Guillot v. East Jefferson General Hospital

839 So. 2d 334, 2002 La.App. 5 Cir. 1074, 2003 La. App. LEXIS 71, 2003 WL 183804
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 28, 2003
DocketNo. 02-CA-1074
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 839 So. 2d 334 (Guillot v. East Jefferson General Hospital) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Guillot v. East Jefferson General Hospital, 839 So. 2d 334, 2002 La.App. 5 Cir. 1074, 2003 La. App. LEXIS 71, 2003 WL 183804 (La. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

¡WALTER J. ROTHSCHILD, Judge.

On February 17, 1998, Fay and Ronald Guillot filed suit against East Jefferson General Hospital (East Jefferson), and others, alleging that Mrs. Guillot suffered a dislocated hip as a result of the negligence of two hospital nursing aides while she was recovering from surgery at East Jefferson. Trial was held on March 28, 2002, and the parties submitted post-trial memoranda after trial. On May 21, 2002, the parties appeared in court for closing arguments and for the trial judge to make her ruling and recite oral reasons for judgment. The trial court ruled in favor of the defendant, East Jefferson, finding that the plaintiffs had not proven that the dislocation of Mrs. Guillot’s hip was caused by the nursing aides, and the plaintiffs’ lawsuit was dismissed. It is from this judgment that the plaintiffs appeal. For the reasons which follow, we affirm.

FACTS

Dr. Santo LoCoco, an orthopedic surgeon, had been treating Mrs. Guillot since 1992 for various problems, including rheumatoid arthritis. In March of 1994, he recommended that Mrs. Guillot undergo a total hip replacement after he determined that she suffered from aseptic necrosis of her right hip. On March 31, 1 s1994, Dr. LoCoco performed the total hip replacement at East Jefferson. Mrs. Guillot testified that while she was recuperating from the surgery, two ladies came into her room to turn her. She stated that they raised her up high and then one of the ladies let go of the pad they were using to move her, and they dropped her. She asserts that she was in severe pain when the nursing aides dropped her and that she continued to have pain after this incident. She also testified that she was not able to do any physical therapy or walk while she was in the hospital. She contends that she did not want Dr. LoCoco to discharge her from the hospital, because she was in severe pain caused by the nursing aides dropping her. Ronald Guillot also testified, and he stated that his wife was dropped while the nursing aides were turning her.

On May 2,1994, Mrs. Guillot returned to Dr. LoCoco’s office. Dr. LoCoco, who testified via his deposition, stated that when Mrs. Guillot walked into his office, he immediately noticed that she had an abnormal gait, and he had an x-ray done. The x-ray revealed that the hip prosthesis had become dislocated. Dr. LoCoco tried to get the hip back into place without surgery, but was unsuccessful. Therefore, he performed another surgery on May 4, 1994 in order to correct the problem.

Jean Bachus was the patient care technician or nursing aide who was caring for Mrs. Guillot on the day of the incident, and Diana Dumas was a patient care technician who Ms. Bachus asked to assist her with Mrs. Guillot. In lieu of live testimony at trial, the parties stipulated that if Ms. Bachus were called to testify, she would testify as follows. Ms. Bachus would state that she and Ms. Dumas were in the process of transferring Ms. Guillot from an orthopedic chair to her bed. Ms. Bachus contends that her hand slipped while they were pulling Mrs. Guillot onto the bed, but Mrs. Guillot was already on the bed at that time and did not make any complaints to [336]*336her that she was hurting from the transfer. Ms. Dumas states |4that while she was assisting Ms. Bachus in moving Mrs. Guillot, Ms. Bachus’ hand slipped and let go of the sheet. However, Ms. Dumas asserts, just as Ms. Bachus did, that Mrs. Guillot was already on the bed and was not up in the air or dropped. She also states that Mrs. Guillot did not make any complaints to her that she was hurting from the transfer.

The parties stipulated that if Vonda Stamply were called to testify, she would qualify as a nursing expert, and she would state that it is a breach of the standard of care to drop a patient, and that Ms. Ba-chus and Ms. Dumas breached the standard of care when they moved Mrs. Guil-lot.

Dr. LoCoco testified that Mrs. Guillot was always in pain in all parts of her body before and after the first hip surgery. He testified that Mrs. Guillot had told him that within 24 hours of the first hip surgery, the bed dropped about two feet and she had a sudden onset of pain in her hip. He asserts that Mrs. Guillot did not tell him about this incident until after she was admitted to the hospital for the second hip surgery, and she did not tell him that the nursing aides had dropped her. He stated that “she was complaining of pain before the bed dropped, after the bed dropped, and it looked like no dislocated hip that I have ever seen.” He further stated, “It’s very difficult to tell with this patient. She hurts everywhere, everywhere she has pain.”

Dr. LoCoco testified that this was the first time that he had used the particular prosthesis that he placed in Mrs. Guillot. He indicated that he had never seen a hip dislocate the way hers did and that it may have been from the design of the new prosthesis. He testified that the prosthesis has a metal cup which is secured in the patient by screws and a polyethylene snap-in liner is then placed into the metal cup. The liner is wider on one side than the other in order to prevent displacement. He further stated that when he performed the second surgery, all he had to do was take the cup liner out, reverse it 180 degrees, and snap it back in. |s Dr. LoCoco also testified that when he discharged Mrs. Guillot after the first surgery, she was ambulatory and had no specific complaints of hip pain. He stated that Mrs. Guillot likes her pain medication, and he believes that she did not want to be released from the hospital because she wanted to keep taking narcotics.

Dr. David Aiken, an orthopedic surgeon, testified via deposition. Although he testified that a “drop” or even simply “rolling over in bed” could cause a dislocation, Dr. Aiken believed that the placement of the cup in Mrs. Guillot’s hip, particularly the elevation of the cup, was the major cause of Mrs. Guillot’s hip dislocation. However, he testified that he did not believe that Dr. LoCoco breached the standard of care due to the difficulty in placing these types of prostheses into patients. He also stated that the exercises that Mrs. Guillot performed after the first surgery, according to the physical therapy notes, could not have been done if her hip had been dislocated at that time.

The physical therapy records indicate that Mrs. Guillot was able to walk with a walker and do several exercises, though she denies that she was able to walk during her first hospitalization.

DISCUSSION

On appeal, Mr. and Mrs. Guillot assert that the trial court erred in finding medical causation without any supporting expert medical testimony. They further argue that the trial court erred in assigning fault to Dr. LoCoco, because there was [337]*337no testimony that he breached the standard of care.

A court of appeal may not set aside the findings of the trial court unless they are clearly wrong or manifestly erroneous. Rosell v. ESCO, 549 So.2d 840, 844 (La.1989); LaSalle v. Benson Car Co., Inc., 00-1459 (La.App. 5 Cir. 1/30/01), 783 So.2d 404, 408. Under this standard, the issue is whether the trier of facts conclusion was reasonable, not whether it was right or wrong. Stobart v. State, DOTD, 92-1328 (La.4/12/93), 617 So.2d 880, 882. When factual findings are |Rbased on the credibility of witnesses, the manifest error standard demands great deference to the trier of fact’s findings. Schexnayder v. Exxon Pipeline Company, 01-1236 (La.App. 5 Cir. 3/13/02), 815 So.2d 156, 160.

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839 So. 2d 334, 2002 La.App. 5 Cir. 1074, 2003 La. App. LEXIS 71, 2003 WL 183804, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guillot-v-east-jefferson-general-hospital-lactapp-2003.