Rohde v. Smiths Medical

2007 WY 134, 165 P.3d 433, 2007 Wyo. LEXIS 144, 2007 WL 2376613
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 22, 2007
Docket06-213
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 2007 WY 134 (Rohde v. Smiths Medical) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rohde v. Smiths Medical, 2007 WY 134, 165 P.3d 433, 2007 Wyo. LEXIS 144, 2007 WL 2376613 (Wyo. 2007).

Opinion

KITE, Justice.

[T1] Mr. Rohde sued Smiths Medical d/b/a Sims Deltec, Inc. (Smiths Medical), the manufacturer of a venous access device which fractured after it was inserted into his chest to administer chemotherapy treatment, claiming the device was defective. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Smiths Medical because Mr. Rohde did not present evidence ruling out reasonable secondary causes of the fracture so as to establish that the device was defective under the inference of defect rule.

[12] We affirm.

ISSUES

[T3] Mr. Rohde articulated a single issue in his opening brief: 1

I. Did the trial court err when it held that the inference of defect rule is inapplicable to the case at bar?

Smiths Medical restated the appellate issue as:

In this products liability case, did the District Court correctly grant summary judgment for Appellee Smiths Medical where Appellant Richard Rohde failed to produce any evidence of a defect in the design or manufacture of, or warnings related to, the PORT-A-CATH® medical device at issue?

FACTS

[T4] In March 2001, Mr. Rohde was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. 2 He underwent chemotherapy treatment which was initially administered through a vein in his arm. In July 2001, Mr. Rohde's oncologist, Banu Symington, M.D., recommended that *435 he have a venous access device implanted to facilitate his chemotherapy treatments. On July 20, 2001, P. George Poore, M.D., a vascular surgeon at St. John's Hospital in Jackson, Wyoming, implanted a Port-A-Cath venous access device manufactured by Smiths Medical in Mr. Rohde's upper chest between his clavicle and first rib.

[15] The Port-A-Cath is designed to be implanted completely under the skin, usually in the chest or arm. Catheter tubing is inserted into the patient's blood system and attached to a portal consisting of a small metal chamber sealed at the top with a silicone septum. It allows medications or fluids to be delivered directly into the bloodstream by injection through the skin and into the portal.

[16] Smiths Medical provided physicians with instructions for the Port-A-Cath which stated that there was a risk the device could fracture as a result of compression between the clavicle and first rib. Dr. Poore advised Mr. Rohde of some risks associated with the implantation, but did not tell him there was a risk that the device could fracture while implanted in his body because the doctor believed the risk was so slight. Dr. Poore examined the Port-A-Cath prior to implantation in Mr. Rohde's chest and did not notice any defects. Dr. Poore's surgical records indicated that he had some minor difficulty implanting the device because Mr. Rohde had a large clavicle and his tissue was resistant to the needle used in the procedure. Despite those difficulties, Dr. Poore was able to successfully implant the Port-A-Cath and determined it was working properly.

[17] Over the next several months, Mr. Rohde received chemotherapy treatments utilizing the Port-A-Cath device. It seemed to work properly, although Mr. Rohde had to lie on his back while receiving the treatments in order for the device to work. In the fall of 2001, Dr. Symington decided that Mr. Rohde could cease chemotherapy treatments. She recommended, however, that the Port-A-Cath remain in place because there was "a very high likelihood" that Mr. Rohde's cancer would return within the next year or two, necessitating further treatment. She directed Mr. Rohde to have the Port-A-Cath flushed periodically to guard against the formation of blood clots.

[18] In November 2001, Mr. Rohde began experiencing pain during and after flushing of the Port-A-Cath. He treated the pain with a heating pad and ice therapy. On December 4, 2001, Mr. Rohde complained of pain during the flushing process. Dr. Sym-ington suspected a blood elot had formed and ordered a venous dye study to check for a clot. Although she intended for the dye to be administered through the Port-A-Cath to test its patency, the doctor performing the procedure inserted the dye through Mr. Roh-de's veins; consequently, the Port-A-Cath was not tested at that time. The venous dye study did not reveal a blood clot.

[19] On January 17, 2002, Mr. Rohde began to bleed from the Port-A-Cath. Medical tests revealed that a six to seven centimeter section of the catheter tubing had fractured off from the remainder of the Port-A-Cath and migrated through Mr. Rohde's heart to his pulmonary artery. Thomas Cunningham, M.D., an interventional radiologist, retrieved the fragment from Mr. Rohde's pulmonary artery. Before discarding the broken piece, Dr. Cunningham looked at it and noticed that, although one end looked normal and smooth, the other end had a slightly irregular or jagged edge. Dr. Poore subsequently removed the remainder of the Port-A-Cath from Mr. Rohde's chest and discarded it. While examining that piece, Dr. Poore noted that, other than the fact it was shorter, it looked essentially the same as when he implanted it.

[110] In 2004, Mr. Rohde sued St. John's Medical Center, 3 Dr. Poore 4 and Smiths Medical. Mr. Rohde claimed Smiths Medical was strictly liable for the injuries he incurred because the Port-A-Cath fractured. He as *436 serted the Port-A-Cath was defective and Smiths Medical had failed to adequately warn about the risk of fracture of the device.

[T11l]l After extensive discovery, Smiths Medical filed a motion for summary judgment and submitted testimony and exhibits indicating there was no evidence of a defect in the Port-A-Cath and Smiths Medical had adequately warned Mr. Rohde's physicians about the risks associated with the Port-A-Cath, including the possibility of fracture. In response, Mr. Rohde did not present any evidence to establish a specific defect in the Port-A-Cath, but asserted the court should allow his strict liability claim to proceed under the inference of defect rule recognized in Sims v. General Motors Corp., 751 P.2d 357 (Wyo.1988). Specifically, Mr. Rohde argued that he was entitled to an inference the Port-A-Cath was defective simply because it fractured while implanted in his body. Although he asserted that Dr. Poore did not warn him about the risk of fracture, he did not respond to Smiths Medical's argument regarding the adequacy of the warnings it provided to physicians about the risk. 5

[112] In reply to Mr. Rohde's inference of defect argument, Smiths Medical asserted that to qualify for an inference that the Port, A-Cath was defective under Sims, Mr. Roh-de was required to show that a malfunction occurred with normal use and there were no reasonable secondary causes of the malfunetion. The manufacturer maintained the evidence showed that compression between the clavicle and first rib, a known risk, was a reasonable secondary cause of the fracture of Mr. Rohde's Port-A-Cath. In particular, Smiths Medical relied upon the opinion of Dr. Poore's expert witness, Michael Fenoglio, M.D., that Mr.

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2007 WY 134, 165 P.3d 433, 2007 Wyo. LEXIS 144, 2007 WL 2376613, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rohde-v-smiths-medical-wyo-2007.