“Medical malpractice claims and lawsuits deal with Improper, unskilled, or negligent treatment of a patient by a physician, dentist, nurse, pharmacist, or other health care professional. Negligence is the predominant theory of liability concerning allegations of medical malpractice, making this type of litigation part of Tort Law. Since the 1970s, medical malpractice has been a controversial social issue. Physicians have complained about the large number of malpractice suits and have urged legal reforms to curb large damage awards, whereas tort attorneys have argued that negligence suits are an effective way of compensating victims of negligence and of policing the medical profession. A person who alleges negligent medical malpractice must …show more content…
The emergency room physician, David C. Lee, M.D., ordered medication, a series of diagnostic tests, and blood cultures, and he admitted Mrs. Adae to the hospital for further observation and testing, in order to rule out myocardial infarction and ACS. Dr. Lee listed "infectious etiology" in his differential diagnoses. Jennifer Bain, M.D., came on duty as an attending physician during the morning of June 29, 2006. Dr. Bain, an employee of UC, recorded her suspicion that Mrs. Adae 's chest pain was musculoskeletal. Dr. Bain noted that Mrs. Adae 's EKG, cardiac enzymes, and blood tests, with the exception of her elevated blood sugar, were normal. She ordered a CT scan of Mrs. Adae 's chest to rule out the possibility of an aneurism, a CT scan of her abdomen to evaluate her liver, additional lab work, and thyroid testing, possibly to be performed on an outpatient basis. Mrs. Adae 's DischargeSummary, signed by Dr. Pesante, states, in part, "it just seems like [Mrs. Adae 's] problem may have moreso been either some kind of infectious process or possibly a thyroid abnormality." Also on July 1, three days after her discharge from CMH, the CMH laboratory reported to the resident on duty that Mrs. Adae 's blood cultures were showing "gram positive cocci in clusters." The following day, the laboratory reported to Dr. Pesante that Mrs. Adae 's blood cultures were positive for staphylococcus aureus, a type of bacterial infection. Neither the resident on duty on July 1 nor Dr. Pesante contacted Dr. Bain or the attending physician on-call about Mrs. Adae 's blood culture results. The trial court found it unclear whether any CMH employee attempted to contact appellees or Dr. Avera. Dr. Avera testified, however, that, had she learned of the positive blood culture results, she would have immediately admitted Mrs. Adae to the hospital and would have "empiricallystarted her on antibiotics and then attempted to find the source of the