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Howerton v. Mary Immaculate Hospital6/7/2002
In this medical malpractice action, we review the trial court's ruling in striking the plaintiffs' evidence on the ground that it was insufficient as a matter of law to establish either that the defendant was negligent or that such alleged negligence was the proximate cause of the damages claimed. Because the trial court struck the plaintiffs' evidence, we state the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs. E.g., Hadeed v. Medic-24, Ltd., 237 Va. 277, 281, 377 S.E.2d 589, 590 (1989) (court struck evidence after jury failed to agree upon a verdict).
On March 27, 1997, Lora Howerton, the only patient in the labor and delivery rooms of the Mary Immaculate Hospital, was awaiting the birth of her first child, later named Kacie Howerton. A number of relatives were in the room with the expectant mother.
That morning, at the direction of Dr. Kathy O'Connell, Mrs. Howerton's obstetrician/gynecologist, labor and delivery nurses employed by the hospital administered Pitocin, a drug designed to induce labor. When Dr. O'Connell examined Mrs. Howerton at 2:25 p.m., Dr. O'Connell thought that the frequency of her contractions and the dilation of her cervix indicated Mrs. Howerton was in the early stages of labor. Dr. O'Connell directed that the Pitocin be continued and she did not expect the mother's cervix to be sufficiently dilated for delivery of the baby for some time. Although Dr. O'Connell left the hospital, she was available to be contacted through the hospital paging system.
At 2:30 p.m. Mrs. Howerton was experiencing more intense contractions than she had that morning but the resulting pains were broad in nature, rather than in one particular spot, and the pains were not excruciating. However, at 3:00 p.m., Mrs. Howerton testified that she experienced intense and different abdominal pains as if "someone had taken a knife and stuck it directly in me at that spot and twisted it." Mrs. Howerton asked one of her relatives to get a nurse so that she could tell the nurse of the new and "totally different" pain.
Whereupon, Howard Linwood Howerton, her husband, went to the nurses' station adjoining Mrs. Howerton's labor room and told the nurses that his wife was "in severe pain. We need somebody to come in here now . . . she feels it's not normal." The response was: "It will be a few minutes. We're in the middle of shift change." Later, when Mrs. Howerton's mother went to the nurses' station and stated that "My daughter needs you now . . . she's having sharp pains," she received the same response. Two of the nurses finally came to the room at 3:15 p.m. after Mrs. Howerton's father, using strong language, demanded that they do so.
The husband testified that when the nurses "came in the room and realized that something was going on . . . [one nurse] yelled, 'Stat.' " "Stat" is a code word which signifies an emergency situation.
There was a further delay in contacting the doctor because the one nurse suggested they not call the doctor "yet." Some time later, at 3:23 p.m., another nurse, who disagreed with the first nurse, paged Dr. O'Connell on the doctor's cellular telephone using the "stat" designation of an emergency situation. At that time, Dr. O'Connell was in her car some distance away from the hospital.
When the doctor answered the emergency page at 3:25 p.m., she was advised that the undelivered baby's heart rate was in the "60s to 70s" (a normal heart rate being from 120 to 160) and that the mother was having some abdominal pain. Dr. O'Connell learned that the infant's heart rate "had been down for a while, but [did not] recall exactly how many minutes at that point."
As Dr. O'Connell was driving rapidl
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