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Medical Review Panel for the Claim of Abbott v. Louisiana State University Medical Center-Shreveport2/27/2002
bott knew of the failure to diagnose more than one year prior to the filing of her petition.
Ms. Abbott testified in her deposition that Dr. Bean had heard a renal bruit, indicating abnormal blood flow in the immediate vicinity of the kidneys, when she first discovered she was pregnant. After being referred to the doctor at the LSU Health Sciences Center who initially failed to diagnose her kidney blockage, Ms. Abbott and her friend, Sarah Trainer, a registered nurse, did their own research and determined that her blood pressure problems were most probably the result of renal artery stenosis. Although Abbott did not have a conclusive diagnosis of renal artery stenosis, she apparently had doubts about the treatment she was receiving from the LSU Health Sciences Center because of her continued problems with elevated blood pressure.
The record plainly shows that Ms. Abbott was acutely aware of the failure to diagnose by the LSU Health Sciences Center and, at the very least, of the possibility that the failure was an actionable cause in October 1996. Assuming arguendo that the triggering event for prescription could have occurred as late as January 1997, when Abbott went to see an attorney regarding her continuing health problems and her son's future, the one-year prescriptive period would have already elapsed by February 1998, when Ms. Abbott filed her petition.
Therefore, we reject Ms. Abbott's argument presented in her brief before this court that prescription should not have commenced to run until April 1997 when she had the surgery which confirmed that she had renal artery stenosis. The basis of her argument is that despite her prior suspicions based on her education as a licensed practical nurse, she could not have known until the surgery confirmed her suspicions.
Nonetheless, we find that this argument is based on assumed facts inconsistent with the record before us. Ms. Abbott specifically stated that in October 1996 she was diagnosed by Dr. Deliauga as having renal artery stenosis. She made this unequivocal assertion on two separate occasions during the deposition. That directly contradicts Ms. Abbott's assertion before this court that the dismissal by the trial court was based on her pre-surgical speculation as to her own condition.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the trial court sustaining defendant's Exception of Prescription is affirmed. Costs are assessed to plaintiff.
AFFIRMED.
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