Appellate Court Affirms Directed Verdict For Defendant: In August 2019, Plaintiff Deborah Geletka (“Geletka”) filed a medical-malpractice complaint seeking damages from MetroHealth System (“MetroHealth”) and Kevin L. Grimes, M.D. (“Dr. Grimes”). In the Ohio medical malpractice complaint, Geletka alleged that Dr. Grimes, who was employed by MetroHealth, was negligent in the treatment of a mass located on her upper left leg. Particularly, she alleged that Dr. Grimes erroneously diagnosed the mass as a hernia and performed a surgical procedure on October 18, 2018, where he inserted a four-inch by one-inch polypropylene mesh plug in the area. After the surgery was completed, Geletka noticed that the mass that she thought was the hernia was still present. An ultrasound was ordered, and the results demonstrated that the mass that Geletka was concerned about was a saphena varix, related to her varicose veins. Geletka alleged that the mesh insertion was unnecessary because she did not actually have a hernia and that the mesh may need to be removed in the future because the mesh will fibrose and scar. Finally, she alleged that Dr. Grimes purposely covered up his own medical malpractice in his office medical records.
The trial court granted a directed verdict in favor of Dr. Grimes, stating: “After argument and careful consideration, the court grants the motion and directs a verdict against plaintiff and in favor of defendants upon her claims against defendants. Plaintiff’s prima facie case did not include any evidence — specifically, any expert testimony — that causally connected defendant doctor’s deviation from the appropriate standard of care (use of mesh plug) to any pain and suffering or other injury to plaintiff.” The plaintiff appealed.
The Court of Appeals of Ohio Eighth Appellate District County of Cuyahoga (“Ohio Appellate Court”) stated in its Journal Entry and Opinion dated March 23, 2023: “Since Geletka was not qualified as an expert and her claim requires expert testimony to establish a prima facie claim, we are unable to consider Geletka’s testimony in reviewing the evidence that informs a directed verdict. Since Dr. Liberman was Geletka’s sole expert during the trial, we look to his testimony to determine whether Geletka established sufficient evidence to overcome a directed verdict … Dr. Liberman only spoke in generalities and did not offer an opinion about Geletka’s specific injuries based on a reasonable degree of medical probability; he noted that any pain stemming from the mesh in the area of insertion would be directly related to Dr. Grimes’s negligence but failed to identify any specific injuries … The generalities that Dr. Liberman spoke in were insufficient to demonstrate that the “reaction” that Geletka’s body was having to the mesh was causing inflammation, which was in turn causing her pain complaints. This causal connection is especially critical in a case such as this one where the pain complaints occur months after the allegedly negligent surgery and because Geletka is a patient with chronic pain and many other conditions in the area where the hernia mesh was inserted, including hip, ovarian, and vascular issues … Dr. Liberman was required to opine, based on a reasonable degree of medical probability, that Geletka’s complaints of pain and suffering were caused by the mesh insertion.”
The Ohio Appellate Court held: “We are unable to conclude that Dr. Liberman’s testimony, when examined as a whole, established that insertion of the mesh was causally related to Geletka’s complaints of pain. The trial court properly granted a directed verdict for the defense.”
Source Geletka v. MetroHealth Sys., 2023-Ohio-934.
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