HARRISBURG – The Superior Court of Pennsylvania is considering the appeal of an EMT who says he was physically assaulted by a minor patient being transported to the hospital via ambulance.
Cori Larsen initially filed suit in the Wayne County Court of Common Pleas on Dec. 22, 2020 versus Wayne Memorial Hospital, Dr. Paige Castelino and John Does 1-3.
An appeal brief from plaintiff counsel set out the background of the initial action.
“From Dec. 25, 2018 through Dec. 30, 2018, defendant Paige Castelino, M.D., was the attending physician at defendant Wayne Memorial Hospital overseeing the care of a minor patient. In summary, plaintiff alleged that Dr. Castelino ordered the transfer of care of the minor patient to an ambulance/transport crew that included the plaintiff. This minor was known to the caregivers and administrators at WMH as violent and exceedingly difficult to physically control, with a history of becoming uncontrollably violent, striking, kicking and/or biting her caregivers. Dr. Castelino knew that this minor had a propensity for sudden and unprovoked violent outbursts and was difficult to control, with a documented history of striking, kicking and/or biting caregivers. On Dec. 30, 2018, defendants discharged the minor patient into the care of the transport team, including plaintiff,” the brief stated.
“Broadly, plaintiff alleged that Dr. Castelino and WMH failed to use reasonable care to properly ensure that this patient was not a danger to herself or others during the lengthy ambulance trip from WMH to another care facility. She asserted claims against Wayne Memorial Hospital and Dr. Castelino for negligence, gross negligence and negligent performance of an undertaking to render services. While the ambulance was traveling on Route 80 in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, the minor patient attacked the plaintiff in the back of the ambulance, causing her to sustain severe personal injuries and other losses. The defendants failed to exercise the degree of care, skill and knowledge ordinarily exercises and possessed by other medical professionals, having due regard for the existing state of knowledge in medicine at the time of the occurrences described in the complaint.”
On April 26, the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants, Wayne Memorial Hospital and Castelino, where Wayne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Janine Edwards found that the defendants did not owe a duty to the plaintiff, and alternatively, that the plaintiff’s liability expert was not qualified to offer his standard of care opinions.
This led the plaintiff to appeal to the Superior Court on May 16, arguing that 1) The trial court both erred in granting the defendants’ motions for summary judgment because the defendants owed plaintiff a duty, notwithstanding the fact that plaintiff was not the defendants’ patient; and 2) The trial court erred in granting defendants’ motions for summary judgment, because plaintiff’s liability expert is qualified to opine on breaches of the standard of care by defendants.
“The trial court erred in granting the defendants’ motions for summary judgment because the defendants owed a duty to the plaintiff notwithstanding the fact that plaintiff was not their patient. Our Commonwealth’s appellate courts have consistently, flatly rejected the notion advanced by defendants here that health care providers do not owe a duty in tort to anyone other than their patients. This Court has even held, in a case decided long after the enactment of the MCARE Act, that health care providers owed a duty to a patient’s future unborn children in a claim advanced under the Restatement (Second) of Torts Section 324A. Plaintiff here has asserted claims against defendants under that same section, which this Court has explicitly held does not require a physician-patient relationship between the physician and the injured third-party non-patient in order for a plaintiff to advance a professional liability claim,” per the plaintiff’s appeal brief.
“In granting summary judgment, the trial court failed to appreciate that plaintiff's claims fall within the MCARE Act’s definition of a medical professional liability claim in that they seek damages from health care providers resulting from the furnishing of health care services which should have been provided, even though the health care services (proper sedation/restraints) that would have prevented this violent assault should have been provided to the assailant, and not the plaintiff herself. Ms. Larsen, a paramedic confined to the rear of an ambulance during a more-than-five-hour transport of the patient, was an eminently foreseeable victim of the eminently foreseeable attack by the defendants’ recently-discharged patient. As such, Wayne Memorial Hospital and its agent, Dr. Castelino, owed plaintiff a duty to exercise reasonable care in the exercise of their profession to protect her from harm.”
Additionally, plaintiff counsel argued that their client’s liability expert is qualified to offer his standard of care opinions critical of the defendants.
“While he is admittedly not board-certified in the same specialty as defendant Castelino, he need not be in order to satisfy the alternative test for qualification of a standard of care expert contained in Section 512(e) of the MCARE Act. By focusing on the practice of internal medicine (Dr. Castelino’s specialty) in a vacuum, and not as it relates to the specific care at issue in this case, the trial court failed to follow appellate authority interpreting this specific MCARE provision,” the brief explained.
When contacted by the Pennsylvania Record in reference to their own appeal brief submitted to the Superior Court, defense counsel explained they were not permitted to discuss or share documents related to pending litigation.
The plaintiff is represented by Brandon Swartz and Matthew E. Gallagher of Swartz Culleton, in Newtown.
The defendants are represented by John R. Hill and Adam L. Fenstermaker of the Law Offices of John R. Hill & Associates, in Bethlehem.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania case 1400 EDA 2023
Wayne County Court of Common Pleas case 2020-CV-00433
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com