Opinion ID: 2433995
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: The clinic's negligence

Text: Dr. DeAlvarez testified it was below the standard of care for a prenatal clinic in a community similar to Marianna, Arkansas, to have failed to identify Melinda as a high risk patient, not to have provided a physician to examine her, not to have noted her excessive weight gain, and not to have taken measures to control weight gain. He further said it was below the standard of care for the clinic to have failed to hospitalize Melinda on July 10, 1978, and to have given her Sudafed, a drug which constricts blood vessels. Ambassador points out that Dr. DeAlvarez acknowledged stating in his deposition that he could not have diagnosed Melinda as pre-eclampsic based on the clinic's records, and that Dr. Medlin, another plaintiff's expert, said he would not have thought Melinda a high risk patient. We cannot say that the cross-examination in Dr. DeAlvarez's deposition or the testimony of Dr. Medlin was so devastating to Dr. DeAlvarez's clear testimony that the clinic was at fault as to make it insufficient as a basis for the jury's consideration of the case. The fact that he could not have diagnosed Melinda as being pre-eclampsic from the clinic's records is, in this instance, not inconsistent with Dr. DeAlvarez's criticism of the clinic's records which had not noted her as being a high risk patient whose previous pregnancy had been marked by hypertension. This leads to the argument that, given a finding of negligence by the clinic, it could not have proximately caused her death in view of the intervening acts of Dr. Kelley and the hospital.