Opinion ID: 1593633
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: was dr. lynn stringer qualified to testify as to the appropriate standard of care owed by dr. wansley?[8]

Text: ¶ 10. Dr. Wansley's motion for summary judgment challenged Hubbard's use of Dr. Lynn Stringer as an expert witness on the basis that Dr. Stringer, a board certified neurosurgeon, was not qualified to offer an opinion as to the standard of care of a physician practicing internal medicine. The trial court agreed with Dr. Wansley's contention and employed it as one of the grounds for granting summary judgment. ¶ 11. Absent an abuse of discretion, a judge's determination as to the qualifications of an expert witness will remain undisturbed on appeal. Palmer v. Biloxi Reg'l Med. Ctr., 564 So.2d 1346, 1357 (Miss.1990) (citing Ill. Cent. R.R. Co. v. Benoit Gin Co., 248 So.2d 426 (Miss. 1971)). As in the present case, the disqualification of the expert in Palmer came at the summary judgment hearing. There, this Court determined this is inconsequential, stating: The law empowers a trial judge to determine whether a proffered expert is qualified to testify and does not restrict exercise of this power to the trial stage only. That is, a judge has as much power to resolve doubts on qualifications of proffered experts during the summary judgment stage as he has during the trial stage. And of course, the standard which this Court must apply when reviewing a trial judge's decision to disqualify remains unchanged  notwithstanding that the decision was made during the summary judgment stage. That is, this Court will determine whether the trial judge abused his discretion. Id. ¶ 12. A prima facie case for medical malpractice must be made by proving the following elements: (1) the existence of a duty by the defendant to conform to a specific standard of conduct for the protection of others against an unreasonable risk of injury; (2) a failure to conform to the required standard; and (3) an injury to the plaintiff proximately caused by the breach of such duty by the defendant. Drummond v. Buckley, 627 So.2d 264, 268 (Miss.1993) (citing Burnham v. Tabb, 508 So.2d 1072, 1074 (Miss. 1987)). When proving these elements in a medical malpractice suit, expert testimony must be used. Not only must this expert identify and articulate the requisite standard that was not complied with, the expert must also establish that the failure was the proximate cause, or proximate contributing cause, of the alleged injuries. Barner v. Gorman, 605 So.2d 805, 809 (Miss.1992) (citing Latham v. Hayes, 495 So.2d 453 (Miss.1986)). ¶ 13. Rule 702 of the Mississippi Rules of Evidence governs the admission of expert testimony. A witness may testify as an expert to assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact issue if the witness is qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education and if (1) the testimony is based upon sufficient facts or data, (2) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods, and (3) the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case. M.R.E. 702. It is generally not required that an expert testifying in a medical malpractice case be of the same specialty as the doctor about whom the expert is testifying. `It is the scope of the witness' knowledge and not the artificial classification by title that should govern the threshold question of admissibility.' West v. Sanders Clinic for Women, P.A., 661 So.2d 714, 719 (Miss.1995). Satisfactory familiarity with the specialty of the defendant doctor is, however, required in order for an expert to testify as to the standard of care owed to the plaintiff patient. Id. at 718-19. ¶ 14. Dr. Stringer stated in an affidavit that Dr. Wansley should have: (1) gone to the hospital to see Hubbard on the evening of May 11, 1997, when Hubbard went to the emergency room; (2) consulted with a neurologist about Hubbard's condition; (3) administered the medications Decadron and Nimodipine to Hubbard; and (4) not administered hydrochlorothiazide and a low fluid volume of saltwater. Dr. Stringer further stated that Dr. Wansley violated the standard of care owed to Hubbard and the failure to adhere to that standard contributed to Hubbard's diminished neurological condition. ¶ 15. Hubbard counters that Dr. Stringer is well-qualified to testify as an expert in this case and it was error to grant summary judgment on the basis that Hubbard did not have an expert qualified to testify as to the standard of care. Specifically, Hubbard contends that Dr. Stringer's training and experience, combined with his familiarity with three treatises on the treatment of subarachnoid hemorrhages and with treatises in the field of internal medicine, give Dr. Stringer the knowledge necessary to form an opinion as to the standard of care that Dr. Wansley owed Hubbard. ¶ 16. In its Memorandum Opinion and Order, the trial court pointed out that Dr. Stringer did not consider himself to be an expert in the field of internal medicine and that he was not conversant in the medical literature relied upon by those in the field of internal medicine. The court's order also stated that Dr. Stringer testified that he had never practiced primary care medicine and that he had never held medical staff privileges that would entitle him to do so. Dr. Stringer himself testified that he had not recently read the internal medicine treatises with which Hubbard claimed he was familiar. ¶ 17. The dissent cites the same precedent we cite in making its argument that Dr. Stringer is qualified to testify in this case. Specifically, the dissent asks if it is not perfectly logical to allow a person who is an expert in a subject to testify to the relatively mundane features of that same specialty, such as the standard of care? (¶ 55) (Emphasis added). However, the dissent is either confusing or interchangeably using the terms subject and specialty. We do not dispute that Dr. Stringer has knowledge in treating the subject, subarachnoid hemorrhages, as a neurosurgeon. However, our precedent requires familiarity not with a particular subject, but with a specialty. In this case, that specialty would be internal medicine. It is illogical to allow a proposed expert to testify as to the standard of care of a specialty with which he has demonstrated no familiarity. ¶ 18. The dissent cites West as authority for this proposition. The dispute in West was whether an oncologist, Dr. Taylor, could testify to the standard of care that a gastroenterologist should apply in treating colon cancer. In affirming the trial court's exclusion of the testimony, this Court stated, While Dr. Taylor testified in his deposition that he had treated patients with recognized clinical signs of colon carcinoma, he did not intimate that he knew how a gastroenterologist would treat such a patient. West, 661 So.2d at 719. In the present case, although Dr. Stringer testified that he had treated patients with subarachnoid hemorrhages, he did not intimate that he knew how an internal medicine practitioner would treat such a patient. The specialty of internal medicine is an independent field of medicine. We are not saying that it was necessary for Hubbard to proffer an internal medicine practitioner as her expert, but our precedent requires a plaintiff in a medical malpractice action to procure an expert familiar with the specialty of the defendant doctor. ¶ 19. It is the position of Hubbard and the dissent that Dr. Stringer's knowledge, skill, training, education, and experience qualify him to testify as an expert in this case. However, Dr. Stringer's knowledge, skill, training, education, and experience are in the area of neurosurgery. While it is obvious that Dr. Stringer is an experienced and knowledgeable neurosurgeon and that he has experience in treating subarachnoid hemorrhages as a neurosurgeon, Hubbard has offered no evidence that Dr. Stringer has any familiarity with the standard of care that would be required of an internal medicine specialist in treating a subarachnoid hemorrhage. Therefore, it cannot be said that the trial court abused its discretion in holding that Dr. Stringer was not qualified to testify as to the standard of an internal medicine practitioner. Summary judgment was appropriate unless it could be found that Dr. Wansley should have been held to the standard of a neurosurgeon or neurologist as argued by Hubbard.