Ex-student's medical lawsuit in limbo for now

The attorney for a former Ohio University student who lost an arm to a flesh-eating virus has dismissed the woman's medical malpractice lawsuit against OU's Hudson Health Center.

However, the lawyer said Wednesday, this is only a temporary delay that stems from his difficulty in scheduling a group of expert witnesses to give deposition testimony.

"That (suit) will be re-filed," promised Dayton attorney Dwight D. Brannon, who represents plaintiffs Molly Millsop and her parents. "We couldn't get everybody together at once, but we'll do that this summer. This case is going forward."

Millsop, who is from Vandalia, Ohio in Montgomery County, sued OU in the Ohio Court of Claims in January 2008, after she had to have much of her right arm amputated in September 2007.

She claims medical personnel at Hudson were negligent when they failed to recognize that she was suffering from a flesh-eating bacterial infection called necrotizing fasciitis, and instead concluded that she was undergoing an attack of anxiety.

The student reportedly made three visits to Hudson before being sent to O'Bleness Memorial Hospital, where doctors quickly identified the nature of her complaint. She was then transported to a Columbus hospital where her right arm was partially amputated.

Attorneys for OU have argued in response to Millsop's lawsuit that it wasn't incompetence for a general-practice physician at Hudson to fail to spot the infection. They pointed out that the infection is exceedingly rare, and almost never occurs in young, healthy patients without some pre-disposing condition such as diabetes or colon cancer, which Millsop did not have.

On Feb. 23, OU's attorneys filed a motion to compel Millsop to produce her expert witnesses in the case to give depositions.

In the motion, Ohio Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey L. Maloon alleged that the plaintiffs subjected the defense to an "ambush" in connection with one expert defense witness. Maloon asked Judge Joseph T. Clark to order Millsop to produce her expert witnesses so the defense could depose them.

Maloon noted that the plaintiffs were scheduled to have identified all their expert witnesses and provided reports from these witnesses by last Oct. 26. Before that deadline passed, however, he stated, Millsop's attorneys had served notice that they planned to take a deposition from Stephen D. Rose, M.D.

Rose is a physician who attended Millsop when she was admitted to the Ohio State University Medical Center.

Despite not having identified Rose as an expert plaintiff's witness before taking his deposition, Maloon alleged, Millsop's attorneys elicited opinion testimony from the physician when they deposed him, on issues relating to medical care standards and the causes of Millsop's amputation. (Non-expert witnesses are not allowed to give opinion testimony.)

To make matters worse, the motion claimed, one month after Rose's deposition, the plaintiffs produced a report that the physician had written the previous August, but the existence of which had not previously been made known to the defense.

"No excuse... was provided for the failure to identify Dr. Rose as an expert before the deposition or the failure to provide a copy of his report either prior to or during the deposition," Maloon wrote.

Though the defense has made "numerous requests" to depose Millsop's other three expert witnesses "“ two M.D.s and a registered nurse "“ Millsop's attorneys have "only recently" acknowledged these requests, Maloon claimed.

"Defendant seeks to avoid another ambush similar to that surrounding Dr. Rose," Maloon added. Having failed to schedule the witness depositions he needs, the attorney wrote, he is "forced to seek court intervention" to get an order to compel Millsop to produce her witnesses to testify.

The voluntary dismissal by Brannon, without prejudice (allowing for re-filing), renders this issue moot for the time being.




LOCAL



Ex-student's medical lawsuit in limbo for now



By Jim Phillips

Athens NEWS Associate Editor

jim@athensnews.com



The attorney for a former Ohio University student who lost an arm to a flesh-eating virus has dismissed the woman's medical malpractice lawsuit against OU's Hudson Health Center.

However, the lawyer said Wednesday, this is only a temporary delay that stems from his difficulty in scheduling a group of expert witnesses to give deposition testimony.

"That (suit) will be re-filed," promised Dayton attorney Dwight D. Brannon, who represents plaintiffs Molly Millsop and her parents. "We couldn't get everybody together at once, but we'll do that this summer. This case is going forward."

Millsop, who is from Vandalia, Ohio in Montgomery County, sued OU in the Ohio Court of Claims in January 2008, after she had to have much of her right arm amputated in September 2007.

She claims medical personnel at Hudson were negligent when they failed to recognize that she was suffering from a flesh-eating bacterial infection called necrotizing fasciitis, and instead concluded that she was undergoing an attack of anxiety.

The student reportedly made three visits to Hudson before being sent to O'Bleness Memorial Hospital, where doctors quickly identified the nature of her complaint. She was then transported to a Columbus hospital where her right arm was partially amputated.

Attorneys for OU have argued in response to Millsop's lawsuit that it wasn't incompetence for a general-practice physician at Hudson to fail to spot the infection. They pointed out that the infection is exceedingly rare, and almost never occurs in young, healthy patients without some pre-disposing condition such as diabetes or colon cancer, which Millsop did not have.

On Feb. 23, OU's attorneys filed a motion to compel Millsop to produce her expert witnesses in the case to give depositions.

In the motion, Ohio Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey L. Maloon alleged that the plaintiffs subjected the defense to an "ambush" in connection with one expert defense witness. Maloon asked Judge Joseph T. Clark to order Millsop to produce her expert witnesses so the defense could depose them.

Maloon noted that the plaintiffs were scheduled to have identified all their expert witnesses and provided reports from these witnesses by last Oct. 26. Before that deadline passed, however, he stated, Millsop's attorneys had served notice that they planned to take a deposition from Stephen D. Rose, M.D.

Rose is a physician who attended Millsop when she was admitted to the Ohio State University Medical Center.

Despite not having identified Rose as an expert plaintiff's witness before taking his deposition, Maloon alleged, Millsop's attorneys elicited opinion testimony from the physician when they deposed him, on issues relating to medical care standards and the causes of Millsop's amputation. (Non-expert witnesses are not allowed to give opinion testimony.)

To make matters worse, the motion claimed, one month after Rose's deposition, the plaintiffs produced a report that the physician had written the previous August, but the existence of which had not previously been made known to the defense.

"No excuse... was provided for the failure to identify Dr. Rose as an expert before the deposition or the failure to provide a copy of his report either prior to or during the deposition," Maloon wrote.

Though the defense has made "numerous requests" to depose Millsop's other three expert witnesses "“ two M.D.s and a registered nurse "“ Millsop's attorneys have "only recently" acknowledged these requests, Maloon claimed.

"Defendant seeks to avoid another ambush similar to that surrounding Dr. Rose," Maloon added. Having failed to schedule the witness depositions he needs, the attorney wrote, he is "forced to seek court intervention" to get an order to compel Millsop to produce her witnesses to testify.

The voluntary dismissal by Brannon, without prejudice (allowing for re-filing), renders this issue moot for the time being.