This was an Ontario Court of Appeal decision regarding a Plaintiff who suffered an anticoagulant medication error. The trial judge found that the medication error caused no physical injury, however, he did conclude that there was a mental injury. The Defendant hospital appealed on the finding of a mental injury.
Two experts testified on the issue of causation. Dr. Louis Caplan, a world-renowned expert in stroke and professor at Harvard University, testified on behalf of the plaintiffs. Dr. David Gladstone, a leading Canadian expert in stroke, testified on behalf of the defendant. The expert evidence revealed the existence of a debate in the medical community around the comparative efficacy of anticoagulation therapy versus antiplatelet therapy in the prevention of secondary strokes stemming from vertebral artery dissections.
The Plaintiffs in two separate medical negligence actions requested that the defendants produce certain documents that they generated for use in quality of care review processes at the defendant hospitals.
This is one of those rare medical malpractice decisions where negligence is found against a doctor without the need for expert evidence. Expert evidence is almost always needed for the Plaintiff to prove negligence in a medical malpractice claim, however, there are those rare instances when it is not.
The trial judge considered all the evidence and determined that Dr. Lawson did not fall below the standard of care with respect to surgery. The trial accepted the physician’s evidence that she would have checked the ureters for injury during the procedure even though it was not documented in her operative report. Even if the ureters had not been inspected, the trial judge found that they would not have shown an injury at the time.
On February 2, 2023, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a class action trial decision from an infectious disease outbreak at the Rothbart Centre for Pain Care Ltd. (“the Rothbart Centre”) in Toronto.
Ms. Fortune-Ozoike was eventually diagnosed with a left knee dislocation. By the following morning, the blood flow in her left leg was seriously compromised, and she was transferred on an urgent basis by air ambulance to St. Michael’s Hospital. There, she had vascular surgery in the early afternoon of December 27, 2013. Unfortunately, this was too late to save Ms. Fortune-Ozoike’s leg and, on January 4, 2014, she received an above-knee amputation.
The Plaintiffs in this medical malpractice case moved for production of the instructing letter, e-mails, and memos detailing conversations between the defence expert and lawyer for the Defendant doctor.