MIAMI — A federal court has denied both parties their motions for summary judgment and to strike expert witnesses in a case where the family of a 76-year old deceased Florida man alleges that he died from injures sustained while be transported from a renal care facility to his assisted living residence.
According to the June 18 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida filing, Blanca Prieto and defendant Total Renal Care Inc., doing business as Davita, doing business as Florida Renal Care, both petitioned the court for a motion for summary judgment and to strike expert testimony.
The case was filed on behalf of the deceased Rodolfo Pietro, who received treatment at Total Renal Care and lived at an assisted living facility. In January 2016, Pietro received his dialysis and was then put in a wheelchair and loaded in a van to be taken back to his assisted living residence. When the van came to a sudden traffic stop, Pietro fell out of his wheelchair, was injured and then died six months later. The plaintiff alleges Pietro's injuries were related to his death and that he was supposed to be transported via a stretcher according to medical orders.
The plaintiff also argued that the defendant's witness, an accident reconstruction expert, should be excluded from trial because his opinion "was not subject to peer review and publication."
The defendants argue that the transportation company "is the negligent party" in this case because they did not "properly secure" Prieto in his wheelchair. They allege the plaintiff has not established "any causal link" in Prieto's injuries and the "alleged breach of duty." The defendants also argue that the testimony of the plaintiff's expert witness, a nurse practitioner, should be stricken because it was "untimely and incomplete" and did not follow a "pretrial deadline."
The court disagreed with both parties relating to the expert witness testimony with U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke stating the plaintiff's handling of the nurse practitioner's testimony was "harmless" and that the defendant's accident reconstruction expert was "qualified" in respect to education and experience and because he used "multiple sources" to form his opinion.
Cooke also denied both motions for summary judgment based on the fact that the cause of Prieto's injuries was the mode of transportation or due to the lack of standard of care.