Lombardo v. Gardner

82 Pa. D. & C.4th 233
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Lawrence County
DecidedMay 21, 2007
Docketno. 10102 of 2002, C.A.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 82 Pa. D. & C.4th 233 (Lombardo v. Gardner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Lawrence County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lombardo v. Gardner, 82 Pa. D. & C.4th 233 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2007).

Opinion

MOTTO, P.J.,

Before the court for disposition are the respective motions of plaintiff Eleanor Lombardo and defendant Stewart Gardner M.D. for post-trial relief following a jury verdict in favor of plaintiff and against defendant on a claim of negligent medical care provided to plaintiff by Dr. Gardner in May 2001, after right total hip replacement surgery performed at Jameson Memorial Hospital.

Plaintiff commenced this action to recover damages for injuries sustained because of the failure of Dr. Gardner and the employees of Jameson Hospital to diagnose an arterial clot in her leg for six days following right total hip replacement surgery performed by Dr. Gardner on May 9,2001. Due to defendant’s post-operative negligence in failing to diagnose and treat a growing arterial occlusion in Mrs. Lombardo’s right leg, she suffered ongoing restricted and diminished blood flow to her right lower leg (ischemia), with resulting progressive tissue and nerve damage, and, ultimately, was forced to undergo amputation of her right lower leg.

In 2002, Mrs. Lombardo instituted this lawsuit against Dr. Gardner, Jameson Memorial Hospital and four of its nurses. Defendant, Dr. Gardner, filed an answer to the [235]*235complaint. However, he never filed a new matter, cross-claim or third-party complaint.

During the course of litigation, plaintiff served various interrogatories and document requests on defendant, Dr. Gardner, seeking, among other things, disclosure of his own applicable opinions regarding the care and injuries at issue, as well as the names of expert witnesses and their opinions, which he planned to offer at the time of trial. Defendant offered sworn answers to interrogatories regarding his own opinions and produced expert reports by Paul Liefeld M.D., an orthopedic surgeon, and Satish Muluk M.D., a vascular surgeon.

Dr. Gardner and his experts were not critical of any care provided to Mrs. Lombardo by another defendant or a non-party, and no contention was made by them that Mrs. Lombardo was somehow negligent or assumed the risk. Dr. Gardner never alleged that Mrs. Lombardo’s injuries and disability were caused by any actions or inactions of any nurse or other care provider. Rather, Dr. Gardner opined under oath in his answers to interrogatories (read to the jury) that Mrs. Lombardo’s injuries and disability were not caused nor contributed to by the negligence of any other person, Mrs. Lombardo was not comparatively at fault nor did she assume the risk, and that her injuries and disability were related solely to her “sustain[ing] a compression injury to the artery closest to the hip joint resulting in the formation of a clot which caused the blockage of the vessel.” N.T. 10/26/06, at 164:3-11; 165:25-166:6; 166:716.

In defendant’s pretrial statement, Dr. Gardner listed only Drs. Liefeld and Muluk as experts who would testify at trial in support of the defense. Dr. Gardner did not offer himself as an expert witness on standards of care, [236]*236including nursing care, via his pretrial statement nor via any proffer during trial nor via any question posed to him during trial.

Immediately before trial began, four nurses were voluntarily dismissed from the case by stipulation of all parties and the court was advised that plaintiff had given Jameson Memorial Hospital and Jameson Health Systems Inc. (collectively, the Hospital) a joint tort-feasors release. Counsel for Dr. Gardner then moved to amend his answer to plead the benefit of that release and to retain the Hospital as a party so that their negligence, if any, could be determined with that of Dr. Gardner. That motion was denied and the Hospital was excused from further participation in the case. Dr. Gardner orally moved for leave of court to (a) file a cross claim against the Hospital to pursue the Hospital’s vicarious liability for what Dr. Gardner wanted to claim was the causal negligence specifically of the four hospital nurses, and (b) file a new matter against plaintiff to plead the release. N.T. 10/23/06, at 2:11 -3:1. Dr. Gardner further sought to compel plaintiff’s vascular surgery expert, James Salander M.D., to testify in support of defendant’s hoped-for claim against the Hospital. Id. Given that defendant did not have his own expert witnesses to support such a claim, he could not make out a prima facie case against the Hospital without forcing plaintiff’s experts to testify on his behalf. Plaintiff opposed Dr. Gardner’s oral motions and supported dismissal of the Hospital. The court granted the motion of the Hospital and denied the motions of Dr. Gardner.

The trial started with jury selection and opening statements on October 23,2006. Plaintiff presented her expert witnesses, lay witnesses and medical fact witnesses in [237]*237the days thereafter. At no time did defendant object to the qualification or expertise of any of plaintiff’s experts, nor did defendant obj ect to the areas of testimony of any of plaintiff’s experts. SeeN.T. 10/24/06, at75:13-156:12 (David Smith M.D., orthopedic surgeon); 158:1-250:3 (James Salander M.D., vascular surgeon); 251:2-285:8 (Jody Masterson, life care planner).

During trial, Dr. Salander criticized Dr. Gardner for not having included an arterial clot in his differential diagnosis and thus not having tested for this possibility. When cross-examined about his ability to testify as to the standard of care of an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Salander explained that the need to make such a diagnosis is an area in which orthopedic surgery and vascular surgery overlap.

On October 26,2006, defendant called Dr. Muluk out of turn to accommodate the doctor’s schedule to testify as an expert in defendant’s case in chief. Thinking the defendant might attempt to elicit orthopedic standard of care opinions from his vascular surgery expert, immediately before the expert took the witness stand plaintiff orally made a motion to the court in chambers. Plaintiff’s motion to limit the expert’s testimony was based on the expert’s qualifications specified in his curriculum vitae and the fact that the defendant was still going to produce an orthopedic surgery expert to testify to the standard of care issues. Per the doctor’s curriculum vitae, it was apparent his field of expertise was in vascular surgery.

Defendant’s basis for claiming that Dr. Muluk should be permitted to testify to an orthopedic standard of care was a contention that Dr. Muluk’s vascular surgery expertise generally overlapped with that of an orthopedic surgeon. The matter at issue was an orthopedic surgeon’s [238]*238thought processes and proficiency in diagnosing an allegedly “subtle” vascular injury or compromise. Defendant alleged that Dr. Muluk should be allowed to explain that Dr. Gardner’s orthopedic thought processes in diagnosing Mrs. Lombardo’s signs and symptoms, and Dr. Gardner’s failure to timely diagnose the vascular injury, were reasonable. However, this court found that there was no factual basis cited by defendant to support the claim concerning Dr. Muluk’s purported overlap of expertise.

Additionally, during Dr. Muluk’s testimony, he testified concerning the cause of Mrs. Lombardo’s injuries and the impact of care received by her after her arterial occlusion was finally diagnosed. Based on this testimony, there was allegedly no damage to Mrs. Lombardo’s leg before May 15 or 16. Dr. Muluk also testified to causation issues elicited by defendant. He testified to what Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
82 Pa. D. & C.4th 233, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lombardo-v-gardner-pactcompllawren-2007.