Court Affirms Medical-Expert Report Sufficient In Operating Room Table Fall Case: John Swaim and his wife, Waltraud, filed a Texas medical malpractice lawsuit in which they alleged that on November 9, 2019, John fell at home and went to Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital (the “Hospital”) for treatment. The next day, Dr. Davis, an orthopedic surgeon, performed surgery on John to repair a hip fracture. After the surgical procedure was complete, but while John was still on the operating table and under anesthesia, John fell from the operating table, landing on his head and violently extracting his endotracheal tube. Members of Davis’s surgical team found John face down on the floor.
John was taken from the post-operative unit for a computerized tomography (CT) scan of his head and neck. A Hospital neurosurgical team diagnosed John with a concussion, and he was admitted to the intensive care unit, where his condition rapidly deteriorated. He suffered a heart attack and aspiration pneumonia, and he experienced feeding and swallowing difficulties, necessitating the placement of a feeding tube. Subsequently, John spent weeks in a skilled nursing facility before he was stabilized enough to return home. The Swaims alleged that John is now permanently disabled and unlikely to fully recover.
The Swaims sued Dr. Davis for negligence, alleging that he failed to adequately supervise John’s care and treatment, failed to appropriately monitor John and prevent his falling from the operating table while anesthetized, and failed to properly supervise the surgical team.
The plaintiffs’ standard of care expert opined that the “standard of care applicable to the orthopedic surgeon and the entire operating room team is to prevent a sedated patient from falling from the [operating room] table.” And, “[p]atient safety is the integral theme shared by all healthcare providers and the basis for the standard of care. When a patient is under anesthesia, vigilance is required by the OR team to prevent injuries as the patient is a vulnerable state … By allowing [John] to fall in the operating room, the surgical team breached the standard of care by not providing the constant awareness necessary to manage an anesthetized patient.”
The plaintiffs’ causation expert opined that John’s “ongoing and/or significant neurocognitive signs/symptoms” “will require ongoing and perhaps lifelong care … John “has likely suffered a traumatic brain injury secondary to the fall occurring after his operative procedure.”
Dr. Davis moved to dismiss the Swaims’ claim against him on the grounds that Dr. Karia did not adequately address the standard of care, breach, and causation, and that Dr. Haider failed to adequately address causation.
In its Memorandum Opinion issued on July 19, 2022, the Court of Appeals for the First District of Texas (“Texas Appellate Court”) held: “We conclude that the trial court reasonably concluded that Dr. Haider’s report represents an objective, good-faith effort to inform Dr. Davis of the causal relationship between the failure to provide care in accordance with the pertinent standards of care and the injuries and damages claimed. See TEX.CIV. PRAC.&REM.CODE § 74.351(l), (r)(6) … Accordingly, we hold that the trial court did not err in denying the motion to dismiss the Swaims’ health care liability claim on the ground that the expert report is inadequate with respect to causation.”
Source Davis v. Swaim, No. 01-21-00596-CV.
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