Marenghi v. Louisiana Medical Mutual Insurance Co.

62 So. 3d 847, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 423, 2011 WL 1380017
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 13, 2011
Docket46,032-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 62 So. 3d 847 (Marenghi v. Louisiana Medical Mutual Insurance 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
Marenghi v. Louisiana Medical Mutual Insurance Co., 62 So. 3d 847, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 423, 2011 WL 1380017 (La. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinions

WILLIAMS, J.

| plaintiff, Maxie K. Marenghi, appeals a district court ruling sustaining a peremptory exception of prescription and granting summary judgment in favor of defendants, Dr. Fakhre Fakhre and Louisiana Medical Mutual Insurance Company (“LAMMI-CO”). For the following reasons, we affirm.

FACTS

The decedent, Minnie E. King, was a resident of West Carroll Care Center, Inc. (“WCCC”), a nursing home located in Oak Grove, Louisiana. On July 15, 2008, the decedent, who was 84 years old, was admitted to West Carroll Memorial Hospital under the care of Dr. Fakhre Fakhre. Her chief complaint was abdominal pain and abdominal distention. She was diagnosed with diverticulitis and remained hospitalized for three days. On July 18, 2003, the decedent was discharged from the hospital and readmitted to WCCC; she remained under Dr. Fakhre’s care. The decedent died at WCCC on July 26, 2003.

On July 14, 2004, plaintiff, Maxie K. Marenghi, the decedent’s daughter, filed a complaint, requesting that a medical review panel evaluate the medical treatment provided to the decedent by Dr. Fakhre and WCCC. Plaintiff alleged that the decedent was treated with Levaquin, an antibiotic, while in the hospital, and the drug was continued for five days after her discharge. She asserted that Levaquin was not the appropriate antibiotic to treat diverticulitis. Plaintiff also alleged that “ [appropriate culture and susceptibility tests should [have been] performed before treatment in order to isolate and identify organisms causing the infection and to determine 12their susceptibility to Levaquin.” More generally, plaintiff alleged that Dr. Fakhre and WCCC “were negligent based upon the health care or professional services rendered, or which should have been rendered, to [the decedent], including failure to render services timely.” Plaintiff also alleged that defendants were negligent in the following aspects: (1) inappropriate medical management of the decedent’s condition; (2) failure to seek appropriate consultation; (3) failure to appropriately monitor the decedent; and (4) failure to provide adequate care and appropriate healthcare, including services consistent with the resident care plan, and (5) “any other acts or omissions supporting the conclusion that the defendants failed to comply with appropriate standard of care as determined by the medical review panel based on the evidence presented.”

Thereafter, a medical review panel convened. On May 10, 2006, the panel unanimously determined that the evidence presented did not support the conclusion that Dr. Fakhre and WCCC failed to meet the applicable standard of care as charged in the complaint. In its written reasons, the panel stated, in pertinent part:

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[T]he panel finds the assessment and recommended treatment with Levaquin as the antibiotic of choice and placement of NG tube in this elderly patient were acceptable management. Levaquin is a standard antibiotic in uncomplicated cases of diverticulitis and provides a [849]*849good spectrum and anaerobic coverage. In addition, it is noted the patient was allergic to other antibiotics, which might have been available. Mrs. King improved with the conservative care given and therapy prescribed.
[[Image here]]

On August 28, 2006, plaintiff filed the instant medical malpractice [¡¡lawsuit against WCCC, Dr. Fakhre and his malpractice insurer, LAMMICO.1 Plaintiff alleged:

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8.
On July 15, 2008, [Ms. King], age 84, was admitted to West Carroll Memorial Hospital in Oak Grove under the care of Fakhre Fakhre, M.D. with a chief complaint of abdominal pain and abdominal distention. She was initially seen by John Tilmon, PA-C for Dr. Fakhre. Physical examination noted gross abdominal distention with decreased bowel sounds times 4, tenderness in all four quadrants. Initial flat and upright films showed distended large colon with possible irritation secondary to diverticulitis, as well as some fluid levels in the right upper quadrant. She had a history of “severe diverticulitis,” and macular degeneration with almost total blindness.
4.
On July 16, 2003, Ms. King was seen again by John Tilmon, and her diet was advanced to clear with no milk.
5.
On July 17, 2003, Ms. King was again seen by John Tilmon. Her diet was advanced to regular 1800 calorie ADA diet with no milk.
6.
On July 18, 2003, Ms. King was again seen by John Tilmon, and discharged to West Carroll Care Center, Inc. in Oak Grove on outpatient therapy for diverticulitis. She was given Levaquin 500 mg [one tablet by mouth every day] for five days, and FiberCon [two tablets by mouth two times a day] for constipation. Her principal discharge diagnosis by PA-C Tilmon was “acute diverticulitis, improving.”
7.
On July 26, 2003, Ms. King died while at [WCCC]. The Certificate of Death is listed as ‘Cardiorespiratory failure’ due to as a consequence of ‘CVA.’
8.
Petitioner shows and avers that the defendants, including their agents and employees, breached the applicable standards of care which were a proximate cause of the damages sued upon. In particular, those breaches include:
|4a. Inappropriate medical management of the patient’s condition,
b. Failure to seek appropriate consultation,
c. Failure to appropriately monitor the patient, and
d. Failure to provide adequate and appropriate health care, including services consistent with the resident care plan.

On June 5, 2007, Dr. Fakhre and LAM-MICO moved for summary judgment, arguing that plaintiff had failed to submit an affidavit or report from a medical expert to [850]*850support her allegations. The district court denied the motion.

Subsequently, plaintiff obtained an “expert” opinion from Dr. Meyer N. Solny, a physician practicing in New York, New York. In an affidavit, dated June 13, 2007, Dr. Solny stated that he had reviewed the decedent’s medical records, and opined that Dr. Fakhre “breached the standard of care for failure to ensure that anticoagulation therapy with Coumadin begun in the hospital was continued on an outpatient basis.”

On June 22, 2007, plaintiff filed a first amended petition, adding an allegation that defendants “fail[ed] to ensure that anticoagulation therapy with Coumadin begun in the hospital was continued on an outpatient basis.” In response to the first amended petition, all defendants filed peremptory exceptions of prescription, arguing that the allegation pertaining to an-ticoagulation therapy had prescribed. Defendants asserted that Coumadin was not administered to the decedent during the hospitalization from which plaintiffs lawsuit arose. According to defendants, the decedent’s medical records revealed that she was treated with Coumadin during a previous hospitalization, from June 19-24, 2003; the last dose of Coumadin was 1 .¡¡administered on June 24, 2003, when the decedent was discharged from the hospital. In the alternative, defendants filed dilatory exceptions of prematurity.

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Marenghi v. Louisiana Medical Mutual Insurance Co.
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
62 So. 3d 847, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 423, 2011 WL 1380017, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marenghi-v-louisiana-medical-mutual-insurance-co-lactapp-2011.