Opinion ID: 76805
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Doctor James Merinkangas

Text: 53 Mr. McDowell claims that the delay in treating his spinal epidural abscess caused or worsened his condition. To support this, Dr. Merinkangas proposed that early treatment of a patient with spinal epidural abscess reduced neurological damage. The district court labeled this theory as the earlier, the better. Additionally, Dr. Merinkangas also opined that the four-hour delay (on the part of the Grady defendants) caused Mr. McDowell's injuries. Dr. Merinkangas based his theory on the common sense and universal axiom that expedited treatment is preferable to delayed treatment. Dr. Merinkangas also pointed to a study in SPINAL CORD COMPRESSION, which analyzed the effects of 48-hour delays in treatment. The district court determined that Merinkangas's theory lacked testing, peer review, a potential error rate, and general acceptance. We agree. 54 The district court was correct in finding that the earlier, the better theory was too vague to assist the trier the fact. Indeed, the notion of early treatment is well within common knowledge that would be obvious to the average juror, but has nothing to do with causation. Dr. Merinkangas himself stated that the sooner, the better is just simply common understanding, and doesn't rise to the level where someone would bother reporting that because everyone knows that. As such, this the earlier, the better theory adds nothing absent some testimony connecting the delay to the causation or aggravation of an injury. 55 We also agree with the district court's conclusion that Dr. Merinkangas's contention that McDowell's injury could have been prevented had he entered surgery four hours earlier failed the Daubert analysis. 13 Dr. Merinkangas could not identify any empirical data, survey, study, or literature to support his theory, save the study in SPINAL CORD COMPRESSION, which dealt with a delay of 48 hours, which is more than twice the delay here. Notwithstanding his lack of support, Dr. Merinkangas further opined that had McDowell been treated 24 hours earlier, then he would have no resulting paralysis. Taking either of Dr. Merinkangas's propositions (a four-hour delay or twenty-four delay), there is no support addressing anything less than a 48- hour delay. There is a considerable gap between a 24-hour to a 48-hour delay, and even more so with a 4-hour delay. This runs afoul of Allison 's admonition that a theory should not leap from an accepted scientific premise to an unsupported one. 184 F.3d at 1314. Furthermore, an expert opinion is inadmissible when the only connection between the conclusion and the existing data is the expert's own assertions, as we have here. See General Electric v. Joiner, 522 U.S. 136, 146, 118 S.Ct. 512, 139 L.Ed.2d 508 (1997). This falls short of general acceptance prong of reliability. 56 Finally, Dr. Merinkangas has not tested his own theory nor determined any error rate associated with it. See Daubert, 509 U.S. at 593, 113 S.Ct. 2786. Dr. Merinkangas simply made a blanket statement that the delay caused the paralysis, but gave no opinion as to whether the sum of the delays compounded McDowell's injuries, or if just one delay created the damage. Based on Dr. Merinkangas's opinions, it is impossible to mete out whether the initial delay at the Jail contributed to the cause at all. Thus, without a viable theory with which to link Wexford's negligence to McDowell's injury, the district court properly excluded Dr. Merinkangas's testimony.