Cox v. St. Josephs Hospital

71 So. 3d 795, 36 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 357, 2011 Fla. LEXIS 1566, 2011 WL 2637421
Supreme Court of Florida·Decided July 7, 2011·No. No. SC09-1771·Published·Cited by 38 cases

Opinions

PARIENTE, J.

In this medical malpractice case, the key issue is whether the Second District Court of Appeal impermissibly reweighed the testimony presented by the plaintiffs’ expert witness as to whether the conduct of the hospital and emergency room doctor (the defendants) caused William Cox to suffer devastating damages as a result of a stroke. We conclude that by reweighing the evidence, the Second District’s decision in St. Joseph’s Hospital v. Cox, 14 So.3d 1124 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009), expressly and directly conflicts with this Court’s decisions in Wale v. Barnes, 278 So.2d 601 (Fla.1973), and Gooding v. University Hospital Building, Inc., 445 So.2d 1015 (Fla.1984). We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(3), Fla. Const.

FACTS

At the age of sixty-nine, William Cox suffered a stroke with devastating consequences, leaving him with permanent paralysis and aphasia. Following a jury trial on his claim of medical malpractice, he received a jury verdict that awarded substantial damages to him and his wife. The key issue in this medical malpractice case was the legal sufficiency of the plaintiffs’ expert testimony regarding causation; that is, whether more likely than not, the administration of a tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), a drug that dissolves blood clots, would have prevented or mitigated the devastating consequences of the stroke.

The facts presented to the jury established that on the morning of January 19, 2001, Mr. Cox was at a friend’s car dealership. Mr. Cox initially appeared normal and was able to speak to a visitor. However, approximately fifteen to twenty minutes later, the same visitor found Mr. Cox incapacitated and unable to speak or walk, and he immediately called 911. Emergency personnel quickly arrived on scene to transport Mr. Cox to St. Joseph’s Hospital. The visitor informed the responding paramedics that Mr. Cox’s loss of ability occurred at some point during the fifteen- or [797]*797twenty-minute period before he had called 911.

Based on the information provided at the scene, the paramedics knew the approximate time of the onset of Mr. Cox’s stroke, but for unknown reasons, the emergency room staff at St. Joseph’s Hospital did not obtain this vital information and never attempted to acquire it. The failure of the defendants to obtain information regarding the time of onset of the stroke was the crux of the medical malpractice case because knowing the time of onset was critical to being able to treat Mr. Cox with tPA.

Specifically, Mr. Cox suffered an is-chemic stroke, which is caused by a blood clot. An ischemic stroke can be treated with the use of tPA, which dissolves blood clots. However, doctors have a short window of opportunity in which to administer this drug: no more than three hours after the onset of the stroke if administered intravenously and no more than six hours after onset if administered intra-arterially. Therefore, in order to consider using tPA, the treating doctor must know the time of onset of the stroke. Here, although Mr. Cox arrived at the hospital within the window for administering tPA and had undergone several tests, including a cranial computed tomography (CT scan), which was normal at the time of the admission to the hospital, the emergency room doctor never considered the use of tPA because he did not know the time of onset of the stroke.

Mr. Cox and his wife filed a medical malpractice action against St. Joseph’s Hospital, the emergency room doctor, and the doctor’s medical practice. Because the claim was against the emergency room doctor, pursuant to section 768.13(2)(b)(l), Florida Statutes (2000), the plaintiffs were required to show that the defendants acted with “reckless disregard” of Mr. Cox’s health in failing to obtain the information regarding the onset time of the stroke. That issue of whether the plaintiffs met that burden of proving medical malpractice is not before us; rather, the focus is on whether the defendants’ actions caused damages to be suffered by Cox.

During the trial, in order to prove causation, the plaintiffs presented the expert opinion testimony of Dr. Nancy Futrell. Dr. Futrell is a specialist in strokes who has founded several stroke centers around the country. Her background is extensive: she is certified in neurocineology (ultrasounds of the blood vessels in the neck and brain), MRI and CT reading, and she is board certified in vascular neurology. In fact, in terms of CT scans, she had previously worked as a CT scan images analysis contracts investigator, where she reviewed CT scans, digitized them, and determined the exact size of a stroke. In that job, she reviewed between 900 and 1100 CT scans. She has been treating stroke patients for over twelve years and has given tPA to patients approximately forty to fifty times during her practice.

Dr. Futrell testified that “to a high degree of medical probability” she believed that if Mr. Cox had received tPA, he “would have had a very good recovery and have minimal or no neurologic deficit.” St Joseph’s Hosp., 14 So.3d at 1126. Dr. Futrell asserted that she based her opinion on what she knew about Mr. Cox’s case, her own clinical experience, and the pertinent medical literature. During her testimony, Dr. Futrell explained why she believed that Mr. Cox was a good candidate for the use of tPA. First, based on his CT scan, his brain appeared to be much younger than his stated age and had normal fluid spaces. Normally when one ages, the brain shrinks, and the fluid spaces get larger, but in his case, the fluid spaces were not enlarged at all; there was no evidence of shrinking and therefore his brain “looks much younger than this man’s [798]*798stated age.” She saw no evidence of prior bleeding and no evidence that he had a prior stroke. Specifically she stated that “[i]f he had a bleed into his brain in the past, that bleed, if it had healed would leave a dark spot and I see no dark spots in here to suggest that he’s had any kind of a stroke or any kind of a bleed into his brain whatsoever.” She also saw no evidence of lesions or a subdural hematoma. She opined that because his brain was not shrinking yet, he was “not at high risk for another subdural hematoma.” Further, in response to the defense position that a prior subdural hematoma would have prevented the administration of tPA, she testified that even assuming he had a prior subdural hematoma, it was not significant enough to leave any shrinkage on the surface of the brain. Thus, if she had been the treating neurologist, she explained that she would not have been prevented from suggesting the use of tPA.

Second, in her opinion, the CT scan showed that Mr. Cox was an excellent candidate for tPA because irreversible damage had not yet started to occur at 'that point. Dr. Futrell recognized that a prior intracranial bleed is a contraindication to the use of tPA, but asserted that this does not mean that a doctor absolutely cannot give tPA to a patient based on this prior condition. She asserted that there are indications and contraindications, so doctors must balance those to obtain a risk-benefit profile, which requires good clinical judgment on the part of the doctor.

On cross-examination of Dr. Futrell, the defendants attempted to attack Dr. Fut-rell’s opinion based on their general contention that a 1995 clinical study of tPA, known as the “NINDS” study,1 did not establish that there was a “more likely than not” chance of improvement from the effects of the stroke.

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Cox v. St. Josephs Hospital, 71 So. 3d 795, 36 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 357, 2011 Fla. LEXIS 1566, 2011 WL 2637421 (Fla. 2011).

71 So. 3d 795 (Cox v. St. Josephs Hospital) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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