A York County jury has ordered a Rock Hill radiology practice and one of its doctors to pay $1 million to a woman whose husband died after the doctor failed to inform emergency room physicians that the husband had broken his ribs during a fall that ultimately contributed to his death.
McGowan
Chad McGowan of McGowan, Hood & Felder in Rock Hill said that Rita Pratt, the widow of Bill Pratt, sued Rock Hill Radiology Associates and Geoffrey Gilleland in connection with Pratt’s late-night fall down a flight of stairs in March 2015. Pratt was taken to the Piedmont Medical Center emergency room and examined and treated by a physician. An initial read of scans showed that Pratt hadn’t suffered any broken bones in the fall.
Creech
But when Gilleland looked at the scans the next morning he discovered that Pratt had broken nine ribs. Hospital policy and normal practice required Gilleland to alert the ER physicians, who would have brought Pratt back to the hospital and placed him in a trauma center for lung treatment, McGowan said, but Gilleland failed to inform the ER physicians.
Instead, Pratt was at home where, over the course of two days, he developed pneumonia, which led to his admission to the Carolinas Medical Center Trauma Unit. He died two weeks later from pneumonia and complications of end-stage liver cancer.
Goodstein
After a three-day trial, the jury found that Gilleland and Rock Hill Radiology were liable for Pratt’s death, and that Gilleland’s actions were reckless, willful, or wanton. McGowan said that testimony revealed that Gilleland referred to Pratt as “a hospice guy” who therefore did not deserve normal care. Due to extensive cancer, the evidence suggested his life expectancy ranged from two months to two years, McGowan said.
“He claimed he did Mr. Pratt did a favor by not calling [the emergency room physicians], but by putting it in his report, so that when he was looking for pain meds, there would be a medical reason for hospice to get him narcotics,” McGowan said.
The defense claimed that the broken ribs were not “fractures,” but rather “little dents” of no significance, McGowan said.
“The problem they had is that the defendant’s radiology report clearly stated ‘nine non-displaced rib fractures,’ so they were trying to rewrite history,” McGowan said. The defense also claimed that Pratt was riddled with cancer and contracted pneumonia and died from the cancer, not the rib fractures.
Wright
Piedmont Medical Center was named in the lawsuit but settled mid-trial.
Pratt was a former professional musician who was the first white musician signed with Motown Records, and wrote songs for and performed with artists such as Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, and the Doobie Brothers.
“The family is about as expected to be after five years,” McGowan said. “They are trying to move on, but a trial dredges everything back up. Rita Pratt is very glad that the doctor was found responsible after so many years of denial and delay. That fact alone means the world of the Pratt family.”
McGowan said the family hopes the verdict “this serves as a lesson to other doctors not to write people off based on their medical condition.”Ashley Creech, Eve Goodstein, Jay Wright, and Susie Campbell of McGowan, Hood & Felder also represented Rita Pratt.
Matthew Henrikson of Greenville represented the Rock Hill Radiology Associates and Gilleland. He could not be reached for comment.
Follow Bill Cresenzo on Twitter @bcresenzosclw
VERDICT REPORT — MEDICAL MALPRACTICE
Amount: $1,000,000
Injuries alleged: Death
Case name: Rita Pratt, Individually and as PR of the Estate of William C. Pratt v. Amisub of South Carolina, Inc. d/b/a Piedmont Medical Center, Rock Hill Radiology Associates, PA and Geoffry Gilleland, MD
Court: York County Circuit Court
Case No.: 2016-CP-46-03181
Date of verdict: Feb. 10
Special damages: $360,000 (survivorship), $640,000 (loss of consortium)
Most helpful experts: Anthony Lupetin of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (radiology), Mike Chansky of Audubon, New Jersey (emergency medicine), and Hiren Shah of Chicago (hospitalist)
Attorneys for plaintiff: Chad McGowan, Ashley Creech, Eve Goodstein, Susan Campbell and Jay Wright of McGowan, Hood & Felder in Rock Hill
Attorney for defendants: Matthew Henrikson of Greenville