Rankin v. Mills

LANGDON, J.

This is an appeal by defendant from a judgment against him for twelve hundred dollars in an action in which the plaintiff alleged she had employed defendant as a physician to treat and attend her after an injury to her hip, and that, by reason of improper diagnosis and treatment by said defendant, plaintiff had become a cripple for life.

It is argued by appellant that the evidence does not sustain the verdict; that the evidence fails to disclose that the defendant was guilty of any negligence in diagnosing or in the methods employed by him in arriving at his diagnosis of plaintiff’s condition.

Plaintiff, a woman sixty-nine years of age, while running with children at her home at Atascadero, California, fell and injured her hip. She was in great pain and could not put her foot upon the ground. She was carried to her home and the defendant was called. He administered an anesthetic "and the following day he treated her for a dislocated hip. Defendant testified that after administering the anesthetic, and after proper manipulation, he reduced the dislocation and the limb went back into its natural position with no shortening of the leg, and he advised the patient to be quiet in bed. He also told her that she had merely a dislocation of the hip and that she would be walking about within nine days. There is a sharp conflict in the testimony with reference to what was said about X-ray pictures. Plaintiff and •her family testified that defendant said he was glad that no X-ray pictures would be necessary, because the nearest apparatus was at San Luis Obispo, a distance from Atascadero of about twenty-five miles, and its use would necessitate a long, hard, expensive journey for plaintiff. Defendant testified that he advised X-ray pictures, but the suggestion was resisted by the family of plaintiff because of

[440]

the expense involved. Since this matter is vital to the findings and verdict, we must accept the testimony in the record with reference to it which is in accord with the conclusion reached by the jury. For about three. months defendant treated plaintiff for a dislocated hip and had her walking about, pushing a chair before her, and later had her walk with crutches, and he at no time caused an X-ray picture to be taken, nor did he cause the hip to be encased so as to restrain its movement and keep broken bones in place. After this period of time had elapsed, plaintiff became apprehensive, because of her failure to improve, and sought other medical advice. X-ray pictures were taken, which revealed that there had been a fracture of the hip bone, which had made a fibrous instead of a bony union; that the leg was shortened and that it was then too late to secure a bony union of the broken bones. It is also in evidence, on behalf of defendant, that, due to the age of the patient, a bony union was very unlikely under any form of treatment and that the majority of patients under the same conditions become crippled for life regardless of the treatment used. On the other hand, the record contains the testimony of the physicians who took the X-ray pictures to the effect that the pictures, reveal a fractured hip which had been improperly treated; that “the leg was in a position of external rotation and was shortened and it would not have been that way if it had been properly treated. ’ ’ This testimony we must accept, also, rather than the testimony offered by defendant upon this question, in view of the conclusion of the jury. This testimony comes from an expert; the witness giving it was a graduate physician and surgeon from the medical school of Stanford University, state of California, and with a large and varied experience in the study and practice of taking X-ray pictures.