Mother’s Deposition Testimony Contradicts Her Affidavit—Wrongful Death Case Dismissed
On July 30,2018, a California appellate court upheld the dismissal of a medical malpractice wrongful death case brought on behalf of her children by the decedent's mother. The case concerns the premature discharge from Community Memeorial Hospital, of an adult woman who was admitted for a head injury due to a fall. The decedent had been diagnosed with a subarachnoid hemorrhage (bleeding between the brain and the surrounding membrane) and intraparenchymal hemorrhage (bleeding inside the brain). After a three day admission to the hospital she was discharged. The next day the patient died at her parent's home as a result of an intracerebral hemorrhage.
The decedent's mother submitted an affidavit opposing the hospital's motion to dismiss the case after deposition's were concluded but before trial. In her affidavit, she claimed that she begged the nursing staff not to discharge her daughter claiming she couldn't properly speak or walk properly and demanded an opportunity to speak with the doctor's who had ordered the discharge. The affidavit of decedent's claimed that the nurses refused to allow her an opportunity to appeal to the doctor's who authorized the discharge.
The case was dismissed based on the deposition of the decedent's mother who testified to a completely different set of facts long before she signed the affidavit. At her deposition, the decedent's mother agreed she did not argue with the nursing staff over the discharge decision and did not ask to speak to the doctors. Ford v Community Memorial Hospital, Court of Appeals, Second District, Division Six
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