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Ramirez v. Health Partners of Southern Arizona6/23/1998
AFFIRMED
This case presents issues of first impression concerning the scope and constitutionality of statutory qualified immunity provided under Arizona's version of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (the Act), A.R.S. ยงยง 36-841 through 36-849. Plaintiffs/appellants, surviving parents and brother of decedent Heather Lynn Ramirez, appeal from the trial court's summary judgment in favor of defendant/appellee Health Partners of Southern Arizona (HPSA) on their claims arising out of the unauthorized harvesting of bone from the decedent. We affirm.
BACKGROUND
Although the facts in this case are essentially undisputed, we view the evidence and reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to plaintiffs. Prince v. City of Apache Junction, 185 Ariz. 43, 912 P.2d 47 (App. 1996). On March 22, 1995, decedent Heather Ramirez was ejected from a car during a single vehicle accident and taken to Tucson Medical Center (TMC), where she died of head injuries later that day. Shortly after her death, Barry Spencer, a social worker employed by HPSA and TMC, approached plaintiffs at the hospital, counseled the family, and discussed with them the possibility of organ and tissue donation. The family consented to donate certain tissues, and Spencer filled out a TMC form entitled "Consent for Anatomical Gift & Organ/Tissue Recovery" (the consent form). On that form, decedent's father indicated his consent to donating her eyes, skin graft, connective tissue, saphenous veins, and heart valves. Because one of the parents was not comfortable with the concept of bone donation, Spencer scratched out the form's designation for "Bone." Spencer also wrote on the form that the family wished "nothing disfiguring, family will want a viewing with a short sleeve low cut top." Both Spencer and Mr. Ramirez signed and dated the form.
Spencer then called the American Red Cross (ARC) regional services office in California and spoke to Anthony Schiavoni, a Donor Development Coordinator, who filled out and made notes on a "Donor Referral Information Sheet" (the ARC form) during their conversation. Neither Spencer nor Schiavoni recall the specifics of that telephone conversation. Spencer's regular practice was to read the information directly from the consent form. Based upon the substance of the telephone conversation, however, Schiavoni understood from Spencer that Mr. Ramirez had consented to the donation of decedent's bone as well as other tissues and organs. Therefore, Schiavoni wrote and checked "bone" on the ARC form.
After his phone conversation with Schiavoni, Spencer placed a copy of the consent form in the decedent's medical chart at TMC. From that point on, neither Spencer nor HPSA was involved in the tissue donation or procurement process. Schiavoni contacted Ben Headen, the Tissue Procurement Coordinator for the ARC Southern Arizona Tissue Services office in Tucson, and sent by facsimile the ARC form and several other documents to him. Headen then arranged to go to TMC to procure the donated tissues. He personally reviewed the decedent's TMC chart, which included the donation consent form, before harvesting any tissues. He took special note of the "nothing disfiguring" notation in the chart, but overlooked the lack of consent for bone removal. Headen and his team then harvested the heart, femur bones, and other tissues from the decedent on the evening of March 22.
When plaintiffs later discovered that bones had been harvested contrary to their specific request and the explicit notations on the consent form, they sued HPSA and ARC, claiming that the wrongful harvesting constituted battery, gross medical negligence, breach of contract, and i
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