Martindale v. Indiana University Health Bloomington, Inc.

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant’s motion for summary judgment, in plaintiff’s action, alleging that defendant violated Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (Act), when defendant transferred plaintiff’s decedent to different hospital after decedent presented herself for treatment for abdominal pain, and where: (1) decedent died two days after decedent underwent surgery at different hospital; and (2) plaintiff alleged that defendant could have prevented decedent’s death by treating her at time she came to defendant-hospital. Record showed that: (1) individuals initially treated and tested decedent and determined (mistakenly) that decedent suffered from ischemia of her small intestine that was related to prior gastric by-pass surgery; (2) on-call surgeon at defendant indicated that he had no experience or training on treating gastric by-pass surgery patients; (3) individuals at defendant contacted decedent’s gastric by-pass surgeon at different hospital who agreed to treat decedent; and (4) decedent was transferred later in day to gastric by-pass surgeon’s hospital, where plaintiff underwent surgery, but died of sepsis two days later. Plaintiff failed to present evidence of violation of Act, where record showed that defendant had satisfied all statutory provisions that permitted it to transfer decedent to different hospital prior to her stabilization at defendant, where: (1) doctor filled out certification form indicating that medical benefits to decedent arising out of her transfer to different hospital outweighed increased risks of her transfer to said hospital; and (2) there was nothing in record to indicate that defendant carried out transfer in unsafe manner. Ct. rejected plaintiff claim that Act required defendant to stabilize decedent by performing surgery to remove ischemic portions of her intestine.