Blatz v. Allina Health System

622 N.W.2d 376 (2001)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P was having trouble breathing. Three days earlier, P had had arthroscopic knee surgery, for which she was taking antibiotics and pain medication. Her husband dialed 911. The call was received at approximately 8:50 a.m. The husband told the dispatcher that his wife was 'having severe chest pains in a bad way right now.' The dispatcher confirmed the family's address and telephone number, notified the Sheriff's Office, and notified the HealthSpan dispatcher. The D dispatcher, in turn, notified D paramedics, and the ambulance was en route at 8:53 a.m. P's 13-year-old son, Lucas, alarmed at his mother's condition, independently called 911 at 8:55 a.m. The HealthSpan dispatcher began giving the husband 'pre-arrival instructions.' The husband was instructed to begin CPR. Deputy Brian Wondra arrived between 9:03 and 9:04 a.m. He and the husband continued to perform CPR until the paramedics arrived. The paramedics got confused and lost, and a neighbor who saw the ambulance pass by testified the diversion took between three and five minutes. Another neighbor who also saw the ambulance, testified the time elapsed by the diversion was 'at least two minutes.' The paramedics arrived at the house between 9:08 and 9:09 a.m. P still had no heartbeat and was not breathing. The paramedics inserted an oropharyngeal airway and gave Blatz 100% oxygen; they also established an IV line. One paramedic testified that within three minutes of their arrival, the monitor showed perfusion--that the heart was pumping and the blood was flowing. The other paramedic testified that Blatz's color improved within 30 to 60 seconds, and her pulse returned within one to two minutes. The incident resulted in a severe loss of mental and physical capacity. P is permanently disabled, is incapable of caring for herself, and lives in a nursing home. P sued D for negligence in that the time lost on the navigational error caused the injury. P's expert witnesses testified that if the paramedics had not been delayed, this time period was within the window of opportunity in which P could have been revived, and irreversible brain damage could have been prevented. D's experts expressed the opinion that the irreversible brain damage was complete before the deputy's arrival, and thus the paramedics' initial inability to locate the house had no effect on the brain injury. The jury was instructed to hold D liable for damages caused by D’s negligence, not for the heart attack and that if they could not separate the damages from the two sources, D should be held liable for all of them. P got the verdict for $11 million, and D appealed. D argues in part that the district court's jury instructions on negligence and a pre-existing condition constitute error.