Emergency medical technician Nicole Mirza was transporting a patient (Willis) by ambulance on an emergency basis when she entered an intersection against a red light and was struck by a pickup truck driven by Dexter Fernil. Fernil and his spouse sued Mirza and her employer, alleging that Fernil was injured in the collision, but the trial court dismissed the claims at the defendants’ request on the ground that these were health care liability claims (HCLCs) for which the Fernils had failed to file an expert report as required by statute.
The Texas Fourteenth Court of Appeals stated in its September 19, 2024 Opinion: “We conclude that the Fernils’ claims against the defendant health care providers implicates the defendants’ conduct during the course of Willis’s care or
treatment. Thus, the presumption arose that the Fernils’ claims are HCLCs, and the burden shifted to the Fernils to rebut that presumption. The Fernils assert that the presumption arises only to claims asserted by a patient based on facts implicating the defendant’s conduct during that patient’s care, treatment, or confinement. But, there is no such restriction; the presumption applies regardless of whether the claimant was a patient.”
“The Fernils have consistently maintained, as they stated in their response to the motion to dismiss, that Mirza caused the accident when she “entered the intersection on red without sirens and failed to ensure that the intersection was clear and safe.” In their motion to dismiss, the Ambulance Parties relied heavily on the testimony of the Fernils’ expert health care provider to show that the safety standards allegedly violated by Mirza’s entry into the intersection against a red light and without activating the siren is a specialized standard with a substantive nexus to the provision of health care … Because testimony from a healthcare expert about the applicable standard of care and its breach will be needed to prove or refute the Fernils’ claims, the Fernils failed to rebut the presumption their claim is an HCLC.”
The Texas appellate court held: “Here, the record includes expert testimony that the accident was caused by the Ambulance Parties’ breach of accepted standards of safety, and that those specialized standards arise from the Ambulance Parties’ professional duties as health care providers performing an emergency transport of a patient. Although the Fernils argued that the expert testimony was not admitted, they make no arguments addressing its content. Both the need for expert testimony and the Ross considerations support our conclusion that the Fernils’ claims are HCLCs.”
The Dissenting Opinion stated: “The Texas Health Care Liability Act was originally enacted by the Legislature to protect physicians from questionable medical malpractice lawsuits. Today’s majority opinion expands this protection to ambulance drivers who negligently violate rules of the road. A medical opinion is not required to either establish the rules of the road or common negligence. To the extent that the majority extends the HCLA to the facts of this case, I respectfully dissent.”
Source Fernil v. Bluebird Medical Enterprises, LLC, NO. 14-23-00910-CV.
If you or a family member suffered serious injury or other harm that may be due to medical malpractice in Texas or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a Texas medical malpractice attorney, or a medical malpractice attorney in your state, who may investigate your medical malpractice claim for you and represent you or your family member in a medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
Visit our website or call us toll-free in the United States at 800-295-3959 to find medical negligence lawyers in your state who may assist you.
Turn to us when you don’t know where to turn.
