A medical malpractice lawsuit filed in 2015 in Lewis County Superior Court against Centralia’s Prestige Post-Acute and Rehabilitation Center following an elderly patient’s death will no longer be proceeding to trial as scheduled this spring after a judge threw out the case for lack of evidence on Friday.
Superior Court Judge James Lawler ruled, in accordance with a motion by attorneys for Prestige and former owner NW Country Place Inc., that the plaintiffs’ expert testimony could not definitively prove what caused the condition that led to former Centralia resident Bessie Ritter’s death.
“The literature that has been provided doesn’t come close to answering that question,” Lawler said, after granting the defense’s motion.
The trial scheduled to begin next month was stricken. The parties are expected to enter the formal order on Lawler’s decision this coming Friday.
Bessie Ritter was admitted to Prestige in July 2014 after undergoing surgery to clear a bowel obstruction, according to court documents.
Prestige, at 917 S. Scheuber Road, specializes in short-term rehabilitation for patients who have been injured or ill or who are recovering from surgery, according to its website. It is a part of Prestige Senior Living LLC, which has assisted living facilities in eight states. At the time, Northwest Country Place owned the facility, but it was managed by Prestige.
According to the complaint filed with the court, the facility’s staff did not adequately monitor Ritter’s bowel movements “for an extended period of time” in August 2014. She was taken to the emergency room on Sept. 1, 2014, and died after surgery. She was 84.
Ritter’s daughter, Geraldine Iverson, filed the medical malpractice lawsuit in Lewis County Superior Court against Prestige Care Inc. and Northwest Country Place Inc. in April 2015, arguing that her mother was a victim of medical negligence and abuse as a vulnerable adult before her death.
Iverson told The Chronicle she and her attorney plan to appeal the decision.
According to an inspection report conducted by the state Department of Social and Health Services on the incident, Prestige did not meet a requirement to “provide the necessary care and services” to Ritter and “failed to consistently implement monitoring and treatment of constipation.”
“The negligence of Prestige Care Inc. and Northwest Country Place Inc. were a proximate cause of Bessie Ritter’s constipation, bowel obstruction, wrongful death and other injuries resulting from neglect and negligence,” the complaint reads.
The complaint also asks for unspecified damages pursuant to rights under the Abuse of Vulnerable Adults Act, defined in RCW 74.34.200. Iverson also asks for unspecified damages for pain and suffering, physical impairment, loss of consortium and past medical care.
The plaintiff, represented by attorney Stephen Hornbuckle, of Bellevue, planned to argue in trial this spring that the period of constipation Ritter reportedly experienced caused a “cecal volvulus” or a twisting of the colon that directly resulted in her death.
However, last Friday, Michael Jacobs, one of two attorneys representing Prestige and former owner NW Country Place Inc., made a motion for summary judgment, arguing that the plaintiffs’ case was not strong enough to proceed to trial.
Jacobs said the defense’s own experts concluded that the constipation Ritter experienced was only one of several possible causes for the colon twisting, and said that the Hornbuckle’s case did not include strong enough admissible evidence to prove his own expert’s assertions.
Jacobs argued Hornbuckle’s medical argument is not supported by the medical community at large and said his expert witness’s opinion was “not tethered to the facts of this case.”
Hornbuckle countered that his expert’s opinion was valid, and said the defense’s assertion that the cecal volvulus was a coincidence to the constipation, rather than caused by the constipation, is not reasonable.
“That’s not scientific,” he said.
During the arguments, Lawler noted that when deciding a motion for summary judgment, judges are required to look at the evidence “in a light most favorable to the non-moving party” — in this case, the plaintiff.
“The defendants’ motion is well taken,” Lawler said. “I’m granting the motion for summary judgment.”
In explaining his decision, Lawler said the medical articles provided and the plaintiffs’ expert testimony did not present evidence that proved conclusively what caused the condition that led to Ritter’s death. Two articles provided by the plaintiff associated the two conditions, but did not conclusively state that constipation causes cecal volvulus, he added.
“That does not constitute acceptance in the medical community,” Lawler said. “... That is central to both plaintiff’s claims.”
