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Hall v. Henry Ford Health System3/1/2005
UNPUBLISHED
Defendants Henry Ford Health System and Henry Ford Cottage Hospital (defendants) appeal as of right from a judgment for plaintiff Keisha Wade entered after a jury trial. Plaintiff cross-appeals, challenging several of the trial court's pretrial and post-trial rulings. We affirm.
On March 25, 1997, plaintiff took her daughter, Zakrya Hall, to the emergency room (ER) at St. John Hospital (St. John) for an ear infection and possible wheezing. Hall was diagnosed with an ear infection. The following day, plaintiff again brought Hall to the ER because of breathing problems. Hall was diagnosed with bronchiolitis, an inflammatory disease of the lungs often associated with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). On March 27, 1997, Hall was admitted to St. John, and a chest x-ray of Hall was performed. Dr. Kurt Tech interpreted the x-ray and found no evidence of hypocalcemia (also known as nutritional rickets). Evidence later suggested that hypocalcemia had been present in the child.
Because of insurance-related issues, Hall was transferred to Henry Ford Hospital on March 28, 1997. She was treated for bronchiolitis and released on the following day. On March 31, 1997, Hall began experiencing further breathing difficulties, and plaintiff brought her to the ER at Henry Ford Cottage Hospital. Dr. Hussein Arastu evaluated Hall and diagnosed her with bronchiolitis; he determined, however, that her symptoms did not warrant admission to the hospital. The following morning -- April 1, 1997 -- the child again began experiencing breathing problems and suffered a respiratory arrest en route to the ER. As a result of the respiratory arrest, she suffered a severe injury to her brain and will need full-time care for the rest of her life.
Plaintiff sued St. John, as well as the instant defendants, in June 1998. She settled her claim against St. John, and defendants were dismissed without prejudice. Then, on March 26, 2000, plaintiff filed the complaint in the instant case. The complaint alleged, inter alia, that Hall suffered a respiratory arrest because of hypocalcemia and that Dr. Tech committed malpractice in failing to diagnose hypocalcemia. The complaint alleged that defendants committed malpractice by, inter alia, diagnosing Hall with bronchiolitis "when the clinical picture did not fit that diagnosis."
Despite the allegations in the complaint, plaintiff at trial did not focus exclusively on hypocalcemia but instead alleged that Hall's injury resulted from hypocalcemia or RSV and that defendants were liable under either scenario. In her appellate brief, plaintiff explains that she shifted her theory of liability in the case in response to the pretrial arguments made by Dr. Tech, who claimed that RSV, and not hypocalcemia, ultimately caused Hall's respiratory arrest. Plaintiff states:
In response to . . . competing explanations for . . . Hall's arrest, plaintiff adopted a theory of this case which would not be dependent on the jury's answer to the question of whether the seizure was due to RSV or hypocalcemia. Instead, the basic thrust of the plaintiff's case as it developed during the course of this case was that it did not matter whether . . . Hall's arrest was due to RSV or hypocalcemia. What did matter under the plaintiff's theory was that . . . Hall, who had been taken to the hospital repeatedly in the six days prior to her arrest, should have been in a hospital on April 1, 1997.
The trial court allowed plaintiff, at the close of her proofs at trial, to amend the complaint in accordance with the new theory of liability.
The jury awarded plaintiff $55,574,408 in damages, with $4,400,000 of that amount representing non
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