© 2016 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
(Aug. 31) – A Dallas jury unanimously awarded $19.7 million to the family of a deceased hospital worker who was left brain-dead under her doctor’s care while undergoing treatment for a rare nervous system condition.
After less than three hours of deliberation, the six-person jury found Dr. Jennifer Marye Burris and her employer, Acute Surgical Care Specialists, liable for the death of 29-year-old Katina Clark, who left behind a husband and two young children.
Chris Hamilton, who represented Clark’s family, said the husband, Caden Clark, was in tears when the jury delivered the verdict.
“It has been a long road for him to get to this point,” said Hamilton, a partner at Standly Hamilton in Dallas. “Caden has been persistent in following this to a just result with a jury trial verdict. No amount of money will bring back Katina, and she never should have died. Our hope is that this verdict will cause other healthcare professionals to take better care of their patents.”
Dallas attorneys Stan Thiebaud and Russ Thornton, who represented Dr. Burris and Acute Surgical Care, could not be immediately reached for comment.
In the summer of 2013, Clark was admitted into Medical Center Arlington – the very hospital where she worked as a surgical technician – after experiencing leg numbness. Clark was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), a rare medical condition affecting the nervous system. While GBS patients experience muscle weakness that sometimes requires temporary medical assistance with breathing, a majority of these patients recover completely once their symptoms have passed.
Under Dr. Burris’ care, Clark was fitted for a breathing tube through her mouth that eventually was changed to a tracheostomy tube installed through an incision in her neck. Because it was improperly installed, the tube leaked so that it supplied less than half the air Clark needed, trial evidence showed.
The leak lasted into the next morning, and the situation worsened around 5 a.m. when a nurse turned Clark over for bathing and the tube dislodged, Hamilton said. He argued at trial that Clark was deprived of oxygen for more than 30 minutes while she waited for Dr. Burris, the on-call doctor, to arrive. By the time Dr. Burris arrived, Clark was brain-dead, Hamilton said.
“She claimed she got there within 11 minutes and made a heroic effort to save her patient, and cried on the witness stand,” Hamilton said. “I think the jury believed her timeline was not credible.”
Hamilton said Dr. Burris also never took the effort to introduce herself to Clark’s family before the procedure.
Clark spent the last year and a half of her life in a nursing home and passed away in January 2015.
Other defendants were named in the lawsuit but settled either before trial or before closing arguments.
Hamilton said the trial team framed the case in terms of three simple rules that he believed resonated with the jury.
“Rule number one: If a doctor causes a problem while treating a patient, the doctor must fix the problem before it can cause harm. Rule number two: A doctor must communicate to keep the patient safe. Rule number three: A doctor must never ignore or abandon a patient in potential danger,” Hamilton said.
The Clark family trial team also included Standly Hamilton partner Stephen Blackburn.
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