Confidential
Settlement – $275,000Judge
Court
L.A. Superior Pomona
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Defendant
Gregory M. Hulbert
(Hulbert & Hulbert)
Elliot S. Blut
(Blut Law Group APC)
Experts
Plaintiff
Iraj Khalkhali
(medical)
Loren Laine
(medical)
Darryl R. Zengler M.A.
(technical)
Julius Gardin
(medical)
Gregg C. Fonarow
(medical)
Defendant
Selvyn Bleifer
(medical)
Albert Yellin
(medical)
Russell D. Yang
(medical)
Roy L. Herndon
(medical)
Carter Newton
(medical)
Yuri R. Parisky M.D.
(medical)
Facts
On April 6, 1995, the plaintiffs' decedent, a 51-year-old disabled husband and father, was admitted to the hospital after presenting himself to the emergency room that morning complaining of severe pain in the left lower abdomen. He had not had a bowel movement in several days. His primary physician, an internist, prescribed laxatives, a regular (low sodium) diet, and the antibiotic Ancef. A consult with a defendant gastroenterologist, was obtained on April 8, 1995. He ordered a clear liquid diet, a change in the antibiotics, and a CT scan of the abdomen to be performed that day. The CT scan performed within three hours of being ordered, showed a perforated bowel, but no treating physician received this information until approximately noon on the following day, April 9, after the patient had visible signs of peritonitis upon physical examination. (Testimony was conflicting as to when the CT scan was read and reported by the defendant radiologist.) Surgery (colon resection and colostomy) was performed to repair the perforated bowel within a few hours but the patient died a week later. The cause of death was abcess of abdomen due to acute ruptured diverticulitis. The plaintiffs brought this wrongful death action against the defendants based on medical malpractice.
Settlement Discussions
The plaintiffs made a C.C.P. º998 settlement demand for $_____________. The defendants made a C.C.P. º998 offer of compromise for $_______________ .
Damages
The plaintiffs sued for loss of loving husband, the loss of financial support and loss of loving father to adult children. The plaintiffs alleged damages under MICRA were in the range of $302,573 - $543,717, depending on how life expectancy issues would be resolved by jury.
Injuries
*** (CONTINUATION OF CONTENTIONS) He also contended that as the CT scan was performed on a Saturday afternoon, he would not have been present in the radiology department when the CT scan was performed; that he would not normally have returned to the hospital after leaving on Saturday, and did not have records indicating whether he did return to the hospital that Saturday, and that as the CT scan was not ordered STAT, he would not have perceived a need to read it on the day it was performed, even if he knew about it. Finally, he contended that it would have been his practice to notify the nursing station of the CT scan results. The defendant hospital contended that defendant radiologist read the CT scans on the day they were performed and reported it to the nursing station as "no significant change." The hospital also contended that the gastroenterologist order was not clear that the CT scan was to be read that day; that because of decedent's cardiac condition, he was unable to survive the surgery. The defendant gastroenterologist contended that his treatment was well within the standard of care; that all of the treatment he ordered was appropriate and that the radiologist should have been responsible for notifying the treating doctors of abnormal CT scan results and there was no reason for him to follow-up on the results. The covering gastroenterologist contended that he did not know of the pending CT scan, and responded appropriately upon discovery of the peritonitis the following day.
Other Information
The settlement was reached approximately two year and one month after the case was filed. A JASOP mediation on April 9, 1997, was unsuccessful in resolving the matter. A JAMS settlement conference held before Judge R. William Schoettler on Aug. 17, 1998 was also unsuccessful. A settlement conference was held before Judge Dan Thomas Oki and settlement was reached. The plaintiffs' informal demand was $450,000.
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