Articles - Medical Malpractice

Jury: Two Doctors, Wesley Guilty of Malpractice ::
(11 18, 2005)

Wichita Eagle, The (KS)
June 12, 2001
Section: MAIN NEWS
Edition: main
Page: 1A
BY RON SYLVESTER

A Sedgwick County jury handed down a rare malpractice verdict against health care providers Monday, awarding more than $834,000 to the widow of a man who died in 1998 at Wesley Medical Center.

The damages - mostly assigned to two doctors - constituted the third-highest medical malpractice verdict in the state in the past five years, according to the Kansas Health Care Stabilization Fund.

The jury, which began deliberations Friday afternoon, ordered former Wesley resident Rod Buzzas and attending physician Brent Lancaster to pay a combined 75 percent of the damages to Christal Cook. Lancaster's lawyer said he hopes to appeal the decision.

But jurors also held Wesley nurses responsible for not reporting symptoms to doctors that court testimony said could have saved the life of David Cook: a Wichita city employee, church volunteer, father and grandfather who died at age 56.

"We felt everyone could have communicated better," said Robert McElroy, presiding juror.

Wesley, found at 25 percent fault, is responsible for $208,500 of the damages to the Cook family.

The award is the latest in a string of court cases that have cost Wesley $5,623,500 in verdicts and confidential settlements during the past three years - all stemming from allegations of nursing errors. During the same period, Via Christi Regional Medical Center paid out $1.2 million to settle malpractice suits.

"We remain very saddened that Mr. Cook died, but the judgment against Wesley Medical Center was excessive for what the jurors thought was a lack of communication," said Francie Ekengren, the hospital's vice president for medical affairs, in a prepared statement. "We will continue to encourage open communication among patients, their families and caregivers at Wesley."

Usually, juries don't find malpractice fault at trial. Doctors, hospitals and other medical malpractice defendants have won three out of four trial verdicts in Kansas in the past decade.

Christal Cook broke into tears after the verdict was announced in District Judge Mark Vining's courtroom, ending a two-year legal battle for her family. I'm relieved, but I still miss my husband so much," Cook said. "Not a dime in this world is going to bring him back."

David Cook originally went to Wesley with a broken hip from an auto accident in March 1998. Eight days later, Cook went to rehabilitation - the first step toward going home. But the next day, he went back to Wesley's medical campus, suffering from bowel difficulties. David Cook remained at Wesley from March 17 until he died on March 25, 1998.

Gerard Scott, Christal Cook's lawyer, presented evidence at trial showing that nurses did not record symptoms in medical charts that could have alerted doctors to the growth of a bacteria called Clostridium difficile, or C. difficile.

Although the C. difficile can harmlessly grow in the bowel when kept in check by other elements, it can become toxic under antibiotic treatment. David Cook was taking antibiotics for his automobile injuries.

Antibiotics can sometimes kill off helpful bacteria that keep the C. difficile in check, allowing it to grow to toxic levels if not treated. It is usually treated with more powerful antibiotics and is rarely fatal. Symptoms include diarrhea, low-grade fever and abdominal pain.

One nurse recorded in her notes that David Cook was becoming "disoriented" two days before he died. But nurses didn't chart symptoms on the page doctors look at during rounds.

Wesley lawyer John Gibson told the jury that the nurses were able to tell the doctors personally, without putting it in medical charts.

"The fact that it is not charted doesn't mean it didn't happen," Gibson said.

On the witness stand, the nurses could not remember whether they'd told doctors details of Cook's conditions. "The nurses just weren't good at paper documentation," Ekengren said following Monday's verdict.

Scott said in closing arguments that the doctors didn't spend enough time getting information from their patient. Scott said the doctors were in a hurry to make their rounds. Medical charts listed Cook as having "no complaints."

"As far as we know, David Cook had no complaints up until the day he died," Scott told the jury. "But doctors don't keep people in the hospital for a week because they're doing fine. They keep them there because they're sick."

Lawyers for Buzzas and Lancaster said Cook was a rare case who didn't present noticeable symptoms until it was too late. "There would've been no different outcome if they'd done anything differently," said Randy Troutt, Lancaster's lawyer.

Lawyers for the two doctors also told the jury to consider placing blame on three doctors who also saw David Cook but who weren't named in the suit. The jury found none of those doctors liable.

Randy Elam, lawyer for Buzzas, declined comment.

Reach Ron Sylvester at 268-6514 or rsylvester@wichitaeagle.com

All content © 200 Wichita Eagle, The (KS) and may not be republished without permission.

All archives are stored on a SAVE (tm) newspaper library system from MediaStream Inc., a Knight Ridder, Inc. company.

home practice areas about us case results news resources recruitingfaqscontact us