A Pottsville doctor and hospital are not liable for the June 2010 death of a Girardville man, a Schuylkill County jury decided Friday after deliberating approximately one hour.
At the end of a five-day trial over which Judge James P. Goodman presided, the jury ruled Dr. Stephen O. Slusser and Schuylkill Medical Center-East Norwegian Street did not cause the death of Thomas Barrett, 56.
As a result, the estate of Barrett will receive no money from either Slusser or the hospital as the result of the lawsuit it filed June 14, 2012.
Barrett died June 29, 2010, a couple days after being discharged from the hospital.
In his closing argument, Frank A. Rothermel, Philadelphia, said Slusser, a gastroenterologist, did not offer reasonable care to Barrett, who suffered from a duodenal ulcer and had lost half his blood supply.
“We win if we prove one breach. We had multiple breaches in the standard of care,” Rothermel said. “Obviously, he’s got a big ulcer.”
Photographs clearly show a nodule in Barrett’s body was bleeding, and Slusser was negligent in his treatment of Barrett, according to Rothermel. Slusser failed to call in a radiologist or a surgeon to help treat what he acknowledged was something he had never seen before, Rothermel said.
“(Slusser) should be held accountable,” he said.
However, the jury accepted the arguments of Thomas M. Chairs, Harrisburg, the hospital’s lawyer, and Kyle N. Thompson, Allentown, Slusser’s lawyer, that the estate had not proven its case.
“The foundation of their criticism is not accurate,” Thompson said. “These theories don’t bear medical weight.”
Barrett had stable vital signs when he was discharged, Thompson said.
Slusser was neither cavalier nor uncaring in treating Barrett, according to Thompson.
In his closing argument, Chairs said the evidence shows Thompson was not negligent.
“It is clear ... that Dr. Slusser absolutely complied with the standard of care,” Chairs said.
Furthermore, pathologist Dr. Richard P. Bindie, who performed the autopsy on Barrett, said the nodule to which Rothermel referred was not the blood vessel that caused Barrett’s death, Chairs said.
“An unfortunate result is not evidence of negligence,” according to Chairs.