Hayes v. Travelers Ins. Co.

609 So. 2d 1084, 1992 WL 350797
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 2, 1992
Docket24,206-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 609 So. 2d 1084 (Hayes v. Travelers Ins. Co.) 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
Hayes v. Travelers Ins. Co., 609 So. 2d 1084, 1992 WL 350797 (La. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

609 So.2d 1084 (1992)

Marie HAYES, et vir, Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
The TRAVELERS INSURANCE COMPANY, Jack Eckerd Corporation and Glenn Kay, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 24,206-CA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

December 2, 1992.
Writ Denied February 19, 1993.

Bernard Kramer, Alexandria, for plaintiffs-appellants.

Blanchard, Walker, O'Quin & Roberts by Julie Mobley Lafargue, Reginald W. Abrams, for defendants-appellees.

Before MARVIN, SEXTON and LINDSAY, JJ.

SEXTON, Judge.

The plaintiffs, Marie Hayes and her husband, George Hayes, appeal as insufficient *1085 the damages awarded them by the trial court judgment in their negligence action against the defendants, Jack Eckerd Corporation; Glenn Kay, an Eckerd employee; and The Travelers Insurance Company, Eckerd's liability insurer. Although it awarded Mrs. Hayes $5,804.02 in damages for the defendants' improper filling of a medication prescription, the trial court found that a fall by Mrs. Hayes, resulting in a broken hip, was not causally related to the negligent misfilling of the prescription and denied damages related thereto. We affirm.

Mrs. Hayes is a long-time sufferer of anxiety, depression, and agoraphobia. From 1980 to 1987, she was treated by Dr. Fred Price with Triavil, a combination of Trilafon (a neuroleptic) and Elavil (an antidepressant). The Trilafon caused Mrs. Hayes to experience tardive dyskinesia, a side effect of the neuroleptic aspect of the drug. Neuroleptic drugs can both cause tardive dyskinesia, but at the same time mask the symptoms thereof. Tardive dyskinesia is a disorder characterized by involuntary, distorted movements of the mouth, tongue, and facial musculature.

In 1987, Mrs. Hayes was referred to Dr. James Phillips, a psychiatrist. In place of the Triavil, Dr. Phillips treated Mrs. Hayes with Thorazine, a less potent neuroleptic, and Tofranil,[1] a tricyclic antidepressant which does not cause tardive dyskinesia. Mrs. Hayes was hospitalized twice for depression and anxiety, from September 2 to September 15, 1987, and again from March 23 to March 30, 1988. Both of these hospitalizations appear to have followed withdrawal from her neuroleptic medications, Trilafon and Thorazine. On January 11, 1989, Mrs. Hayes was found to have mildly abnormal liver function, a side effect of the use of Thorazine. The use of Thorazine was then discontinued. Five days thereafter, on January 16, 1989, Mrs. Hayes was again hospitalized for severe anxiety and depression, apparently caused by the withdrawal of Thorazine.

On January 23, 1989, Mrs. Hayes was discharged and given five prescriptions for medication by Dr. Phillips. Mrs. Hayes took the prescriptions to an Eckerd drugstore, where they were filled by a registered pharmacist. One prescription was for Tofranil, 75 milligrams daily. A second prescription was for L-Trytophan, but was erroneously filled for Tofranil, 50 milligrams, four times daily. Accordingly, instead of taking the prescribed 75 milligrams per day of Tofranil, Mrs. Hayes was actually taking 275 milligrams per day.

On February 1, 1989, Mrs. Hayes contacted Dr. Phillips on a semi-emergency basis with complaints of confusion, increased mouth movements, shaking, and body tremors. The erroneously filled prescription was then discovered. Dr. Phillips immediately discontinued the Tofranil medication. A blood test revealed a Tofranil level of 486, well above the recommended therapeutic range of 150 to 300. By February 6, Mrs. Hayes's Tofranil level had returned to 110.

On February 9, Dr. Phillips again saw Mrs. Hayes and restarted her on Tofranil. In addition, to control Mrs. Hayes's tremors, which Dr. Phillips described as parkinsonian, Dr. Phillips prescribed Artane. Artane, an anti-parkinsonian medication, is not recommended for patients with tardive dyskinesia as it may actually aggravate the symptoms of tardive dyskinesia.

On March 2, Mrs. Hayes, in a worsened condition, returned to Dr. Phillips, who replaced the administration of Artane with Cogentin, another anti-parkinsonian medication. Cogentin is likewise contraindicated in patients with tardive dyskinesia and also may aggravate its symptoms. Dr. Phillips prescribed 6 milligrams daily of Cogentin, the maximum recommended dosage, notwithstanding that it is recommended that Cogentin therapy be initiated at a low dose increasing by .5 milligram increments every five to six days until optimal results are obtained without excessive adverse reactions. Dr. Phillips stated that he prescribed the maximum dosage of Cogentin in order to "load" Mrs. Hayes's system to immediately stop the involuntary *1086 movements. Side effects of Cogentin include weakness, inability to move certain muscle groups, mental confusion and excitement, and hallucinations.

Mrs. Hayes's condition steadily worsened. Her tardive dyskinesia worsened; she was unable to wear her dentures due to her tongue movements, which were described as lizard-like. She became increasingly confused and dazed and suffered from hallucinations. On March 10, 1989, Mrs. Hayes fell and broke her hip, resulting in her hospitalization and hip replacement surgery. By the time of her discharge from the hospital on March 24, 1989, Mrs. Hayes's mental state and tardive dyskinesia were greatly improved.

Plaintiffs[2] filed the instant lawsuit claiming that the negligent misfilling of the prescription left Mrs. Hayes dazed, confused, and ultimately resulted in her fall and broken hip. Named as defendants were Glenn Kay, the pharmacist who filled the prescription, Jack Eckerd Corporation, which operated the Eckerd drugstore where the prescription was erroneously filled, and The Travelers Insurance Company, its liability insurer. The defendants admitted their liability in erroneously filling the prescription, but denied that such liability caused plaintiff's fall and her broken hip.

Following a bench trial, the trial court issued a written opinion in which it found that the erroneously filled prescription was not a cause of Mrs. Hayes's fall on March 10. The trial court noted that the defendants' liability would extend to any acts of Dr. Phillips which were in response to the Tofranil overdose. The trial court found that any effects of the overdose were gone by February 6, 1989, when Mrs. Hayes's Tofranil level had returned to within normal limits. The trial court specifically rejected Dr. Phillips's testimony that his treatment of Mrs. Hayes after February 6 was in response to the Tofranil overdose. The trial court noted that this testimony by Dr. Phillips was in contradiction to his own medical records. The trial court found most credible Dr. Paul D. Ware's testimony, based on his review of Dr. Phillips's medical records and accepted medical literature, that Mrs. Hayes's confusion and fall was likely caused by the Cogentin prescription and that such prescription was not in response to the Tofranil overdose of January 23. Accordingly, the trial court found that plaintiffs had failed in their burden of proving that Mrs. Hayes's fall of March 10 was related to defendants' negligence in misfilling the prescription on January 23. Nevertheless, a judgment was signed awarding Mrs. Hayes $5,804.02 for her damages resulting from the misfilling of the prescription, the damages the court concluded occurred before February 6, 1989.

The issue on appeal is whether Dr. Phillips's actions in prescribing Artane and, more particularly, Cogentin, which the trial court found to have been the cause of Mrs. Hayes's fall, was in response to the overdose of Tofranil caused by defendants' negligence in misfilling Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
609 So. 2d 1084, 1992 WL 350797, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hayes-v-travelers-ins-co-lactapp-1992.