Sanders v. Ballard

134 So. 3d 1205, 2014 WL 585952, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 367
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 14, 2014
DocketNo. 48,714-CA
StatusPublished

This text of 134 So. 3d 1205 (Sanders v. Ballard) 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
Sanders v. Ballard, 134 So. 3d 1205, 2014 WL 585952, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 367 (La. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

DREW, J.

| plaintiff, 18-year-old Jerade Sanders, suffered a catastrophic injury in a four-wheeler accident on April 20, 2007, when he sustained multiple fractures to his right hip area. Following the initial surgery by the defendant, Dr. Richard Bal[1207]*1207lard, Sanders underwent a difficult recovery. After a number of followup visits with Dr. Ballard and physical therapy sessions, Sanders sought a second opinion from Dr. Jeffrey Lee Garrison,1 who performed a second operation. Ultimately, Sanders brought a medical malpractice action against Dr. Ballard.

Three orthopedic surgeons comprising the Medical Review Panel (MRP) made the following findings:

(1) Jerade Sanders sustained a fracture of the base of the femoral neck in his right hip together with a fracture of the greater trochanter. On April 22, 2007, Dr. Ballard performed an open reduction with internal fixation. The panel finds that the reduction achieved was adequate. The panel further finds that due to the complexity of the fracture there were options as to what fixation device to use and the fixation device used by Dr. Ballard was acceptable.

(2) However, during the first month following the surgery, imaging studies showed that the fixation device was failing and the internal fixation needed to be revised. Dr. Ballard did not recognize this and it was not until the patient was seen by another ortho-paedic surgeon in July of 2007 that this was diagnosed and a surgery to revise the failure of fixation performed.

(3) The delay in the surgery to revise the internal fixation resulted in the patient experiencing pain and the delay also made the revision surgery more complicated.

At the trial conducted March 19-21, 2012, the jury heard medical testimony from Dr. Ballard, Dr. Garrison, and from orthopedic surgeon Dr. ^Elliot Leitman, the plaintiffs expert witness. Sanders and his mother also testified. The jury reached the following verdict:

1. Do you find that Dr. Richard Ballard breached the applicable standard of care in his treatment of Jer-ade Sanders? YES
2. Do you find that Dr. Ballard’s breach of the standard of care in his treatment of Jerade Sanders caused injury to Jerade Sanders that would not have otherwise occurred? NO

Sanders appealed the jury’s verdict and subsequent judgment that Dr. Ballard’s breach of the applicable standard of care did not cause Sanders an injury which would not otherwise have occurred. Sanders also complained that the trial court committed legal and manifest error in denying his motion in limine to exclude at trial portions of the testimony of Dr. Leit-man.

For the following reasons, the judgment in favor of the defendant is affirmed at plaintiffs costs.

MEDICAL TESTIMONY

Following the accident, Sanders was taken by ambulance to the emergency room of the Winn Parish Medical Center, where he was evaluated. A radiology report showed “a comminuted2 intertrochan-teric 3 fracture of the proximal femur with [1208]*1208slight impaction and separation of the fracture site.” Sanders was transferred within hours to Lincoln General Hospital for treatment by Dr. Ballard.

Dr. Ballard

1 sThe top of the large thigh bone, the femur, was badly fractured with the large trochanter (outer bulge felt at top of outer thigh) broken off along with a complete break across the neck of the femur which connects this large thigh bone to its head (ball of bone at top of femur which fits into the bone socket in the pelvis to form the hip). In simplest terms, Sanders’ thigh bone was literally disconnected from the hip bone as a résult of the crash. A break also occurred in the femur head itself. Sanders also suffered foot drop, a condition caused by trauma to the actual nerve. The misaligned leg fracture would have stretched the nerve tremendously.4

Dr. Ballard explained that hazy areas shown in the X-rays were lots of little pieces of bone. The fracture was at least 200% displaced, meaning the thigh bone was “nowhere near it’s supposed to be.” Sanders’ very bad hip fracture needed surgical repair to reduce the fracture.5 Dr. Ballard testified he explained the risks of the surgery at Sanders’ bedside to Sanders’ mother. The doctor’s first concern was to protect the blood supply going to the head of the femur. If the blood supply was damaged, the head of the bone could die resulting in loss of function of the hip.

Once Sanders was put to sleep and before surgery itself, Dr. Ballard tried to manipulate the bones using a portable X-ray as a guide. The effort to externally align the fracture was unsuccessful. The incision revealed additional fracture that could not be seen on the X-ray. Because the bone ends were so far apart, bones poked through muscles which were between |4the broken bone ends. In order to align the bone ends of the “incredibly unstable fracture,” muscles, tendons, and ligaments had to be stripped loose.

To realign the fracture, Dr. Ballard secured the trochanter with two pins into the head. When he completed the procedure, a perfect alignment was not possible due to the many little bone pieces. Dr. Ballard explained the Dynamic Hip Screw (DHS) device he chose to implant first stabilized the head and neck and then attached a side plate which slid back and forth to allow the bones to settle and reach a more stable position. Dr. Ballard stated this multiple fracture was in the top 1% of difficulty of all his cases in 25 years of orthopedic surgery practice.

Immediately after surgery, Sanders was in intensive care where he was a difficult and uncooperative patient. Once out of ICU, he became more cooperative. Following surgery, Sanders took a lot of pain medication. Dr. Ballard noted that Sanders had plenty of reason to hurt. “This was a horrible injury. His leg was almost ripped off.” Concerning pain medication,6 [1209]*1209Dr. Ballard testified his entire treatment of Sanders lasted only eight weeks post injury and Sanders could certainly have been having significant pain no matter what.

On April 29, Sanders was discharged from the hospital with improvement noted in the foot drop. On May 3, Sanders returned to Dr. Ballard’s office, reporting that his hip popped and hurt, he could not move his toes, and it had happenéd three days previously. Dr. Ballard noted that lfiSanders had a devastating hip injury and his knee was stiff and he was reluctant to be active. X-rays showed adequate position but that the DHS had backed out ½ inch, which the doctor stated was “pretty much as expected.”

After a May 10 visit, the X-ray showed no change in the fracture position and Sanders was advised to work on general leg motion and strength and to return in three weeks. The next X-ray showed another quarter inch of shortening and the settling of the general position. Dr. Ballard stated he wished sliding had stopped and it was a little more than he hoped would happen.

On May 31, Sanders reported burning and pain going down his leg and in his knee along with increased pain; Dr. Ballard considered most of the pain related to the healing of the damaged nerve.

Dr. Ballard also disagreed with Dr. Garrison’s and the three MRP orthopaedists who criticized him for noting in Sanders’ records on May 31, 2007:

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Bluebook (online)
134 So. 3d 1205, 2014 WL 585952, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 367, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sanders-v-ballard-lactapp-2014.