 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Travis v. Ferraraccio9/19/2005
I.
On June 18, 1996, Charles L. Travis, then fifty-eight years old, fell and seriously injured himself while walking into his home. Mr. Travis was intoxicated at the time. His son discovered him sometime later and immediately called Montgomery County Emergency Medical Services. The EMTs rushed Mr. Travis to the emergency room at Clarksville Memorial Hospital. Mr. Travis arrived at the hospital at approximately 8:18 p.m. and was examined by Dr. Robert J. Doty, an emergency room physician on duty at the time. Dr. Doty diagnosed Mr. Travis with acute quadriplegia and ordered X-rays of Mr. Travis's face and cervical spine, as well as a CT scan of his head. Dr. Doty did not order a CT scan of Mr. Travis's cervical spine. The X-rays and CT scan ordered by Dr. Doty revealed no abnormalities. Clarksville Memorial Hospital did not have the equipment needed to perform an MRI scan.
At 2:40 a.m. on June 19, 1996, approximately six hours after Mr. Travis's arrival at the emergency room, Dr. Thomas L. Ely admitted Mr. Travis to the hospital. At approximately 8:00 a.m., Dr. Ely ordered a neurological consult even though he had not yet personally evaluated Mr. Travis. At approximately 3:30 p.m., Dr. Blaise Ferraraccio, a neurologist, examined Mr. Travis and ordered a nerve conduction study. Dr. Ferraraccio did not order a CT scan of Mr. Travis's cervical spine or order that he be transferred to Nashville for an MRI scan. Dr. Ferraraccio eventually diagnosed Mr. Travis with Guillain-Barré Syndrome and began treating him for that disorder. Mr. Travis's acute quadriplegia continued unabated during his treatment by Dr. Ferraraccio.
Several weeks later, Mr. Travis was transferred to Tennessee Christian Medical Center in Nashville for rehabilitation. The neurologist who examined Mr. Travis upon his arrival immediately suspected that Mr. Travis had suffered a spinal cord injury and referred him to a neurosurgeon, Dr. Arthur R. Cushman, to confirm his diagnosis. An MRI scan showed that Mr. Travis had a herniated disc at C-3/C-4 that was causing spinal cord compression. Although the initial spinal cord damage was beyond repair at that point, Dr. Cushman performed a discectomy with fusion at C-3/C-4 in hopes of alleviating some of the peripheral paralysis Mr. Travis was suffering. Unfortunately, Mr. Travis showed little improvement.
On June 18, 1997, Mr. Travis and his wife, Ada Travis, filed a complaint for negligence in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County. The Travises named as defendants Drs. Doty, Ely, and Ferraraccio, Clarksville Emergency Physicians, Premier Medical Group, P.C., Clarksville Memorial Hospital, and Clarksville Regional Health Systems, Inc. The defendants filed answers denying the claims of negligence, and Ms. Travis later filed an amended complaint to add a survival claim following Mr. Travis's death.
As discovery proceeded, the Travises disclosed in accordance with Tenn. R. Civ. P. 26.02(4)(A)(i) that they intended to call Dr. David A. Krendel of Lawrenceville, Georgia and Dr. Bernard Abrams of Kansas City, Missouri as experts to testify that the treatment that Mr. Travis had received from Drs. Ely and Ferraraccio in June 1996 fell below the recognized standard of professional practice for physicians and neurologists practicing in Clarksville, Tennessee or similar communities. After deposing both Drs. Krendel and Abrams, Drs. Ely and Ferraraccio and Premier Medical Group filed a motion for summary judgment, supported by the physicians' own affidavits, asserting that their treatment of Mr. Travis was entirely consistent with the applicable standard of care. They also asserted that Drs. Krendel and Abrams had failed to demonstrate, as required by
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Tennessee Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|