Opinion ID: 2084684
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Patient's Admission to Roger Williams

Text: Doctor Warshaw began his on-call duties at 5 p.m. on December 22, 2000. As set forth above, based on an oral report he received from the radiology technician about the results of the ultrasound, Dr. Warshaw ordered that Gianquitti be admitted to Roger Williams. Doctor Warshaw believed that Gianquitti's DVT was of an emergency nature and that it required heparin to be administered to him intravenously. [4] However, Dr. Warshaw testified that he admitted Gianquitti as a nonteaching patient, which meant that as the attending physician, he, and not the interns or residents working at the hospital, would be responsible for all communications with the nurses as well as all examinations of and orders for the patient. Doctor Warshaw said that one of the reasons the patient was admitted as nonteaching was because he did not have the time to deal with multiple telephone calls from the interns and residents. He also said that he did not have time for teaching duties because of the intensity of the weekend. On the evening of December 22, 2000, the nurses at Roger Williams placed Gianquitti on heparin as ordered by Dr. Warshaw. Gianquitti said that at around 11 p.m. he began to experience the priapism. He testified that at around midnight, the nurse on duty came into his room and that he informed her that he had an erection. Later on, at some point between 2 and 3 a.m., the nurse returned, and he told her that he wanted to see a doctor because he continued to experience an erection. He said that the nurse replied that he would have to wait until the morning. [5] Gianquitti also said that at some time between 7 and 8 a.m., two young doctors came into his room. He said that he believed them to be interns, although he could not explain what led him to that conclusion. He testified that they examined him, asked him some questions, and told him he would have to wait to see his own doctor. Gianquitti also said that the nurse who was on duty at 7 a.m., Nurse Lorelle Lemoi-Brown, already was aware of his priapism when she attended to him, and that she tried to page Dr. Warshaw that morning. However, Nurse Lemoi-Brown testified that she reported to work at the hospital at about 6:45 a.m. on December 23, 2000. She testified that at approximately 10 a.m. she went into the patient's room to adjust the heparin drip and that it was then that Gianquitti informed her that he had been experiencing a persistent erection since the previous evening. She acknowledged that she understood that the situation required urgent medical attention. [6] She said that after she learned of the patient's condition, she immediately attempted to page the on-call doctor. The paging records reflected that the first call to Atwood's answering service took place at 10:49 a.m. and that a second call was made at 11:23 a.m. Nurse Lemoi-Brown also testified that at some point after she called Dr. Warshaw, she mentioned the patient's condition to one or two male interns that she happened to see in the hallway. She recalled that the interns said that she would be required to address the problem because the patient was a nonteaching patient. She recalled that she replied that she already had addressed the problem by calling the on-call attending physician. She further testified that she did not know whether the interns to whom she spoke ever examined Gianquitti.