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Karney v. Arnot-Ogden Memorial Hospital6/11/1998
(1) Cross appeals from an order of the Supreme Court (Ellison, J.), entered March 31, 1997 in Chemung County, which, inter alia, partially granted defendant Lawrence Dolkart's motion to set aside the verdict, (2) appeal from an order of said court, entered March 31, 1997 in Chemung County, which granted a motion by defendant Arnot-Ogden Memorial Hospital to set aside that portion of the verdict rendered against it, and (3) appeal from an order and judgment of said court, entered April 29, 1997 in Chemung County, which, inter alia, dismissed the complaint against defendant Arnot-Ogden Memorial Hospital.
At 9:50 A.M. on February 9, 1984, Sheila Karney, in the 28th week of her pregnancy, was admitted to defendant Arnot-Ogden Memorial Hospital (hereinafter the Hospital) because she had been experiencing vaginal bleeding. Her personal physician, defendant Lawrence Dolkart, saw her at 10:50 A.M. and ordered a sonogram. Following the completion of the sonogram, which was unremarkable, Karney was placed on the obstetrical floor for bed rest and observation. Although the hospital record indicates that the first stage of Karney's labor began at 8:00 P.M., Joan Pirozollo, an obstetrical nurse and hospital employee, did not call Dolkart until 10:30 P.M. She recalled him at 11:00 P.M. to advise him that a fetal monitor showed that Karney was having contractions at five- minute intervals. Dolkart then went to the hospital where, at 11:45 P.M., he performed a vaginal examination that showed Karney's cervix had dilated to four centimeters. At that point, he administered Betamethasone to improve fetal lung maturity and Ritodrine to arrest labor.
The administration of these medications was stopped at 12:05 A.M. on February 10, 1984 when an examination revealed that Karney's cervix had increased in dilation to five centimeters. Karney's son, plaintiff herein, was delivered at 12:40 A.M., weighing two pounds, six ounces with an Apgar score of one at one minute. He was intubated and remained on ventilatory support virtually all the time he was at the hospital until his discharge in April 1984. At 15 months a diagnosis of cerebral palsy, spastic diplegia was made. This condition has left plaintiff unable to walk and almost totally dependent on others for his personal needs. Otherwise, his health has been good except for recurrent respiratory difficulties that have abated; his speech is basically normal and he exhibits normal intelligence.
After the trial of this medical malpractice action, the jury concluded that Dolkart had been negligent in failing, inter alia, to diagnose Karney's preterm labor and commence the administration of Ritodrine in a timely manner and that Pirozollo was negligent in failing to notify Dolkart of the change in Karney's status at an earlier time. It then apportioned liability 70% to Dolkart, 30% to the hospital and awarded plaintiff a verdict of $13,629,000. In response to defendants' motions to set the verdict aside, Supreme Court, in separate orders, dismissed the complaint against the hospital and granted Dolkart's motion to the extent of directing a new trial unless the parties stipulated and agreed to a $4,529,000 verdict. Plaintiff and Dolkart appeal.
Supreme Court could properly dismiss the complaint against the hospital if there was "no valid line of reasoning and permissible inferences which could possibly lead rational [people] to the Conclusion reached by the jury on the basis of the evidence presented at trial" (Cohen v Hallmark Cards, 45 NY2d 493, 499; see, Colonno v Executive I Assocs., 228 AD2d 859, 861). Here, besides the hospital record indicating that Karney's labor began at 8:00 P.M., there is evidence that she had been complaining thr
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