Derrick v. Portland Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat Hospital

209 P. 344, 105 Or. 90, 1922 Ore. LEXIS 58
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 26, 1922
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 209 P. 344 (Derrick v. Portland Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat Hospital) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Derrick v. Portland Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat Hospital, 209 P. 344, 105 Or. 90, 1922 Ore. LEXIS 58 (Or. 1922).

Opinion

BB.OWN, J.

The defendant assigns error because of the court’s refusal to grant a nonsait. Section 182, subdivision 3, of oar Code, provides that—

“A judgment of nonsait may be given against the plaintiff as provided in this chapter * * when, upon the trial, the plaintiff fails to prove a cause sufficient to be submitted to the jury.”

The court refused to allow the motion for nonsait, whereupon the defendant offered evidence in its own [94]*94behalf, and, at the conclusion of the testimony, moved for a directed verdict, which was denied, and the court’s ruling thereon is also assigned as error.

It is a doctrine so familiar that we cite no decisions in support thereof, that this court will not reverse a ruling of the trial court denying a nonsuit, whenever, upon the whole case, as presented both by the plaintiff and by the defendant, the record shows sufficient evidence to take the case to the jury.

Before a recovery can be had in this case, the plaintiff must prove by some affirmative evidence that defendant was negligent, and, further, that the negligence of the defendant caused injury to him. The naked fact that the wrong drug was applied to the patient’s eye by the nurse is insufficient proof upon which to base a recovery. In addition thereto, there must be some affirmative evidence adduced, showing that the drug negligently administered produced the injury complained of. •

The motion for a directed verdict raises this question: Is there any evidence sustaining each necessary and material allegation of the complaint?

The record fairly shows that the defendant hospital, by its nurse, applied to the patient’s eye a drug called eserine instead of the drug known as atropine as prescribed by the physician. There is expert testimony to the effect that eserine, when applied to the eye, is a harmless drug, if the eye is in proper condition. However, the experts uniformly testify that the effect of eserine is to contract the pupil of the. eye; likewise, that the effect of atropine is to expand the pupil.

“Eserine: An alkaloid obtained from the Calabar bean, Physóstigma venenosum, assumed by some authorities to be identical with physostygmine. It forms colorless bitter crystals, which are an active poison; [95]*95applied to the conjunctiva, it produces contraction of the pupil.” Century Dictionary. Further, see U. S. Pharmacopoeia, 340; U. S. Dispensary, Wood, Remington & Sadtler (16 ed.), pp. 1144 — 1148.

Dr. E. DeWitt Connell, an admittedly skillful specialist, performed an operation upon the injured eye of the plaintiff in the treatment of a traumatic cataract resulting from injuries sustained a few weeks prior thereto by reason of the penetration of his eyeball by a wire. The operation performed by the specialist was termed “needling” the eye, its purpose being to absorb the cataract. Following the operation he placed atropine in plaintiff’s eye and prescribed its application every few hours for the purpose of keeping the pupil of the eye expanded. He also instructed the nurses of the hospital “how to put the atropine in.” As a result of the application of eserine by the nurse, instead of atropine, the pupil of the eye was contracted, — a condition that the specialist was attempting to prevent.

The testimony shows that prior to the injury to his eye, Raymond Derrick enjoyed good health, and that the condition of his eyes was excellent. The boy testified that on March 12, 1919, “I was playing with a * * wire motor and the string tangled around the wire, it sprung and flipped out and entered my eye”; that he was treated by Dr. Cowan, specialist, and Dr. Keylor, family physician, both of Walla Walla, for about two weeks; that prior to coming to Portland he could see objects in the room, — chairs, table, — and could count fingers on a person’s hand for a distance of about four feet if held in front of his eyes; that he was taken to defendant’s hospital, where he was cared for by a nurse; that while there the wrong medicine was, on one occasion, put in his eye; that he knew it was different medicine because it hurt his eye. He [96]*96said: “It drew my eye. About ten minutes after they put it in it commenced drawing and pulling.” He testified that in the presence of his mother and the head nurse the doctor read his chart. “He [Dr. Connell] read it off. It was eserine.”

The lad’s evidence is strengthened by that of Dr. Connell, who testified:

“The effect of eserine is to contract the pupil. * # It would cause some pain when it began to contract. It would cause a pulling pain.”

In the matter of eserine having been placed in the boy’s eye, the doctor said:

“The pupil was contracted. All I know about it' is the nurse said it [eserine] was used.”

The boy’s father testified that prior to Baymond’s entry into the Portland hospital the pupil of his eye was perfectly round, looked natural; that one had to get very close to see anything wrong with it at all,— that not even the neighbors could tell which eye was injured. But “when he was brought home, you couldn’t tell there was any pupil at all; it was entirely covered over.”

Mrs. Derrick, the boy’s mother, testified that she nursed him while he was treated at Walla Walla; that she removed the bandages, washed his eyes, and administered the medicine; that she accompanied him to the -hospital and stayed there at night; that she slept on a cot in the room where he was; that she was present during the operation upon the boy’s eye. She said:

“The first morning after the operation when he [the doctor] came in, he took the bandage off and we all looked in the eye. He said the eye looked fine, encouraging. ’ ’

She further testified- that on the morning succeeding the operation the pupil of his eye was dilated; [97]*97that it “looked just about like it did when we brought him to Portland, just as round and big as when we brought him from home”; that when Dr. Connell came again the following morning,

“he took the bandage off the same as the morning before, * * and he said: ‘My, what is the matter with that pupil? It is pulled down like that.’ He looked at the head nurse. * * She said, ‘I don’t know.’ * * I said, ‘You changed the medicine last night. She put something different in.’ * * He said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Yes, they changed the medicine last night.’ He looked at the nurse and says, ‘Gro and get his chart.’ She went and got the chart, brought it back to the room to him as he sat there on the edge of the boy’s bed. She showed it to him and I looked at it myself. He said, ‘Eserine.’ I said, ‘Would that make any difference?’ He says, ‘It does just the reverse.’ ”

The boy’s mother further testified that the head nurse admitted that the wrong medicine had been placed in his eye; also, that the nurse who “put the wrong medicine in put it on the chart she had put in eserine instead of atropine.” This was the chart produced by the head nurse. Witness further stated:

“It always was, after that eserine was put in, pulled down * * and has been ever since. The iris was pulled to the middle, pulled down, and stayed pulled down.”

She said that after the eserine had been put in the boy’s eye, Dr. Connell ordered the more frequent application of atropine to the eye to overcome the effects of the eserine.

Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
209 P. 344, 105 Or. 90, 1922 Ore. LEXIS 58, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/derrick-v-portland-eye-ear-nose-throat-hospital-or-1922.