MacKey v. Greenview Hospital, Inc.

587 S.W.2d 249, 1979 Ky. App. LEXIS 462
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedFebruary 2, 1979
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 587 S.W.2d 249 (MacKey v. Greenview Hospital, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
MacKey v. Greenview Hospital, Inc., 587 S.W.2d 249, 1979 Ky. App. LEXIS 462 (Ky. Ct. App. 1979).

Opinions

PARK, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment entered on a jury verdict for the defendants in a medical malpractice case. During the course of a breast biopsy, Laura Clark suffered cardiac arrest. Massive and irreversible brain damage ensued from the cardiac arrest. The plaintiffs-appellants are Mrs. Clark’s committee and her husband who has asserted a claim for loss of consortium.1 The biopsy was performed at the defendant-appellee, Greenview Hospital. Mrs. Clark’s surgeon was the defendant-appellee, Dr. Richard F. Grise. Her anesthesiologists were the defendants-appellees, Drs. N. K. Kirby and L. Jack Scott. The remaining defendant-appellee, Dr. John P. Blackburn, was sued only is his capacity as a partner of Dr. Grise.

After a trial involving thirteen sessions between February 20 and March 9, 1976, the jury returned a verdict for all of the defendants. On this appeal, the appellants have raised the following issues: (1) that the trial court erred in failing to sustain three challenges for cause during the voir dire examination of the jury; (2) that the trial court erred in instructing the jury on contributory negligence of Mrs. Clark; and (8) that the trial court erred (a) in its instructions on the duties of the physicians, (b) in allowing six peremptory challenges to the physicians, and (c) in allowing improper closing argument.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Prior to her admission to the Greenview Hospital on October 2, 1973, Mrs. Clark was using the drug Lasix in an amount and with a frequency which is not known. Lasix is a potent diuretic which can deplete the body’s store of potassium. A low level of potassium increases the risk of cardiac arrest during anesthesia. In the event of cardiac arrest, a low potassium level can interfere with the restoration of normal heart function.

For the purposes of this appeal, we can assume that Mrs. Clark’s use of Lasix caused a potassium deficiency. The potassium deficiency was a substantial factor in causing the cardiac arrest and the difficulty encountered in restoring normal heart function. The factual issue in this case is whether the defendants had prior knowledge that Mrs. Clark was using Lasix. If the defendants had knowledge of her use of Lasix, surgery should have been postponed. Such knowledge would also have indicated that the cardiac arrest was attributable to a potassium deficiency which could have been remedied promptly without extensive brain damage. At trial, Mrs. Clark’s committee contended that the defendants knew, or by the exercise of ordinary care should have known, that she was using Lasix. On the other hand, the defendants contended that Mrs. Clark gave a false history to Dr. Scott and to Dr. Kirby with the result that surgery proceeded without any precautions being taken to avoid the risk incident to a low potassium level.

[253]*253Both Dr. Grise and Dr. Scott testified that they took separate pre-operative histories from Mrs. Clark on the night prior to surgery. According to both doctors, Mrs. Clark failed to inform them that she was suffering from a heart condition or that she was using either Lasix or nitroglycerine. All of the physicians testified that they had no knowledge from any source that Mrs. Clark was using Lasix or suffered from heart disease.

On the other hand, it is undisputed that, upon admission to Greenview Hospital the day prior to surgery, Mrs. Clark informed a floor nurse, Charlotte Reeves, that she was using Lasix. Nurse Reeves completed a Greenview Hospital form entitled “Admission Information and Nursing Care Data.” Under the heading “MEDICATIONS” Nurse Reeves indicated that Mrs. Clark was using Lasix but had left the medication at home. The “Admission Information and Nursing Care Data” sheet was designed by the nursing staff of the hospital for their own use. In addition to numerous items of information which would assist in providing nursing care, the sheet covered items completely unrelated to nursing care. For example, the sheet required the nurse to indicate that she had instructed the patient concerning the television controls and use of the room telephone. Information was included respecting religion and personal clergy. Although designed primarily for the use of the nursing staff, the treating physicians would from time to time refer to the sheet if present in the patient’s hospital chart.

Dr. Grise and Dr. Scott testified that they never saw the “Admission Information and Nursing Care Data” sheet and its reference to Lasix when each obtained a pre-opera-tive history from Mrs. Clark the night before surgery. Dr. Kirby testified that the “Admission Information and Nursing Care Data” sheet was not in Mrs. Clark’s chart which accompanied her to the operating room.

CHALLENGE TO JURORS FOR CAUSE

Mrs. Clark’s committee contends that the trial court erred in failing to strike for cause three prospective jurors. During the voir dire examination, the three jurors in question revealed some prior professional relationship with one or more of the physicians involved in the case. The juror Fisher stated that Dr. Grise had “sutured up one of my youngsters a time or two from small accidents . . . several years back.” Fisher also stated that he respected Dr. Grise as a result of his personal acquaintance. However, Fisher also stated that he would not find it difficult to return a verdict against Dr. Grise if justified by the evidence. The juror Langley stated that she had been a former patient of Dr. Grise five or six years earlier. This juror also stated that she would require no more evidence against Dr. Grise than she woujd respecting any other physician and that her verdict would be governed solely by the evidence. Langley also indicated that she had been treated by Dr. Scott when he first commenced his practice, but she again indicated that the previous relationship would not affect her verdict. The juror Solley had at one time been a regular patient of Dr. Grise. However, in the five or six year period immediately prior to trial, Solley had seen Dr. Grise on only one occasion, approximately eight months prior to trial. She had also been treated by Dr. Grise’s partner, Dr. Blackburn, approximately 5 to 10 years earlier, and by a witness in the case, Dr. McCormick, in 1948. The juror Solley stated that her verdict would not be affected by her acquaintanceship with any of the physicians in question.

The trial court did not err in overruling the challenges for cause to the jurors Fisher, Langley and Solley. There was no current or continuing professional relationship between any of the jurors or members of their immediate family and any of the physicians involved in the case. The jurors were carefully examined by the trial court and the attorneys. All affirmed their ability to render a fair and impartial verdict solely on the basis of the evidence in the case. The relationship between the jurors and Dr. Grise and the other physicians was [254]*254not so substantial as to require a finding that the jurors were biased and unable to afford Mrs. Clark a fair trial. Whitney v. Louisville & N. R. Co., 296 Ky. 381, 177 S.W.2d 139, 141 (1944).

The juror Fisher also indicated his general antipathy toward medical malpractice actions. He felt that many doctors had been abused in such suits. However, Fisher was very careful to state that his views on malpractice litigation would have nothing to do with the case being tried. He affirmed that doctors should pay for their mistakes.

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Bluebook (online)
587 S.W.2d 249, 1979 Ky. App. LEXIS 462, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mackey-v-greenview-hospital-inc-kyctapp-1979.