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Raye v. Central Iowa Hospital Corporation12/11/2002
Plaintiffs' appeal from dismissal of their cause of action.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
David and Cindy Raye appeal the district court's dismissal of their medical malpractice and consortium claims. Because we find dismissal was too extreme a sanction, we reverse the district court and remand the case for further proceedings.
Background Facts and Proceedings.
In September 1996, David Raye went to see Dr. Donald Tesdall. Dr. Tesdall diagnosed Raye's left groin pain as a left inguinal hernia. The notes from the examination stated, "Patient has had a hernia on his left side for some time. He . . . thinks he'd had it probably for several years." On May 23, 1997, Raye was admitted to Broadlawn's Medial Center (Broadlawns) complaining of left groin pain. According to the nursing assessment on the admit report, "Pt. (patient) states he has `a hernia.'" During the surgical consultation, in which he was asked about a family physician, Raye did not mention Dr. Tesdall or his prior diagnosis. He asserted his hernia occurred only in the previous week, while working for A.G. Construction Co. Surgeons at Broadlawns discovered Raye also had a right inguinal hernia, and both sides were repaired.
Following surgery, Raye complained of persistent and debilitating pain. During exploratory and repair surgery of his left side, two staples from the prior surgery at Broadlawns were found and removed. Raye had additional surgery to address chronic inflammation of the right inguinal hernia area.
Raye filed a workers' compensation action against A.G. Construction Co. and its insurance carrier, which was settled in September 1998. In May 1999, Raye and his wife Cindy (the plaintiffs) filed a medical malpractice and loss of consortium suit against the Central Iowa Hospital Corporation d/b/a Iowa Methodist Medical Center, Dr. Mansour Jadali, and Dr. Samuel Bundz. The claims arose out of Raye's initial hernia repair surgery at Broadlawns. Upon a request by the defendants, the plaintiffs provided, as discovery in this case, the file from the workers' compensation action, including Raye's responses regarding past medical treatment and injuries or conditions. The defendants also filed independent discovery requests regarding Raye's previous medical history.
In both the workers' compensation action and the malpractice suit, the discovery requests specifically sought medical records and information that encompassed the time period of Dr. Tesdall's diagnosis. In both cases the responses generally referenced treatment at Broadlawns, but Dr. Tesdall was not named, and no records from Dr. Tesdall were provided. Additionally, as part of his interrogatory responses in the workers' compensation proceeding, Raye affirmatively asserted he had no serious injuries or conditions beyond "facial cuts and kidney stones" and, in response to a request to list any pre-injury "condition . . . in any of the areas of body as to which injuries are claimed in this action," stated "I have never suffered any injury that caused my type of limitation until this current injury."
During Raye's October 2000 deposition, while he continued to assert he had not had a hernia prior to his current injury, he did name Dr. Tesdall as "a family doctor of ours for years," who was currently handling his pain management. When the defendants specifically requested Dr. Tesdall's medical records, they were provided only those records generated after May 1997. It was only when Dr. Tesdall was deposed, less than a week before trial, that his prior diagnosis of Raye was revealed. Based primarily on their claim Raye had failed to inform them of Dr. Tesdall and his diagnosis and the resulting
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