Appeals court revives lawsuit alleging misordered CT scan led to patient’s death
A Kentucky appeals court has revived a lawsuit alleging a misordered CT scan led to one patient’s death.
The decision overturns a lower court’s previous summary judgment, which would have freed Saint Joseph Health System from a suit filed by the estate of Lonnie Baker, Law360 reported Monday.
During the original June 2017 incident, emergency physician Lynda Newman, MD, claimed she ordered CT imaging with contrast, suspecting the patient had suffered a tear in the aorta. However, the hospital’s records did not reflect that request, and a technologist instead performed the exam without the imaging agent.
Radiologist Raymonda Stevens, MD, interpreted the images as “unremarkable,” and the hospital discharged Baker, who died the next morning from aortic dissection. Appeals court judges argued that if both physicians told the truth, the proper order was made and the hospital’s communication system somehow dropped the ball.
“While the exact mechanism responsible for preventing adequate communication between the ER doctor and the radiologist is unclear, the [testifying] experts were clear that if Dr. Newman were to be believed in her testimony that she requested an evaluation for dissection, this information should have made it to [radiologist] Dr. Stevens," the three-judge panel wrote Friday, Feb. 11. “As the hospital is liable for the radiologist technician’s actions and its electronic records system, a reasonable inference could be that the failure to have Dr. Newman's specific request reach Dr. Stevens must be attributable to hospital negligence.”
Following Baker’s death, his estate sued the hospital, treating physician Newman and others for alleged negligence, later reaching a settlement with the doc while other parties were dismissed. That left only the hospital, which successfully fought for summary judgment, noting that Newman was responsible for reordering the CT exam with contrast after catching the mistake. Saint Joseph Health attorneys also argued that the plaintiff’s expert witnesses were inconsistent in disclosures and testimony, with judges rejecting this argument on appeal.
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Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.