South Bend Jury Finds Clinic Doctor Missed Stroke Warning Signs in 66-Year-Old Patient
After trial: The $1.75 million verdict was reduced to $1.25 million, the maximum recovery under the Indiana Medical Malpractice Act for a 2001 injury. The Indiana Supreme Court affirmed the judgment and the denial of a new trial and of prejudgment interest on December 12, 2012.
Won by Schafer & Schafer LLP.
A 66-year-old South Bend woman was sent home from The South Bend Clinic with an inner ear diagnosis and had a disabling stroke two days later. A St. Joseph County jury found the doctor and clinic liable and returned $1.75 million in March 2010. The trial court entered judgment at the $1.25 million statutory cap for medical malpractice, and the Indiana Supreme Court affirmed.
What happened
On the evening of Friday, March 9, 2001, Archie Laney, then 66, felt lightheaded, off balance and weak while working at a Montgomery Ward store in South Bend. Her daughter, a licensed practical nurse, checked her blood pressure, found it elevated, and drove her to The South Bend Clinic. Laney's regular physician was not on duty. Dr. Jacqueline Wisner saw her after an hour and a half wait.
Dr. Wisner examined Laney's eyes, ears and lungs, had a nurse check her blood sugar and run a blood test for anemia, and noted a large amount of earwax. She diagnosed an inner ear infection (labyrinthitis) and prescribed an antibiotic and an anti-dizziness drug. She did not order a detailed neurologic examination, any test to rule out a transient ischemic attack, or hospitalization.
Laney did not improve over the weekend. Late on Sunday night she called her daughter and said she could not move her right arm or right leg. An emergency room visit and an MRI showed an ischemic stroke affecting the left side of her brain. Rehabilitation did not restore the use of her right side.
The case moved slowly. A proposed complaint went to the Indiana Department of Insurance in 2002, a medical review panel did not issue its opinion until 2007, and Laney filed suit in St. Joseph Superior Court that August. At trial in the first week of March 2010, Laney and her daughter described the visit and what followed. Two physician experts, Dr. Jonathon Liss and Dr. Robert Campbell, testified that Laney's symptoms and risk factors called for a full neurologic workup, and Dr. Liss said the event she brought to the clinic on Friday was the same one that sent her to the hospital on Sunday night. The court dismissed the claim of independent negligence against the clinic, leaving it liable for Dr. Wisner's care. Timothy S. Schafer and Timothy S. Schafer II of Merrillville tried the case for Laney.
The jury returned a verdict of $1.75 million against Dr. Wisner and the clinic. Indiana's Medical Malpractice Act limits total recovery for an injury to $1.25 million, and on March 18, 2010, the trial court entered judgment for that amount.
The defendants asked for a new trial, pointing to plaintiff's counsel's conduct during the trial. The trial court, which had admonished both sides at different points, denied the motion. The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed that ruling in July 2011, though it reversed the denial of prejudgment interest. On December 12, 2012, the Indiana Supreme Court affirmed the trial court on both questions, finding the conduct had not kept the jury from reaching a fair verdict and that the settlement offer Laney had made in 2005 did not qualify her for prejudgment interest.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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