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A BLOCKED TRACHEOSTOMY TUBE IS A FORESEEABLE EVENT FOR WHICH DEFENDANT ANESTHESIOLOGIST WAS TRAINED AND PREPARED, THEREFORE THE JURY SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED ON THE EMERGENCY DOCTRINE, DEFENSE VERDICT IN THIS MEDICAL MALPRACTICE ACTION REVERSED AND NEW TRIAL ORDERED (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing the defense verdict and ordering a new trial in this medical malpractice action, determined the jury should not have been charged on the emergency doctrine. Plaintiff’s decedent died after her tracheostomy tube became blocked. Because a blocked tracheostomy tube is a foreseeable condition, the emergency doctrine did not apply:

In the days after … surgery, Jones [plaintiff’s decedent] was improving and was out of bed and talking. On March 30, 2007, a nurse and respiratory therapist were removing a Passy-Muir valve (a device designed to allow a patient to speak with a tracheostomy tube in place) and met resistance while attempting to place an inner cannula into the tube. Jones began to experience shortness of breath. Despite attempts to suction the tube and ventilate Jones manually with an Ambu bag, Jones’s oxygen saturation levels continued to drop to the low 60s, and her level of consciousness rapidly decreased. Accordingly, Sher [defendant], an anesthesiologist, and Joann Noto, a physician assistant, were paged. * * *

… [W]e disagree with the Supreme Court’s determination to instruct the jury on the emergency doctrine. The emergency doctrine “has been reserved, in a medical context, to situations where a doctor is confronted by a sudden and unforeseen condition’ and is forced to undertake care under less than optimal circumstances,” and is inapplicable where the defendant physician was trained and prepared for the specific emergency … . Here, there is no dispute that it was foreseeable for secretions to block a tracheostomy tube and that Sher was qualified as an anesthesiologist to replace a blocked tracheostomy tube. Indeed, Sher admitted that, in his 30 years of experience, creating airways for patients is what anesthesiologists do. Further, Sher was advised by Noto that a mucus plug was blocking the tracheostomy tube which Sher was ultimately able to replace within seconds. Accordingly, there was no sudden and unforeseen condition for which Sher was not trained or prepared. Crayton v Sher, 2018 NY Slip Op 08461, Second Dept 12-12-18

 

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