Simmons v. Riverside Methodist Hospital

336 N.E.2d 460, 44 Ohio App. 2d 146, 73 Ohio Op. 2d 138, 1975 Ohio App. LEXIS 5752
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 27, 1975
Docket74AP-569
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 336 N.E.2d 460 (Simmons v. Riverside Methodist Hospital) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Simmons v. Riverside Methodist Hospital, 336 N.E.2d 460, 44 Ohio App. 2d 146, 73 Ohio Op. 2d 138, 1975 Ohio App. LEXIS 5752 (Ohio Ct. App. 1975).

Opinion

Holmes, J.

This is an appeal from a summary judgment as rendered by the Court of Common Pleas of Franklin County on behalf of the defendants, Riverside Methodist Hospital and Dr. Harry J. Keys, in a Complaint brought by plaintiff Carol Simmons and her husband, in his individual capacity, and as administrator of the estates of Steven Gary Simmons and Cynthia Carol Simmons, deceased infants of *147 Mr. and Mrs. Simmons. Such action is based on an act of alleged malpractice in tlie providing of professional medical services to Mrs. Simmons, in connection with the birth of her first child on June 27, 1968. The wrongful death claims brought on behalf of the deceased children were not ruled-upon by the court, and were left pending.

. The facts in brief giving rise to this important case of general public interest are that the plaintiff entered the defendant Riverside Methodist Hospital for the care and treatment of her first pregnancy on the aforestated date of June 27, 1968, and after the birth of Richard, a blood test was performed on suc'h newborn child, on such date, by an employee of the defendant hospital in order to determine the RH blood factor of Richard. The blood test as performed resulted in a report that showed that Richard had RH negative blood type. It is undisputed that the blood type of Mrs. Simmons is RH negative.

The Complaint alleges that Mrs. Simmons had, after the birth of Richard, requested Dr. Keys to administer to her a counter-reactive drug known as RhoGam, but that Dr. Keys failed to do so. Further, the Complaint alleges that the doctor had fallen below the acceptable professional standard of the community in that he failed to have further blood tests done on the child. The last time Dr. Keys saw Mrs. Simmons as a patient was on June 30, 1968, the day Mrs.' Simmons was discharged from the hospital.

Subsequently, on October 20, 1971, Mrs. Simmons gave birth to a second child which was stillborn, due to what was determined to be erythroblastosis fetalis. Following such stillbirth, a blood test was taken of Richard, the first child of Mrs. Simmons, and the test revealed that Richard in fact had RH positive blood, rather than RH negative. Following the stillbirth of the second child, another child was born on September 25, 1972, but died some twenty-five minutes after the birth.

The plaintiffs brought these causes of action against the doctor and the hospital, claiming that the original blood test of Richard was negligently performed, in that Richard’s RH blood factor was opposite of Mrs. Simmons, and that *148 the doctor had not properly prescribed the appropriate neutralizing drug, RhoGam.

The consideration of the trial court of the issues as presented upon a motion for a summary judgment were in a bifurcated status. The motion related only to the causes of action sounding in negligence, i. e., the actions of Mr. and Mrs. Simmons against the doctor and the hospital. Such motion did not relate to the two causes of action for wrongful death brought on behalf of the estate of the deceased infants.

Normally, the trial court not having stated the redundant, but magic words “finding no just cause for delay,” we would have to find that such was not a final appealable order, but in this case it would be doing a vain thing to remand this matter, in that the determination of the matters presented on the two negligence cases for all intents and purposes determines the case. Accordingly, we shall proceed to decide this matter on the merits.

The trial court, upon a motion for summary judgment, dismissed both negligence actions, against the defendant hospital as well as against the defendant doctor, in that such actions had not been filed within the statute of limitations applicable to such actions. In the instance of the doctor it was determined that such action had not been brough! within the one-year provision of R. C. 2305.11, which states, in pertinent part: “An action for * * * malpractice * * * shall be brought within one year after the cause thereof accrued # * The action against the defendant hospital was dismissed in that such action had not been brought within the two-year statute of limitations for actions for negligence as provided by R. O. 2305.10.

The plaintiffs present the single, but all encompassing assignment of error to the effect that the trial court erred in granting the defendant’s motion for summary judgment. The argument of the plaintiffs in support of the assignment of error, in broad terms, is that a medical patient in Ohio should not be restricted with either the one-year statute of limitations within which to bring a malpractice action against a physician, or the two-year statute of limitations within which to bring a negligence action against a hospital, *149 until such time as the patient knows, or discovers, that such patient has been damaged by any claimed negligent action or inaction of the doctor or the hospital.

The plaintiffs argue that in this instance they were unaware of the substandard performance of the doctor, or the negligence of the employee of the hospital until the later blood test of the first born son, which was subsequent to the stillbirth of the second child. They argue quite effectively that Ohio should, as have a number of other states, adopt what is referred to as a broad discovery doctrine for the establishing of the accrual date for determining the statute of limitations within which to bring these types of malpractice and negligence actions for damage claimed within the doctor-patient and hospital-patient relationships.

Plaintiffs succinctly set forth the development of this phase of the law in Ohio as being one starting from a stance of strict compliance with the statute of limitations within which to bring such actions through a period as set forth in the following leading cases in Ohio on the subject: Gillette v. Tucker (1902), 67 Ohio St. 106, Bowers v. Santee (1919), 99 Ohio St. 361, and Delong v. Campbell (1952), 157 Ohio St. 22.

The pronounced legal proposition embodied in these cases is that a cause of action for medical malpractice accrues, at the latest, when the physician-patient relationship finally terminates. This principle of law was again reaffirmed in the case of Wyler v. Tripi (1971), 25 Ohio St. 2d 164, wherein the court went to great lengths in reviewing the legal history of the limitations of actions in this field as considered both by the courts and the legislature of the state of Ohio.

The court, in Wyler, concluded that it should adhere to its former decisions of not adopting a discovery rule, “and refrain from judicially adopting that which has so clearly been legislatively rejected.” Following Wyler, the Supreme Court again had the issue thrust upon it in the case of Melnyk v. Cleveland Clinic (1972), 32 Ohio St. 2d 198, a case in which metallic forceps and a sponge were left inside the plaintiff’s body during surgery.

*150 The court then, seemingly changing its game plan, differentiated Wyler

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336 N.E.2d 460, 44 Ohio App. 2d 146, 73 Ohio Op. 2d 138, 1975 Ohio App. LEXIS 5752, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/simmons-v-riverside-methodist-hospital-ohioctapp-1975.