Idaho Supreme Court Affirms $3.8 Million Verdict Over Improper Catheter Removal

Joyce Herrett was a patient at St. Luke's Magic Valley Regional Medical Center in Twin Falls, Idaho, being treated for a septic infection in December 2013. On December 24, as she prepared for discharge, she asked a nurse to remove the central venous catheter in her neck.

The nurse, Marilou Wentz, had never removed a CVC before. She testified she called her supervisor, who told her to pull the line out slowly; the supervisor denied that conversation happened. Wentz removed the catheter while Herrett was seated upright in a wheelchair, a position that lets air travel into the bloodstream instead of lying the patient flat. Herrett immediately could not breathe. Air entered her circulation and caused a stroke.

Herrett spent time in intensive care, then rehabilitation. She was readmitted in September 2014 for failure to thrive. Since the stroke she has had trouble caring for herself and increased anxiety, and she needs in-home medical care that her family was paying for out of pocket. St. Luke's admitted before trial that its nurse had breached the standard of care, so the nine-day jury trial in the Fifth Judicial District, Twin Falls County, turned on two questions: whether the nurse's conduct was reckless, and how much Herrett's injuries were worth.

In July 2016 the jury returned a verdict of $3,850,004.83 for Joyce and her husband Rodney, and found that Wentz's conduct met Idaho's reckless standard. That finding mattered: Idaho Code section 6-1603 caps noneconomic damages in personal injury cases, but the cap does not apply to claims arising out of willful or reckless misconduct. The parties later stipulated to a reduction reflecting contractual adjustments to Herrett's medical expenses, and the court entered an amended judgment of $3,775,864.21.

St. Luke's appealed, arguing the trial court should have granted a mistrial, should not have admitted certain expert testimony, and gave the jury the wrong definition of reckless conduct. The hospital wanted Idaho's pattern instruction for willful and wanton conduct; the trial judge instead told jurors that conduct is reckless when a person makes a conscious choice about a course of action knowing it creates a high probability of harm. On September 6, 2018, the Idaho Supreme Court affirmed, holding that instruction was a permissible definition of recklessness and that the standard in Idaho is an objective one. Jarom A. Whitehead of Pedersen and Whitehead in Twin Falls argued the case for the Herretts; the court's opinion lists Bobbi Dominick of Gjording Fouser, PLLC, in Boise, for St. Luke's.

The Herretts were awarded costs on appeal but not attorney fees. The $3,775,864.21 judgment stood as entered.