691 N.E.2d 333 | Ohio Ct. App. | 1997
According to plaintiff's assertions, on July 6, 1993, plaintiff underwent diagnostic testing at CCH. After plaintiff underwent a magnetic resonance imaging ("MRI") scan, a CCH orderly placed plaintiff on a gurney and transported him to the next diagnostic procedure. As they reached a flight of stairs, the orderly asked plaintiff to get off the gurney and walk down the steps. Although plaintiff protested that he could not stand or walk because of the medication, the orderly nevertheless pulled plaintiff off the gurney and attempted to place him in an upright position. Just as plaintiff was standing nearly upright with his back facing the stairs, his legs buckled, the orderly lost his grip on him, and plaintiff tumbled backwards down the stairs.
From the time of the fall, plaintiff experienced, among other symptoms, neck pain, headaches, and cervical restriction, causing him to seek medical advice and treatment from Dr. Won G. Song. Dr. Song advised plaintiff that he had sprained his neck as a result of the fall. In early September 1993, plaintiff consulted Dr. Kenneth Saul and Dr. Gregory Mavian concerning his neck pain. After a series of diagnostic tests were performed, plaintiff was informed on September 23, 1993 that he had a herniated disc in his neck, which required immediate corrective surgery.
On September 1, 1994, plaintiff filed suit against CCH, the unknown orderly identified only as "John Doe," a "John Doe" corporation, and Dr. Song. In count one of the complaint, plaintiff alleged that the CCH orderly had been negligent in allowing him to fall down the flight of stairs; in count two of the complaint, plaintiff charged CCH and Dr. Song with malpractice for failing to properly diagnose his condition after the fall; and in count three, plaintiff's wife, Phyllis K. Grubb, charged defendants with the loss of consortium and services she endured as a result of her husband's injury. *673
On February 28, 1995, CCH filed a motion for summary judgment, asserting that all of plaintiffs' claims were time-barred by virtue of the one-year statute of limitations on "medical claims" contained in R.C.
Plaintiff eventually dismissed counts two and three of his complaint without prejudice and sought review of the trial court's decision under the first count of his complaint, assigning the following errors:
"I. The trial court erred by its conclusion that a fall down stairs is a medical claim within the ambit of R.C.
"II. The trial court erred by its conclusion that appellant's cause of action against CCH accrued, and the one-year statute of limitations began to run, on July 6, 1993.
"III. The trial court erred by failing to consider and apply the `termination of physician-patient relationship' rule.
"IV. The trial court erred in failing to determine that R.C.
In accordance with Civ.R. 56, the evidence must be construed most strongly in favor of the nonmoving party; summary judgment should be granted only if no genuine issue of fact exists, the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, and reasonable minds can come to but one conclusion, which is adverse to the nonmoving party. Harless v. Willis Day WarehousingCo. (1978),
Within those parameters, plaintiff's first assignment of error contends that the trial court erred in determining that his allegation of negligence against the CCH orderly constituted a "medical claim" as defined by R.C.
In one of the two consolidated cases in Rome v. Flower Mem.Hosp. (1994),
Here, plaintiff was injured as a CCH orderly escorted him from one diagnostic procedure to another. Under the rational ofRome, escorting plaintiff from one diagnostic procedure to another was "ancillary to and an inherently necessary part" of his medical diagnosis. Further, plaintiff was a patient of CCH and was assisted by an employee of CCH who was required to use a certain amount of professional skill in escorting plaintiff from one diagnostic procedure to the next. The need to escort plaintiff arose out of the diagnostic testing performed on him. Accordingly, pursuant to Rome, plaintiff's injury resulted from his "medical diagnosis" while at CCH and thus is a medical claim subject to the one-year statute of limitations contained in R.C.
Plaintiff's attempt to factually distinguish Rome from this case is unpersuasive. For instance, contrary to plaintiff's assertions, no evidence suggests that the hospital employee who transported Eager from physical therapy had any more medical training than the CCH orderly who escorted plaintiff from one diagnostic procedure to another. In fact, the unreported appellate decision in Rome indicates that the hospital employee in question remained "unnamed" throughout the litigation, rendering it nearly impossible to determine from the record the employee's level of medical training. Rome v. Flower Mem. Hosp. (June 30, 1993), Lucas App. No. L-92-314, unreported, 1993 WL 241637. Moreover, the *675 hospital employee who transported Eager did not need any more or less "professional skill" to perform that task than CCH's orderly needed to escort plaintiff. Finally, the fact that the CCH orderly, unlike the employee in Rome, was not using medical equipment at the instant plaintiff fell does not take plaintiff's claim outside the Rome definition of "medical claim." The focus is whether employee actions are ancillary to and an inherently necessary part of a patient's medical diagnosis, care, or treatment, not whether medical equipment was a factor in the alleged negligence.
Accordingly, plaintiff's first assignment of error is overruled.
Plaintiff's second assignment of error contends that if his cause of action involving his fall down the stairs constitutes a "medical claim" under R.C.
Pursuant to R.C.
"The `extent and seriousness of his condition' language of the [Hershberger] test * * * requires that there be an occurrence of a `cognizable event' which does or should lead the patient to believe that the condition of which the patient complains is related to a medical procedure, treatment or diagnosis previously rendered to the patient and where the cognizable event does or should place the patient on notice of the need to pursue his possible remedies." Allenius v. Thomas
(1989),
Here, according to plaintiff's allegations, the CCH orderly requested that plaintiff walk down a flight of stairs, despite plaintiff's complaint that he could not stand or walk due to the medication he had received. As the orderly attempted to pull plaintiff into an upright position, the orderly lost his grip on plaintiff, and plaintiff tumbled backwards down the stairs. From that moment, plaintiff experienced neck pain, headaches, and cervical restriction, causing him to seek medical advice and treatment from Dr. Song. Although plaintiff did not become aware of the full extent of the injury he sustained until September 23, 1993, the fall and plaintiff's subsequent pain are a "cognizable event" which triggered the commencement of the one-year statute of limitations. Id. at 133-134,
Insisting the present case is "nearly on all fours" withHerr v. Robinson Mem. Hosp. (1990),
The principles contained in Herr are not applicable to the allegedly negligent act of the CCH orderly. The plaintiff inHerr consulted a number of physicians concerning back pain of unknown etiology. Only when the third of three physicians advised him of the cause of his problems did he recognize the negligence of the prior two physicians. In reaching its decision, the Herr court focused on the difficulty the average patient has in recognizing when the treating physician has committed an act of malpractice. By contrast, plaintiff here should have had no difficulty in determining the cause of the pain he experienced in his neck, even if he was unsure of the extent of the injury suffered: his fall down the stairs should have alerted him to the cause.
Accordingly, plaintiff's second assignment of error is overruled.
In his third assignment of error, plaintiff contends that under the "termination of the physician-patient relationship" rule of Frysinger v. Leech (1987),
Paragraph one of the syllabus in Frysinger, which modifiedOliver, supra, states that "a cause of action for medical malpractice accrues and the one-year statute of limitations commences to run (a) when the patient discovers or, in the exercise of reasonable care and diligence should have discovered, the resulting injury, or (b) when the physician-patient relationship for that condition terminates, whichever occurs later." Frysinger thus can apply to situations where a patient knows or has reason to know that his or her physician has committed malpractice, but continues to consult with the physician despite that knowledge. Frysinger does not apply here, where the alleged tortfeasor is a hospital employee who does not have an ongoing professional relationship with the patient.
Moreover, even if we were to apply Frysinger to these facts through plaintiff's relationship with Dr. Song, who plaintiff asserts is an employee of CCH, plaintiff's complaint remains untimely: plaintiff admits that Dr. Song's treatment of plaintiff "continued until approximately the middle of August [1993], at which time the Physician-Patient relationship ended." Plaintiff did not commence this action until September 1, 1994, more than one year after the physician-patient relationship ended.
Accordingly, plaintiff's third assignment of error is overruled.
In his fourth assignment of error, plaintiff raises two constitutional challenges to R.C.
"The standard for determining if a statute violates equal protection is similar under state and federal law." Adkins v.McFaul (1996),
The one-year statute of limitations for medical claims now contained in R.C.
In his second constitutional claim, plaintiff argues that if the one-year statute of limitations period is constitutionally permissible, then the term "medical claim" contained in R.C.
Accordingly, plaintiff's fourth assignment of error is overruled.
Having overruled each of plaintiff's assignments of error, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
BOWMAN and CLOSE, JJ., concur. *679