Kenneth Sundermeyer (Son) appeals after the trial court entered judgment against him in his wrongful death suit against SSM Regional Health Services d/b/a Villa Marie Skilled Nursing Facility (Nursing Facility). Jurisdiction is vested in this Court pursuant to Missouri Constitution article V, section 10, as this case was transferred after opinion by the court of appeals.
Because Son presented evidence demonstrating a genuine issue of material fact about whether Nursing Facility’s conduct caused his mother’s death, this Court reverses the trial court’s judgment, and the cause is remanded.
I. Background
Son admitted his mother (Mother) to Nursing Facility in June 2001. During her stay at Nursing Facility, she was noted to have a number of falls, bruises, and skin tears. Family members photographed Mother’s injuries and calculated that she had 26 separate bruises. After approximately 13 months at Nursing Facility, she was admitted to a hospital with a diagnosis of electrolyte disorder, dehydration, and oral thrush. Hospital staff referred her to the Division of Aging for her bruises. She later asked her family never to send her back to Nursing Facility. She entered another long-term care facility after she was discharged from the hospital, and she died there 25 days after she had left Nursing Facility.
Son brought suit against Nursing Facility, alleging that Mother’s death resulted from Nursing Facility’s negligent care. He alleged that Nursing Facility was negligent in failing to prevent her falls, to provide her proper nutrition and hydration, to adequately monitor her condition, and to adequately supervise its employees.
Nursing Facility moved for summary judgment, asserting that Son had failed to present causation evidence linking its conduct to Mother’s death. The trial court granted judgment in Nursing Facility’s favor, and this appeal followed.
Son contends that the trial court erred in entering judgment for Nursing Facility because the evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to his case, shows that there is a genuine issue of material fact about whether Nursing Facility’s conduct caused Mother’s death.
II. Standard of Review
Appellate review of summary judgment is
de novo. ITT Commercial Fin. Corp. v. Mid-Am. Marine Supply Corp.,
III. Summary Judgment Was Wrongly Entered
A. Requirements for Withstanding Summary Judgment
Son’s case is an action for wrongful death arising from medical negligence.
1
To prevail at trial, he must prove that Nursing Facility failed to meet a required medical standard of care, that its acts or omissions were performed negligently, and that its acts or omissions caused Mother’s death.
See Mueller v. Bauer,
In a medical malpractice case, where proof of causation requires a certain degree of expertise, the plaintiff must present expert testimony to establish causation.
Id.,
In wrongful death actions, plaintiffs must establish that, but for the defendant’s actions or inactions, the patient would not have died.
Mueller,
The general rule is that if a defendant is negligent and his [or her] negligence combines with that of another, or with any other independent, intervening cause, he [or she] is liable, although his *555 [or her] negligence was not the sole negligence or the sole proximate cause, and although his [or her] negligence, without such other independent, intervening cause, would not have produced the injury.
In Callahan, however, this Court cautioned that a causation analysis should not lose sight of the ultimate issue:
All of this discussion concerning the semantics of causation is less important in Missouri than in most jurisdictions because under MAI we do not use the terms 1) ‘proximate cause,’ 2) ‘but for causation,’ or 3) ‘substantial factor’ when instructing the jury. We merely instruct the jury that the defendant’s conduct must ‘directly cause’ or ‘directly contribute to cause’ plaintiffs injury.
B. Causation Evidence
Son maintains that he presented the causation evidence required to survive summary judgment through the deposition testimony of his expert medical witness. He argues that his expert’s testimony supports a finding that Nursing Facility’s challenged conduct directly caused or contributed to cause Mother’s death.
The expert’s deposition testimony included: “I think that [Mother’s] nutritional decline and her emotional and psychological status all contributed to her death.” He also testified:
I think after reviewing the depositions as well as some of the records of [Nursing Facility] ... it’s clear to me that she had been neglected at the least. Certainly from the standpoint of the photographs and the descriptions of the falls she had perhaps been abused from that perspective not just physically but emotionally from the standpoint of having the telephone withdrawn. From the span I believe it was late February early March of 2002 it appeared those instances became more numerous. She had a tremendous weight loss the last month between June and July none of which was really addressed. I think overall her nutritional status suffered and eventually that neglect contributed to her demise.
Nursing Facility contends that Son’s expert’s testimony is insufficient because he stated only that he thought Nursing Facility’s conduct
contributed
to Mother’s death, which is not proof of “but for” causation. It argues that
Mueller
stands for the proposition that an expert’s testimony is devoid of evidentiary value when the expert merely states that an action or omission “might” or “could have” produced a given result and admits that other causes are possible.
See
Son’s expert’s testimony also survives criticism that it was not offered to a “rea
*556
sonable degree of certainty.”
See Baker,
IV. Conclusion
Viewing the record in the light most favorable to Son, as required by this Court’s standard of review, this Court finds that Son’s expert’s testimony provided the requisite evidence of causation to withstand summary judgment. As such, the trial court erred in finding that there was not a genuine issue of material fact about whether Nursing Facility’s conduct caused Mother’s death. The trial court’s judgment is reversed, and the cause is remanded.
Notes
. Because Missouri does not recognize a cause of action for causing the loss of the will to live, this opinion does not address Son's allegations that Nursing Facility’s negligent treatment of Mother was so severe that it impacted her spirit and will to live.
. Nursing Facility's motion for summary judgment did not challenge Son’s claims as to the proper standard of care or whether its conduct was negligent. As such, this opinion addresses only the issue of causation.