Verdicts

Summary dismissal of a suit against a hospital was proper where the plaintiff presented no evidence to back her pleaded theory of liability, but instead produced an expert opinion concerning a second theory of which the defendant hospital had not been informed. Tam v. Garfield Medical Center Inc., 2014 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 5149 (Cal.App.2d, 7/22/14).

The plaintiff's father, Hung Sun Tam (Mr. Tam), suffered abdominal and shoulder injuries in a car accident. Prior to undergoing emergency surgery to address these issues, Mr. Tam, who was then alert, stable and able to communicate, was given a dose of Morphine. According to his daughter's complaint for wrongful death and medical malpractice, the Morphine caused his blood pressure to drop immediately, causing him to go into cardiac respiratory arrest. Mr. Tam was then intubated and sent to the operating room with instructions to resuscitate, and his planned surgeries were completed. According to the plaintiff, following surgery Mr. Tam was sent to the intensive care unit, where a “pulmonary consultation revealed that Mr. Tam was in a deep coma” and he “died shortly thereafter, on the same day he was admitted.” In her suit brought in Superior Court, Los Angeles County, the plaintiff alleged that the doctor responsible for administering Morphine to her father and the hospital at which her father was treated, Garfield Medical Center Inc., thereby caused his death.