Boyles ex rel. Boyles v. Dougherty

143 So. 3d 682, 2013 WL 5394326, 2013 Ala. LEXIS 133
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedSeptember 27, 2013
Docket1120395
StatusPublished

This text of 143 So. 3d 682 (Boyles ex rel. Boyles v. Dougherty) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boyles ex rel. Boyles v. Dougherty, 143 So. 3d 682, 2013 WL 5394326, 2013 Ala. LEXIS 133 (Ala. 2013).

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

Tammie L. Boyles (“Boyles”), as mother and next friend of Colton Elijah Powell Boyles (“Eli”), a minor, filed a lawsuit on behalf of her son for injuries he allegedly sustained from an arterial stick while he was hospitalized at University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital (“UAB Hospital”).1 Boyles appeals from a summary judgment in favor of Denise Dougherty, a registered nurse at UAB Hospital. We reverse and remand.

I. Facts and Procedural History

The evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to Boyles, shows the following: On September 24, 2009, Eli was born prematurely at UAB Hospital. On September 29, 2009, Eli’s treating physician ordered a blood culture, which was taken by Dougherty from Eli’s right arm. Later that day, Eli’s mother, who is also a nurse, noticed that Eli’s fingertips on his right hand were blue or “dusky.” Dougherty applied a warm compress to Eli’s right hand. The discoloration in Eli’s fingertips moved upward from his right hand toward his shoulder.

On October 1, 2009, Eli was transferred to Children’s Hospital of Alabama (“Gul-[684]*684dren’s Hospital”) for treatment of a bowel perforation. While at Children’s Hospital, the fingertips of Eli’s right hand auto-amputated or fell off. Boyles claims her son’s injury occurred as a result of an improper arterial stick to his right arm by Dougherty.

On February 22, 2011, Boyles sued, alleging that Dougherty’s nursing negligence caused the auto-amputation of Eli’s fingertips. The complaint alleged that Dougherty performed an arterial stick on the right hand/arm of Boyles’s infant son, Eli, instead of an arterial stick to his heel, causing “poor perfusion to his hand with resulting thrombosis of the fingertips.” In the complaint, Boyles contended that “the recommended location for blood collection on a newborn baby is the heel and the prior sticks for [her] infant son had been to his heel until [Dougherty] negligently caused or negligently allowed the arterial stick to be done at his right hand/arm.”

Dougherty filed an answer denying that she was guilty of negligence and denying that there was a causal relationship between her actions and the injury alleged in the complaint. Boyles identified Lauren Cooper, R.N., as an expert witness in this case.

On October 17, 2012, Dougherty filed a motion for a summary judgment premised on Boyles’s failure to offer expert testimony as to causation in the case.2 Boyles filed a response to Dougherty’s summary-judgment motion arguing that Cooper was qualified to testify as an expert witness and that the Children’s Hospital records showed that the cause of the auto-amputation of Eli’s fingertips was “poor perfusion and thrombotic fingertips while at UAB [Hospital].” In opposing Dougherty’s summary-judgment motion, Boyles submitted: excerpts from her deposition; excerpts from Dougherty’s deposition; excerpts from Cooper’s deposition; UAB Hospital’s progress note dated September 30, 2009; certified copies of the medical records of Children’s Hospital; various photographs; and UAB Hospital’s Interdisciplinary Standard Regarding Arterial Punctures for Specimen Collection.

On November 21, 2012, the trial court entered a summary judgment in favor of Dougherty. The trial court concluded that a summary judgment in favor of Dougherty was proper because “[Boyles] lacks an expert capable of testifying as to causation [and] there has been no evidence presented to the [trial court] that [Eli]’s injuries were probably a result of a breach of the standard of care by Dougherty.” Boyles appealed.

II. Standard of Review

Boyles challenges the summary judgment in favor of Dougherty. In determining whether the trial court erred in entering the summary judgment, we consider the following:

“Under Rule 8, Ala. R. Civ. P., a complaint is sufficient if it puts the defendant on notice of the claims against him; however, the rule of generalized notice pleading may be qualified by rule or statute. Bethel v. Thom, 757 So.2d 1154, 1158 (Ala.1999). Section 6-5-551, Code of Ala.1975, provides that in any medical-malpractice action, ‘[t]he plaintiff shall include in the complaint filed in the action a detailed specification and factual description of each act and omission alleged by plaintiff to render the health care provider liable to plaintiff.’ The plaintiff is prohibited ‘from introducing at trial evidence of any other act or omission.’
[685]*685“Substantial evidence is defined in the medical-malpractice context as ‘that character of admissible evidence which would convince an unprejudiced thinking mind of the truth of the fact to which the evidence is directed.’ § 6-5-542(5)[, Ala.Code 1975]. Rule 56, Ala. R. Civ. P., governing motions for summary judgment, must be read in conjunction with that definition of substantial evidence. Golden v. Stein, 670 So.2d 904, 907 (Ala.1995).
“This Court’s review of a summary judgment in a medical-malpractice case, as in other cases, is guided by the proposition that ‘this Court must review the record in a light most favorable to the nonmovant and must resolve all reasonable doubts against the movant.’ Hobson v. American Cast Iron Pipe Co., 690 So.2d 341, 344 (Ala.1997), quoted in Hauseman v. University of Alabama Health Servs. Found., 793 So.2d 730, 734 (Ala.2000).
“If the movant in a medical-malpractice case makes a prima facie showing that there is no genuine issue of material fact, then, as in other civil cases, the burden shifts to the nonmovant to present substantial evidence creating such an issue. Ex parte Elba Gen. Hosp. & Nursing Home, Inc., 828 So.2d 308, 311 (Ala.2001).
“ ‘To maintain a medical-malpractice action, the plaintiff ordinarily must present expert testimony from a “similarly situated health-care provider” as to (1) “the appropriate standard of care,” (2) a “deviation from that standard [of care],” and (3) “a proximate causal connection between the [defendant’s] act or omission constituting the breach and the injury sustained by the plaintiff.” ’
“Lyons v. Walker Reg’l Med. Ctr., 791 So.2d 937, 942 (Ala.2000) (bracketed language original).
“ ‘[A] medical malpractice plaintiff must produce substantial evidence that “the alleged negligence ‘probably caused the [complained of] injury,’ ” in order to survive a summary judgment motion, if the defendant has made a prima facie showing that no genuine issue of material fact exists as to the issue of causation.’
“Golden, 670 So.2d at 907.
“‘“To present a jury question, the plaintiff [in a medical-malpractice action] must adduce some evidence indicating that the alleged negligence (the breach of the appropriate standard of care) probably caused the injury. A mere possibility is insufficient. The evidence produced by the plaintiff must have ‘selective application’ to one theory of causation.” ’
“Rivard v. University of Alabama Health Servs. Found., P.C., 835 So.2d 987, 988 (Ala.2002).”

Cain v. Howorth, 877 So.2d 566, 575-76 (Ala.2003). See Breland v. Rich, 69 So.3d 803, 814-15 (Ala.2011). Additionally, regarding causation, this Court has stated:

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143 So. 3d 682, 2013 WL 5394326, 2013 Ala. LEXIS 133, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boyles-ex-rel-boyles-v-dougherty-ala-2013.