Spokane- Joseph H. Harrington, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, announced that, on June 14, 2017, Chief United States District Judge Thomas O. Rice entered an Order dismissing a medical malpractice lawsuit filed against the Veterans Administration by the children of a Navy veteran. See Order (attached hereto).
According to information disclosed during the court proceedings, Steven Wright presented himself to the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center (VAMC) in Spokane, Washington a week after falling at home and injuring his knee and ankle. VAMC Emergency Department doctors examined his injuries and performed imaging to rule out further injury or the presence of a blood clot. Once the results of the imaging were reviewed, Mr. Wright was discharged. Upon discharge, VAMC nurses offered, on three occasions, to transport him via wheelchair to his transportation outside the medical center. Mr. Wright, however, refused transport assistance and left the VAMC on his own. Shortly after leaving, Mr. Wright fell outside on the pavement and suffered minor scrapes to his head.
VAMC employees provided emergency assistance and brought Mr. Wright back into the Emergency Department for further evaluation / treatment. Mr. Wright was examined by a VA nurse, who was assessed by an independently-contracted-physician with expertise in emergency medicine. After conducting another examination and neurological assessment, and at his request, Mr. Wright was discharged and he left the VAMC with a friend. Tragically, Mr. Wright was found deceased the following morning at his home, purportedly because of an internal head injury.
Mr. Wright’s two adult children and his Estate (collectively Plaintiffs) sued the Veterans Administration and the independently-contracted-physician. Plaintiffs claimed that the emergency department physician should have ordered a CT scan of Mr. Wright’s head injury when he was brought back to the Emergency Department and should have admitted him for overnight observation. Plaintiffs also claimed that the VA nurses should have insisted upon Mr. Wright that he be taken outside in a wheelchair and should have advocated harder against the physician’s assessment for a CT scan and admission of Mr. Wright for observation.
In dismissing the case against the Veterans Administration, Chief Judge Rice found that Plaintiffs could not prove the VA nurses owed a duty to insist that Mr. Wright be transported and further found that even if such duty existed, the VA nurses did not breach that duty or any of the alleged duties. Under Washington law, a plaintiff in a medical malpractice suit must support any medical negligence claim with competent medical expert testimony establishing a duty, a breach, causation, and injury. Proof of these elements for a claim against the VA was absent in this case. Because the independently-contracted-physician was not a VA employee, Chief Judge Rice ruled that Plaintiffs could pursue their case against him, remanding that claim to state court.
This case was defended by Rudy J. Verschoor and Joseph P. Derrig, Assistant United States Attorneys in the Civil Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
