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Marshall-Lucas v. Goodwill8/31/2005
In this medical malpractice action, plaintiffs appeal an adverse summary judgment, which concluded their case was time-barred. REVERSED AND REMANDED.
Considered by Zimmer, P.J., and Hecht and Vaitheswaran, JJ.
On December 18, 2002, Jill Marshall-Lucas and her family sued Robert Goodwill, M.D., Fort Madison Family Physicians, and Fort Madison Community Hospital, alleging injuries caused by Dr. Goodwill's malpractice. The district court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment, concluding the suit was filed outside of the limitations period in Iowa Code section 614.1(9) (2001). From this judgment the plaintiffs appeal. After reviewing the record and considering the arguments presented, we conclude the defendants are not entitled to summary judgment on the present record. We reverse and remand.
I. Background
We recite this factual background in a light most favorable to the plaintiffs.
On January 10, 1999, Marshall-Lucas saw Dr. Goodwill for treatment of a severe rash. He admitted her to the Fort Madison Community Hospital and prescribed sixty milligrams of Solu-Medrol (a steroid), to be administered intravenously every six hours.
On January 11 a dermatologist from the University of Iowa recommended to Dr. Goodwill that he taper the Solu-Medrol and add other medications. The next day, Dr. Goodwill doubled the dosage of Solu-Medrol. On January 15 he changed her medication from Solu-Medrol to sixty milligrams of Prednisone, to be taken orally once a day. That day, Marshall-Lucas received a dose of the Solu-Medrol at 4:00 a.m., the Prednisone at 8:00 a.m., and another dose of the Solu-Medrol at 10:00 a.m.
Marshall-Lucas was discharged on January 18, 1999. She was ordered to continue the Prednisone. She was unable to obtain the Prednisone on the day of her discharge and informed the nursing staff. She alleges that nobody warned her about any dangers of missing a dose of Prednisone.
The next day, Marshall-Lucas returned to the Fort Madison Community Hospital, with complaints of joint pain. A physician noted that he believed the source of her pain was stopping the Prednisone. He recommended that she resume the Prednisone.
In June 2000 Marshall-Lucas fell. She sought treatment from Dr. Goodwill, who gave her a knee brace. That month, she was also seen at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, where she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
On November 30, 2000, Marshall-Lucas had an MRI done by Dr. Mitchell H. Paul after noting increasing pain in her right knee. The report listed her complaints as "right knee pain. Patient fell six months ago." The MRI revealed bony infarcts and a possible degenerative medial meniscal tear.
On December 6, 2000, Marshall-Lucas saw Dr. Paul. His office notes describe the bone infarcts as "benign." He also states, "I do not think she has avascular necrosis at this time. . . ." He further noted, "She definitely has multiple musculoskeletal problems consistent with fibromyalgia . . . ." He recommended an arthroscopy due to "severe symptoms she's having particularly along the medial joint line."
On December 8, 2000, Marshall-Lucas had a preoperative visit, the report from which was signed by Dr. Paul and a nurse from the Fort Madison Community Hospital. Records from that visit indicate a past medical history of right knee avascular necrosis, as well as fibromyalgia and arthritis; however, later in this report Dr. Paul repeated his belief that she did not have avascular necrosis. The diagnostic impression was a medial meniscal tear in the right knee, and the planned operation was to perform an arthroscopy to repair the m
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