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Durbin v. Sumner County Regional Health Systems9/6/2001
The appellants sued the appellees for claims connected with the death of the appellants' twin fetuses. The jury found in favor of the appellees, and, in addition, after the jury verdict, the trial court granted appellee Dr. Caldwell's motion to dismiss on the ground that the statute of limitations had run before he was sued. The appellants argue that this court should reverse the trial court's order dismissing Dr. Caldwell and overturn the jury's verdict. We reverse the trial court's order dismissing Dr. Caldwell, but affirm the jury verdict in his favor and in favor of the other appellee.
Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Circuit Court Affirmed in Part and Reversed in Part
Ben H. Cantrell, P.J., M.S., delivered the opinion of the court, in which William B. Cain, J. and J. S. Daniel, Sp . J., joined.
OPINION
I.
Appellant, Julie Amanda Durbin, was pregnant with twins in 1995. On July 20,1995, in the twenty-ninth week of her pregnancy, Mrs. Durbin came to the Sumner Regional Medical Center (the "Hospital") complaining of a backache and irregular contractions. After being tested with a fetal monitor, she was discharged and sent home.
On July 22, 1995 at 1:00 a.m., Mrs. Durbin again arrived at the Hospital complaining of back pain, abdominal pain and regular contractions. The Hospital admitted her for obstetric emergency out-patient observation. She was again hooked up to a fetal heart monitor. The nurses monitored the fetal heartbeats and did not report any evidence of distress to Dr. Caldwell, Mrs. Durbin's physician. However, because of his concern over Mrs. Durbin's back pain, Dr. Caldwell admitted her to the postpartum unit and ordered routine checking of the fetal heartbeats.
Dr. Caldwell suspected that her back pain might be due to kidney stones. He ordered a renal ultrasound. During this ultrasound, Mrs. Durbin asked the technician if she could look at the twins to ascertain their sex. The ultrasound showed that there were no kidney stones present, but there were other complications with the tubes leading from her kidneys to her bladder, the ureters, and Dr. Caldwell concluded that could be the cause of her back pain. She was given medication for her pain, and discharged from the Hospital. Her instructions upon discharge included that she was put on bed rest with bathroom privileges.
On July 26, 1995, Mrs. Durbin had a scheduled appointment with Dr. Caldwell. After being unable to find a fetal heartbeat, Dr. Caldwell checked Mrs. Durbin with an ultrasound. The ultrasound confirmed that the twins were dead. The doctor also noticed an extraordinarily large pocket of fluid. He believed that the twins had died as a result of a placental abruption due to the large amount of fluid. Dr. Caldwell delivered the twins the next day. When Mrs. Durbin returned for her six-week follow-up visit on September 11, Dr. Caldwell told her that the twins had instead died as a result of Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome ("TTS").
The twins shared one placenta, but each twin had their own amniotic sac. When twin fetuses share a placenta they are susceptible to TTS. TTS occurs when blood passes disproportionately from one fetus to the other through connecting blood vessels within the shared placenta. One fetus gets too much blood, which overloads the cardiovascular system, and may cause heart failure. The other fetus does not get enough blood and may die from anemia. The fetus that receives the extra blood urinates more, therefore, increasing the fluid in the amniotic sac. TTS can trigger symptoms in the mother such as pain, pre-term labor, and abdominal distension.
On July 12, 199
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