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The Indiana Supreme Court granted transfer to two cases Friday, including one involving a medical malpractice lawsuit where an appellate court reversed a $1.3 million judgment awarded to a Methodist Hospital patient.
For the week ending Dec. 13, there were two cases granted transfer and 13 denied.
According to an Indiana Court of Appeals opinion, Zainab Abbas, a physician at Methodist, nurse Morgan Mittler and the hospital appealed the judgment against them in Lake Superior Court.
In the case, Hetep Bilal “Franklyn” Neter-Nu was taken to the emergency room at Gary’s Methodist Hospital in July 2015 for nausea and vomiting and was administered fluids and medications.
A physical therapist evaluated Neter-Nu and reported that he complained of increased pain in his right foot and toes, he experienced a burning sensation in the foot, he did not place any weight on the foot, and he did not have movement in his right toes.
He was discharged by Abbas.
Neter-Nu was transported to the bus station and rode a bus for about sixteen hours from Gary to Sioux City, Iowa, where his truck had been taken by his employer.
He went to Siouxland Community Health Center a few days later and then visited Mercy Medical Center, where an arterial ultrasound showed no flow in several of the digits of his right foot.
He was referred to the University of Nebraska Medical Center for a second opinion. Neter-Nu underwent a below the knee amputation of his right leg on Aug. 19, 2015.
Neter-Nu filed a complaint with the trial court against Abbas, Dr. Clive Alonzo, Mittler, and Methodist Hospital alleging that he underwent the amputation of his right leg due to the damage caused by Mittler’s placement of the IV catheter. Alonzo was later dismissed from the case.
The jury returned a verdict against the defendants in the amount of $11 million. The defendants requested that the verdict be reduced to the statutory maximum of $1,250,000, and Neter-Nu requested prejudgment interest.
The court ordered the defendants to pay prejudgment interest of $79,993 and entered judgment against them in the amount of $1,329,993.
The appellate court reversed the lower court’s order, finding the trial court erred in instructing the jury and that there were other cumulative errors in the case.
In the second case granted transfer Friday, the Court of Appeals affirmed the Huntington Circuit Court’s denial of Kortney Lee Elzey’s request to refer his post-conviction relief petition to the State Public Defender because Elzey was not incarcerated in the Indiana Department of Correction.
For the 13 cases denied transfer, all justices concurred except for Individual Members of the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana, et al. v. Anonymous Plaintiff 1, et al., where Justice Geoffrey Slaughter dissented from the denial of transfer with a separate opinion in which Justice Mark Massa joined.
Justice Derek Molter did not participate in Kara Lee v. Zachariah W. Lee, III.
The cases granted transfer are Zainab Abbas, M.D., et al. v. Hetep Bilal Neter-Nu, 24S-CT-435 and Kortney Lee Elzey v. State of Indiana, 24S-CR-436.
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