Melley v. Penater

16 Pa. D. & C.4th 89, 1992 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 168
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Carbon County
DecidedSeptember 4, 1992
Docketno. 90-0555
StatusPublished

This text of 16 Pa. D. & C.4th 89 (Melley v. Penater) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Carbon County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Melley v. Penater, 16 Pa. D. & C.4th 89, 1992 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 168 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1992).

Opinion

FRANCIOSA, S.J.,

OPINION OF THE COURT

Following an eight-day trial in this medical malpractice case, a jury returned findings that neither the physician nor the hospital were negligent in the performance of their duties. In accord with these findings, the trial court entered verdicts in favor of both defendants.

Plaintiff thereafter filed a timely motion for a new trial. In response to such post-verdict motion, defendants re[90]*90quested a final judgment for the physician on the grounds that plaintiff’s motion sought relief solely against the hospital. Initially, this request was denied.1 When the case attached for oral argument, the request for a judgment in favor of the physician was renewed together with a motion to dismiss as to both defendants based on plaintiff’s failure to comply with this court’s briefing schedule. As part of the record made at the oral argument, which was held on June 12, 1992, the motion for a final judgment in favor of the defendant physician, Frank H. Penater, was granted without objection from the plaintiff. However, defendants’ motion to dismiss was denied with regard to the hospital.

Only one issue is raised in the motion as presently pending against the hospital. Plaintiff argues that the trial court erred in its instruction to the jury on the standard of care to be used in judging the conduct of nurses employed by the hospital. The objection to the charge is made even narrower in its scope because it is directed solely at the trial court’s adoption of the locality rule for inclusion in its instructions as to the standard of care for non-physician health-care providers. Even though the narrow issue before this court does not require an extensive review of the evidence, a brief discussion of the facts is necessary in order to understand the unusual nature of the accident which was the basis for plaintiff’s malpractice claim.

Viewing the relevant evidence in the light most favorable to defendant-hospital as verdict-winner, the facts are these:

[91]*91On April 30, 1989, 75-year-old plaintiff Margaret Melley went to the emergency room at defendant Gnaden Huetten Memorial Hospital in Lehighton, Carbon County, with complaints of wheezing, chest tightness and shortness of breath. At the time, Melley was taking several prescribed drugs, including steroid-based “Prednisone.”

The emergency room gave Melley “Solu-Medrol,” another steroid-based drug, which provided some relief. She was eventually admitted and the admitting physician noted cardiac and respiratory problems and that she had a history of steroid-related psychosis, a condition which can cause delusions.

After admission, Melley was placed in a second floor room across from the nurses’ station for frequent observation. She was fully aware of her surroundings and continued to receive the Solu-Medrol, Prednisone, and other medications. Her physician, defendant Frank Penater, M.D., was notified.

Between April 30, 1989, and May 1, 1989, a written nursing care plan for Melley was prepared and stored in a cardex at the nurses’ station. It emphasized that the nursing staff should assess and note changes in Melley’s mental status daily; that Melley was a possible candidate for accidental self-injury; that the physician should be informed of same; and that a discussion with a physician regarding body restraints might be necessary.

During Melley’s stay, progress notes were made by the nursing staff and kept at bedside. The intervals between note-taking varied from 30 to 60 minutes.

Melley’s first day in the hospital, April 30,1989, was uneventful. However, on May 1,1989, at approximately [92]*9211 a.m., the nursing staff noted Melley giving inappropriate responses to questions and, at 3:30 p.m. engaging in “inappropriate behavior.” An hour later, she was observed by a respiratory therapist to be agitated, very short of breath, and trying to get out of bed. This therapist warned the registered nurse on duty of Melley’s condition. The next eight hours passed quietly and the four siderails on Melley’s bed were raised while she rested.

On May 2, 1989, at 12:30 a.m., Melley informed the nursing staff she did not want her temperature taken any more. She became combative when touched and remained fully aware of her surroundings.

At 1 a.m., Melley refused to take a prescribed drug, stating that the hospital staff was trying to poison her. She attempted to grab the syringe from the hand of a nurse.

At 1:05 a.m., the nursing staff notified Doctor Penater about Melley’s condition. He arrived at 1:10 a.m. Melley directed Penater not to order anymore medication. By 1:15 a.m., she was resting quietly again and the siderails remained up. She was fully oriented to her identity, location and time of day.

At 1:30 a.m., the nurses found Melley lying outside her window on the ground. She exited through the window’s narrow, lower one-quarter section which opened downward into the room.

She was immediately taken to the emergency room for examination by Doctor Penater. Melley was wheezing and bearing several skin abrasions. She had definite pain in her mid-thoracic spine, left hip and right ankle. No head injuries were noted. Subsequent X-rays established the following injuries: fracture of the right ankle lateral [93]*93malleolus; comminuted fracture of the proximal left femur and, possibly, hip; and a compression fracture in her thoracic spine.

Melley received treatment for these injuries and was returned to the floor. Once in bed, she was further restrained by four leather straps and siderails. Her hip was placed in traction. Shortly thereafter, Doctor Penater and the hospital staff began tapering off . Melley’s steroid-based Solu-Medrol and Prednisone. Over the next several days, Melley periodically became disoriented and shouted to be released. On May 6,1989, she was transferred in “fair condition” to Lehigh Valley Hospital Center in Allentown. On August 9, 1990, Melley died from an unrelated brain tumor.

At various stages of the trial, the defendant asked the court to impose upon the plaintiff the burden of proving that the specific accident was foreseeable to the doctor and nurses. According to the defense, the design of the window made the open space so small that no reasonably minded person could foresee that someone so largely built, as Margaret Melley was, would be able to pass through the available space. In light of evidence tending to show that Margaret Melley could have been acting under a delusion that three men were trying to get into her room to rape her, the trial court rejected the defense’s argument that the plaintiff had to establish that defendants’ conduct increased the risk of the specific harm suffered by Margaret Melley, namely, her jumping out of the small space left by an open swing-type window. Instead of submitting defendant’s limited theory of liability, the trial court permitted the plaintiff to argue to the jury that if defendants’ conduct increased the risk that Margaret Melley would become delusional and unable to protect herself from harm, then the plaintiff was entitled to recover for her injuries even if the exact way she would injure herself [94]*94was not foreseeable. Although plaintiff was given the opportunity to argue a much more expansive medical malpractice theory than the defendants thought applicable, the plaintiff did not prevail with the jury.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

McAvenue v. Bryn Mawr Hospital
369 A.2d 743 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1976)
Linde Enterprises, Inc. v. Hazelton City Authority
602 A.2d 897 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1992)
Clayton v. Sabeh
594 A.2d 365 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1991)
Commonwealth v. Mastriania
369 A.2d 741 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1976)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
16 Pa. D. & C.4th 89, 1992 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 168, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/melley-v-penater-pactcomplcarbon-1992.