Court Opinion

ID: 9570242
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:21:25.680618+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:05:11.745673
License: Public Domain

BAKES, Justice,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in the result reached by the Court’s decision in overruling the summary judgment against Dr. Trout. The record is, at this stage, too “uncertain,” as the Court’s opinion notes, and accordingly summary judgment against plaintiff’s claim against Dr. Trout should not have been granted on that record.
However, plaintiff’s claim against Dr. Daugharty is another matter. The Court’s opinion hardly acknowledges that these are two separate factual claims against two different doctors, which must be analyzed separately. The facts of plaintiff’s claim against Dr. Daugharty are not “uncertain.” They are adequately set out in the majority opinion, which discloses that in 1964 the plaintiff, then 46 years old, had his diseased aortic valve replaced with a Starr-Edwards aortic heart valve. At the time, Werner was under the care of Dr. Daugharty, a specialist in internal medicine. In April, 1965, Werner suffered a minor stroke caused by embolization from the prosthetic heart valve. Thereafter, Dr. Daugharty prescribed coumadin, an anticoagulant for Werner. Dr. Daugharty further suggested that Werner have the heart valve replaced with an aortic homograft, but Werner declined further surgery. Werner continued to take coumadin as an anticoagulant for 13 years. In November of 1978 Dr. Dautharty discontinued the prescription of coumadin because Werner had a high prothrombin time, apparently caused both because Werner occasionally failed to take the medication as prescribed, and because he had a history of repeated trauma and injury which implicated excessive bleeding. Dr. Daugharty placed Werner on a prescription of aspirin and persantine, which also served as an anticoagulant. Werner last saw Dr. Daugharty on August 8, 1981, after which he changed physicians.
That same month Werner engaged Dr. Trout as his primary physician. Dr. Trout’s medical records show that he changed Werner’s medication by discontinuing the persantine, although Werner may have continued to take the drug on occasion. On December 1, 1981, Werner was examined by Dr. Trout because of complaints of chest pains. After an extensive examination, he reinstituted the persantine medication, in varying strengths.
On March 31, 1982, some eight months after changing doctors, Werner suffered a massive stroke, which plaintiff alleges was a result of improper medication. Plaintiff’s claim was filed nearly two years later on March 28, 1984. As to Dr. Daugharty, the claim was filed nearly two years and seven months after plaintiff left the care of Dr. Daugharty, and began treatment with Dr. Trout. Plaintiff’s claim against Dr. Daugharty alleged that Dr. Daugharty was negligent in removing Werner from the medication coumadin in November, 1978, some five and one-half years prior to the filing of the plaintiff’s complaint.
On those facts the trial court did not err in concluding as a matter of law that the statute of limitations, I.C. § 5-219(4), had run against Dr. Daugharty. Holmes v. Iwasa, 104 Idaho 179, 657 P.2d 476 (1983). I would affirm the trial court’s grant of summary judgment against plaintiff’s claim against him.