Opinion ID: 785775
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Summary Judgment for the Hospital

Text: 16 Davis argues that the court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of the Hospital on his negligence claim because (1) he did present the expert testimony necessary to support a claim of medical malpractice; and (2) even if he had not, Connecticut law did not require him to present expert testimony that a breach of the standard of care proximately caused him injury. We review the district court's grant of summary judgment de novo, drawing all factual inferences in favor of the non-moving party. See Felix v. New York City Transit Auth., 324 F.3d 102, 104 (2d Cir.2003). 17 Under Connecticut law, a medical malpractice plaintiff carries the burden of establishing through expert medical testimony that: (1) the defendant was obligated to conform to a recognized standard of care; (2) the defendant deviated from that standard; and (3) the defendant's deviation from the standard of care proximately caused the plaintiff's injuries. See Law v. Camp, 116 F.Supp.2d 295, 305-06, 307 (D.Conn.2000) (collecting Connecticut cases and discussing expert testimony requirement for medical malpractice claims). Generally, where the plaintiff has presented no expert evidence, the court must grant summary judgment in favor of the defendant. See Guzze v. New Britain Gen. Hosp., 16 Conn.App. 480, 485, 547 A.2d 944 (1988). 18 In this case, Davis did present expert testimony regarding the standard of care that emergency room doctors must meet in examining a patient like Davis. According to Davis's expert, he should have been treated as a trauma patient and been given a complete head-to-toe, front and back examination. Davis's expert testified that the failure of the Emergency Department doctor to conduct such an examination and to detect the bullet wound, if there at the time, 5 constituted a breach of the standard of care. 19 In response, the Hospital correctly points out that the alleged injury in this case resulted not from the failure to detect the bullet wound, but instead from the failure to remove the bullet from Davis's leg. As the district court noted, Davis was thus required to show not only that the applicable standard required detection of the bullet wound, but also that the standard required removal of the bullet. Although the Hospital presented expert evidence that proper treatment of a bullet wound often militates against removing the bullet, Davis presented no expert evidence to the contrary. Davis did not present expert evidence regarding the standard of care for treatment of bullet wounds and thus could not establish that the bullet in his leg should have been removed. 20 Davis argues, however, that his malpractice claim falls within one of three exceptions to the general rule requiring expert evidence. In Poulin v. Yasner, 64 Conn.App. 730, 747, 781 A.2d 422 (2001), the court noted that no expert evidence is required when the negligence is gross, when the medical condition is obvious and when the plaintiff's evidence of injury creates a probability so strong that a lay juror can form a reasonable belief. None of these exceptions is applicable to Davis's claim. The Hospital presented expert evidence suggesting that removing a bullet can often be more dangerous than leaving it in and that in Davis's case the proper treatment of his wound would have required leaving the bullet in his leg. According to the Hospital, Davis's failure to have the bullet removed for two years and his election to have it removed only when it became useful as evidence in his criminal trial support this view. The failure to remove the bullet can thus hardly be termed gross negligence, nor can it be said that proper treatment was obviously to remove the bullet or that this was within the common knowledge of a jury. 21 We agree with the district court that Davis failed to present the expert evidence necessary to support his negligence claim, and we affirm the grant of summary judgment to defendant the Hospital.