Attorney: Wrong to find Gulf View Medical guilty

Gulf View Medical and anaesthesiologist Dr Crisen Jendra Roopchand have appealed the March 2015 ruling of Justice Vasheist Kokaram who found both parties to be in breach of their duty of care to Tesheira, the late husband of former People’s National Movement (PNM) finance minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira. More than $18 million in damages were awarded to Nunez-Tesheira. She was initially seeking $20 million in damages.

The negligence lawsuit was filed following Russell Tesheira’s death at the hospital on April 13, 2004, after undergoing a transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP).

Based on the evidence, the procedure was performed at 1 pm, but Nunez-Tesheira had testified that at 7 pm, she was informed an emergency had taken place and her husband had to be taken back to surgery.

By 11.30 pm, he was dead, she testified. Nunez-Tesheira’s claim was the medical institution, along with Roopchand and urologist Dr Lester Goetz, were negligent and placed her husband’s life at risk by proceeding with the surgery and he died because of this negligence.

The lawsuit was initially dismissed in 2012 after Nunez-Tesheira failed on two occasions to file witness statements and list of documents.

The former minister appealed the dismissal of the application, but prior to the hearing of that appeal, she and Dr Goetz entered into a settlement discussion on September 21, 2012, with a compromise agreement and the appeal against the latter was dismissed.

The Appeal Court later ruled in her favour and remitted the matter to the High Court. Justice Kokaram said both Gulf View Medical and Dr Roopchand admitted to being under a duty of care to the patient and found that they both failed to discharge said duties to the requisite standard expected of specialists and hospital authorities, in managing the risk of post-operative bleeding arising out of a TURP procedure. But O’Rourke said the case pleaded before the judge did not include vicarious liability or the liability of the nurses, neither of which, she said, could give instructions as it related to the TURP procedure. Hearing of the appeal continues tomorrow.