HOUSTON - Yesterday, the First Court of Appeals affirmed a ruling denying a motion to dismiss a medical malpractice lawsuit claiming a physician was negligent in allowing a patient to fall off an operating table.
Court records show John and Waltraud Swaim filed suit against Dr. Alex Davis, II in 2020 for negligence, alleging that Davis failed to adequately supervise John’s care and treatment.
According to the lawsuit, on Nov. 9, 2019, John fell at home and went to Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital for treatment. The next day, Davis, an orthopedic surgeon, performed surgery to repair John’s hip fracture. After the procedure, and while John was still under anesthesia, he fell from the operating table, landing on his head and violently extracting his endotracheal tube. Members of Davis’ surgical team found him face down on the floor.
A Hospital neurosurgical team diagnosed John with a concussion, and he was admitted to the intensive care unit. He suffered a heart attack and aspiration pneumonia, and experienced feeding and swallowing difficulties, necessitating the placement of a feeding tube. John spent weeks in a skilled nursing facility before he was stabilized enough to return home.
The Swaims allege that John is now permanently disabled and unlikely to fully recover.
On appeal, Davis challenged the trial court’s order denying his motion to dismiss the health care liability claim, arguing that the trial court abused its discretion in denying his motion because the Swaims failed to present an adequate medical-expert report on the issue of causation.
The First Court concluded that the trial court reasonably concluded that the report represents an objective, good-faith effort to inform Davis of the causal relationship between the failure to provide care in accordance with the pertinent standards of care and the injuries and damages claimed.
“Accordingly, we hold that the trial court did not err in denying the motion to dismiss the Swaims’ health care liability claim on the ground that the expert report is inadequate with respect to causation,” the opinion states. “We affirm the trial court’s interlocutory order denying the motion to dismiss the Swaims’ health care liability claim.”
Appeals case No. 01-21-00596-CV