. Duncan, Justice
REVERSED AND REMANDED
Appellants appeal a summary judgment in favor of appellee, Tri City Community Hospital, Ltd. ("Hospital"), in a medical malpractice action. The trial court granted a no-evidence summary judgment on the element of causation. Appellants assert that the trial court erred in granting the judgment. We reverse the trial court's judgment and remand the cause to the trial court for trial.
Factual and Procedural History
On April 20, 1995, Jeronimo Carrasco ("Carrasco") was taken to the emergency room of the Hospital by ambulance complaining of back pain. He was admitted for observation, then released on April 21, 1995. He was still complaining of back pain at the time of his release.
On April 22, 1995, Carrasco returned to the Hospital complaining of continued back pain and the inability to stand. Carrasco further complained that he had not had a bowel movement in four days. A chest x-ray was taken on April 22, 1995. The x-ray revealed a "significantly widened mediastinum" and "an increase in the size of the cardiac silhouette."
On April 24, 1995, a radiologist reviewed the x-ray and dictated his report. In addition to reporting what the x-ray revealed, the report stated: "In the setting of back pain consideration should be given for aortic dissection." The report states: "Ward notified 4-24- 95."
Sometime on April 24, 1995, Carrasco's condition deteriorated, and he was air lifted to Methodist Hospital in San Antonio. A CT scan revealed a type I dissecting aneurysm of the thoracic aorta. Carrasco underwent emergency surgery, and the surgeons found a ruptured dissecting aneurysm of the thoracic aorta. The surgeons were able to replace the ascending aorta with a synthetic graft, and the patient was fairly stable following the surgery. The following day, Carrasco suffered another pericardial effusion with tamponade. Emergency surgery was undertaken, and a new bleeding site into the pericardium was found with "abundant blood" in the left chest. Resuscitative efforts were not successful, and Carrasco died.
Appellants sued the Hospital and the emergency room physician. The appellants settled with the physician. The Hospital filed a motion for summary judgment asserting several grounds. The trial court's judgment reflects that the Hospital advised the trial court at the hearing on its motion that it was waiving all summary judgment claims except its "no- evidence" claim. The no-evidence claim contained within the Hospital's motion asserts that appellants failed to present any evidence of proximate cause between the Hospital's alleged breach of the standard of care and appellants' injuries. The trial court granted summary judgment on this ground, and appellants timely perfected this appeal.
Standard of Review
We apply the same legal sufficiency standard in reviewing a no- evidence summary judgment as we apply in reviewing a directed verdict. Moore v. K-Mart Corp., 981 S.W.2d 266, 269 (Tex. App.-San Antonio 1998, pet. denied); Judge David Hittner & Lynne Liberato, No-Evidence Summary Judgments Under the New Rule, in State Bar of Texas Prof. Dev. Program, 20 Advanced Civil Trial Course D, D-5 (1997). We look at the evidence in the light most favorable to the respondent against whom the summary judgment was rendered, disregarding all contrary evidence and inferences. Moore, 981 S.W.2d at 269; Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Havner, 953 S.W.2d 706, 711 (Tex. 1997), cert. denied, 118 S.Ct. 1799 (1998). A no-evidence summary judgment is improperly granted if the respondent brings forth more than a scintilla of probative evid
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