Doctor defends treatment of Fort Smith woman now living in nursing home
Posted on Thursday, August 9, 2007
One of the doctors who treated a Fort Smith woman whose parents are suing for medical malpractice said Wednesday in court that he believes there was nothing he could have done to prevent her cardiac arrest in 2003.
"This sort of thing happens sometimes, despite what we do," Dr. Gary Templeton said on the stand.
Fort Smith residents Phillip Steven and Mary Core are suing on behalf of Susan Redding, who is incapacitated in a Fort Smith nursing home. The Cores, guardians of their daughter, filed suit in 2005 and the trial is being conducted this week.
Defendants in the case are Templeton and Dr. Jon Sexton, 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.
An expert witness for the plaintiffs, Dr. Irwin Shelub of the Peninsula Pulmonary Medical Group in California, earlier this week criticized Templeton for not getting a chest X-ray at 8 p.m. on Dec. 18, 2003 - 16 minutes before Redding's cardiac arrest.
Templeton said he did not order a chest X-ray because medical signs did not point to doing so.
He said he was surprised that Redding had the cardiac arrest after Sexton, who worked the code blue, informed him of it later that night.
"It's a terrible situation," Templeton said.
He said he feels like the cardiac arrest was caused by the woman's sepsis.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
