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Harris v. Mt. Sinai Medical Center5/28/1998
DATE OF ANNOUNCEMENT OF DECISION: MAY 28, 1998
JUDGMENT: AFFIRMED.
Alice Harris, individually, and as Administratrix of the estate of Johnny Lee Harris Stoudmire, and Johnny Lee Stoudmire appeal from decisions of the common pleas court arising out of the death of their 19-day-old infant son at Mount Sinai Medical Center. The trial court granted summary judgment to Deborah Clark, M.D., and Hough Norwood Managed Care, a.k.a. Cleveland Neighborhood Health Services, Inc., and entered judgment in favor of Mount Sinai Medical Center, Sudhakars Rao, M.D., and Janet Evans, R.N., following a jury verdict in favor of Rao and Evans. Following our review of the record and the law in connection with this case, we conclude that the court did not err and we affirm the judgment of the trial court.
The record reflects that on July 13, 1993, thirty-three-year-old Alice Harris, who had seven prior pregnancies, one of which resulted in a placental abruption and stillbirth, presented at the labor and delivery unit of The Mount Sinai Medical Center 38 weeks pregnant complaining of vaginal bleeding. Janet Evans, a licensed practical nurse, examined her, took a medical history, and attached a fetal monitor. Thereafter, Dr. Recinto and Dr. Rao, both obstetrical residents, examined Harris and noted that the monitor showed no fetal distress, but indicated that Harris had begun labor. Upon examination, they learned she suffered from an infection which caused her cervix to bleed, but that it had not yet begun to dilate from the labor. Rao then reported their findings to Dr. Deborah Clark, Harris' obstetrician and gynecologist at the Hough Norwood Center. Clark advised Rao by telephone to discharge Harris from the hospital. After prescribing an antibiotic for the infection, Rao followed Clark's directions and discharged Harris.
Approximately one hour later, however, Harris returned to Mount Sinai complaining of severe abdominal pain and increased bleeding. Rao at that time diagnosed a placental abruption, and Harris underwent an emergency Cesarean section giving birth to Johnnie Lee Harris Stoudmire, who was born severely asphyxiated and lived for only nineteen days.
Appellants subsequently filed suit against Dr. Clark, Hough Norwood Managed Care, Mount Sinai Hospital, Dr. Rao, and nurse Janet Evans, alleging medical negligence resulting in the wrongful death of the newborn infant.
The court granted summary judgment in favor of Dr. Clark, Hough Norwood, and Cleveland Neighborhood Health Services prior to trial and tried the medical negligence issues against Mount Sinai, Dr. Rao, and Janet Evans to a jury which resulted in defense verdicts. Appellants now appeal both the summary judgment and the jury verdicts and present eleven assignments of error for our review, the first of which states:
I.
THE TRIAL COURT COMMITTED REVERSIBLE ERROR BY SUA SPONTE DISMISSING THE CLAIMS AGAINST MT. SINAI HOSPITAL WITHOUT COMPLYING WITH THE MANDATORY NOTICE REQUIREMENT OF CIVIL RULE 41(B).
Citing Civ.R. 41(B), appellants argue the court erred when prior to charging the jury, it dismissed claims against Mount Sinai Medical Center because it did not give notice to the parties as required by Civ.R. 41(B).
Mount Sinai urges the court properly dismissed the claims against it because appellants failed to produce evidence on those issues at trial, and further maintains that since the claims against Dr. Rao and nurse Evans were rejected by the jury, no prejudice resulted to appellants.
We recognize that this assignment of error stems from an April 23, 1996 post-trial journal entry of the court which stated:
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