Malpractice trial begins in Washington County
Posted on Tuesday, August 7, 2007
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/55852/
Jurors heard testimony Monday during the first day of a medical malpractice lawsuit filed in Washington County by a Fort Smith couple on behalf of their daughter, who is in a Fort Smith nursing home and incapacitated.
The trial is expected to last all week in Fourth Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay’s courtroom at the Washington County Courthouse in Fayetteville.
Phillip Steven and Mary Core filed the suit in 2005 as guardians of their daughter, Susan Redding, 27 at the time, who underwent surgery on Dec. 17, 2003, at Northwest Medical Center in Springdale for an infection on her arm.
Defendants in the case are Drs. Jon Sexton and Gary Templeton, who were part of the treatment team following the surgery. They are both pulmonologists with Fayetteville Diagnostic Clinic, which is also a defendant in the case. A pulmonologist is a specialist in the anatomy, physiology and pathology of the lungs.
The plaintiffs are seeking money either for expenses for their daughter’s future costs at the nursing home or for her to stay at home with them.
Mary Core described during testimony how she was told that her daughter had gone into cardiac arrest on Dec. 18, 2003, following her inability to return to consciousness after surgery.
She said a clergyman told her that her daughter’s heart had stopped, and she was told not to go into the room while medical personnel were working on her. In a separate room, she said, Sexton told her that Susan Redding was in crisis and that he was trying to prepare her for what might happen.
Core said a calmness came over her and she knew her daughter was not going to die.
“ I started talking about God, ” she said of the conversation with the doctor.
She saw her daughter after the crisis.
“ She was just lying very still, ” she said.
“ They told us to hold her hand, ” she said, adding that her daughter did not squeeze it.
Susan Redding did not open her eyes then but, according to her parents’ testimony and a video of her later in the nursing home, she has opened her eyes.
She was taken from the Springdale hospital to the nursing home on Jan. 23, 2004, according to court testimony.
“ She’s really doing very well, ” Core said, adding that her daughter needs physical therapy.
Core said she is at the nursing home by her daughter’s side nearly 24 hours a day, with some hours off during the weekend, when her husband, who works, helps.
“ My wife and I are attempting to provide very skilled care, ” Steve Core later testified.
In cross-examining Mary Core, Fayetteville lawyer Walter Cox, who represents the defendants, pointed out that Core was not staying with her daughter that much time because it was recommended, but voluntarily, as a mother.
Core said her daughter can breathe well on her own but does not have control of her bowels or bladder.
Asked by her lawyer, Charles Karr of Fort Smith, what she thinks about the phrase “ persistent vegetative state ” to describe her daughter, Core said, “ I dislike it very much. She’s not a vegetable. ”
In answering a question about her daughter’s future care, she said, “ I hope to hold out at least 20 more years. ”
Beyond that, she said, “ It scares me. I worry about it. ”