Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center v. Wade

172 S.W.3d 55, 2005 Tex. App. LEXIS 6116, 2005 WL 1837004
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 3, 2005
Docket10-04-00297-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 172 S.W.3d 55 (Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center v. Wade) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center v. Wade, 172 S.W.3d 55, 2005 Tex. App. LEXIS 6116, 2005 WL 1837004 (Tex. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinions

OPINION

BILL VANCE, Justice.

This is a medical malpractice case involving heart damage resulting from a delayed angioplasty. Penny Wade sued Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, two emergency room doctors, and their employers, under Chapter 74 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Hill-crest challenged the sufficiency of Wade’s expert reports for failure to include the causation element as to Hillcrest and its nursing staff. The trial court denied Hill-crest’s motion to dismiss. Hillcrest appeals in two issues: (1) trial court abused its discretion in denying Hillcrest’s motion to dismiss; and (2) Wade would not be entitled to a thirty-day extension to cure any deficiency in her expert reports.

We will overrule the first issue and affirm the judgment, so we do not reach the second issue.

BACKGROUND

Facts

On February 4, 2002 at 3:45 a.m., Wade, a thirty-eight year old woman, went to Hillcrest Emergency Department complaining of a cough and chest pains. At 3:52, she was triaged by a triage nurse, who noted that she smoked a pack of cigarettes a day but did not note Wade’s positive family history of coronary artery disease. Approximately 30 minutes later, a treating night-shift nurse assessed Wade but did not place Wade on a cardiac monitor. At 5:07, Dr. Norwid, an emergency room physician, saw Wade, and he ordered an electrocardiogram (“EKG”) and lab tests. Wade was then transferred to a bed with a cardiac monitor and an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) protocol was initiated. The EKG, performed at 5:26, was described by Dr. Norwid as “worrisome.” The EKG had deep Q waves and a bit of ST elevation from VI though V4. Dr. Nor-wid left at the end of his shift and turned Wade’s care over to Dr. Welter, another emergency room physician. At 5:40, a Nitroglycerin drip was reducing Wade’s pain from an “eight out of ten” to a “three out of ten.” By 6:15, her pain was down to a “one out of ten.”

At 7:00, a treating day-shift nurse assumed care of Wade from the treating night-shift nurse. At 7:31, a second EKG [57]*57was performed, and additional blood for lab tests was drawn at 8:40. The second EKG demonstrated changes from the earlier EKG; there was now ST segment elevation in the lateral leads. The cardiac enzymes were also remarkably elevated. Wade was then sent for a CT scan without a cardiac monitor and without a registered nurse trained in Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS). Between 9:15 and 10:30, Wade vomited twice and her blood pressure dropped slightly. She was treated with Phenergan and a saline bolus.

A cardiologist was reviewing EKGs in the heart station, and after reviewing Wade’s EKGs, was concerned and proceeded to the emergency room. The cardiologist saw Wade at 11:10, and she was taken to the cardiac catheterization lab at 12:05 p.m. where angiograms demonstrated a 100% occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery. The occluded artery was treated with balloon angioplasty and stenting. According to Wade’s physician-experts, Wade now has significantly impaired cardiac ejection fraction, requires an implantable cardioverter/defi-brillator, and may possibly require a heart transplant in the future.

The relationship of the defendants in the underlying medical malpractice case is not entirely clear from the record. It appears that Hillcrest’s liability would be based on, at a minimum, any negligence by its nursing staff, which will be the subject of our inquiry.

Expert Reports

Wade filed three expert reports from two physicians and one nurse.

Nurse Nelson-Richardson Expert Report

Nurse Nelson-Richardson is an emergency nurse. She explains in her report that the national standard of care for emergency rooms is to have an AMI protocol to ensure that patients experiencing an AMI are rapidly recognized, to limit damage done by cardiac ischemia. She stated: “The very purpose of the AMI protocol used by Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center was to provide a clinical pathway to expedite patients with AMI to receive definite medical treatment.” She also stated: “The standard of care for all phases of the management of the patient with potential AMI is to limit the time the heart muscle is being denied adequate oxygen. The well known phrase of ‘time means muscle’ well explains the goal of care for these patients.” The AMI protocol allows a maximum time of 60 minutes to make a decision to administer thrombolytics or send for coronary angioplasty. An EKG must be done within ten minutes and no longer than 20 minutes after the patient arrives in the emergency room.

The standard of care for a triage nurse is to be able to quickly recognize possible AMI patients and ensure there is no delay in physician management or the taking of an EKG. Nurse Nelson-Richardson stated that the triage nurse at Hillcrest breached her standard of care and should have recognized Wade’s AMI symptoms and risk factors and taken her to a cardiac monitor bed and obtained an EKG within ten minutes of Wade’s arrival (at the most within twenty minutes of her arrival).

If the triage nurse fails to recognize AMI symptoms, the treating nurse must seek immediate physician evaluation and an EKG. Because the triage nurse failed to recognize Wade’s AMI symptoms, the treating nurse had the responsibility to summon the physician and obtain an EKG as quickly as possible. Instead, a physician did not see Wade until approximately one hour after her arrival, and an EKG was not performed for one-and-one-half hours after Wade presented to the triage nurse. Thus, Nurse Nelson-Richardson [58]*58also concluded that this treating nurse at Hillcrest breached her standard of care.

Nurse Nelson-Richardson also stated that “all nursing care is based on assessment.” She stated that it is the treating nurse’s duty to continually reassess a patient’s condition. For a patient with chest pain, like Wade, the pattern of pain levels and response to the Nitroglycerin should be presented to the physician and repeat EKGs should be obtained with any episodes of pain or changes in condition such as vomiting. Nurses do have a duty to recognize acute changes on serial EKGs. She stated that it is also a nurse’s duty to recognize that a patient with chest pain, ST segment elevation, and elevated cardiac enzymes must be evaluated for emergency thrombolytics or cardiac catheteri-zation. Nurse Nelson-Richardson found that the treating nurse at Hillcrest knew Wade had vomited twice and had unresolved pain, and that the treating nurse should have recognized the changes between the two EKGs and that the Nitroglycerin did relieve Wade’s pain. She stated that this treating nurse did not pursue the physician for emergency consultation with cardiology, and that had repeat EKGs been performed, they would have more likely than not demonstrated worsening ischemia. Thus, Nurse Nelson-Richardson concluded that the treating nurse, who observed Wade’s symptoms and test results for at least three hours, breached her standard of care because she should have presented this data to the physician and requested that cardiology be called immediately. If the physician failed to take this action, it was the treating nurse’s duty to access her chain of command to facilitate Wade’s being evaluated by cardiology.

Dr. Mathews Expert Report

Dr. Mathews is an emergency medicine doctor. His report states:

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Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center v. Wade
172 S.W.3d 55 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2005)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
172 S.W.3d 55, 2005 Tex. App. LEXIS 6116, 2005 WL 1837004, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hillcrest-baptist-medical-center-v-wade-texapp-2005.