A 2nd District California Court of Appeal has reversed and remanded summary judgment for an on-call radiologist involved in a medical malpractice case associated with emergency department services.
Charlie L. versus Peyman Kangavari, MD, highlights the unique challenges that face radiologists serving under emergency conditions compared with those who do not but serve as expert witnesses in medical malpractice cases, according to an opinion filed January 2.
Associate Justice Judge Brian Hoffstadt concluded that neither the expert for the plaintiff nor the expert for the defendant was shown to meet stringent guidelines for expert qualification in consideration of evidence viewed through the lens applicable on summary judgment. A trial court had granted summary judgment for Kangavari in relation to challenging the plaintiff’s expert witness qualifications, according to the filing.
Hoffstadt opened his opinion citing Health and Safety Code section 1799.110 that grants physicians and surgeons in general acute care hospital emergency departments a measure of protection from malpractice claims.
The case filed in 2021 involved stat orders placed around 3 a.m. and Kangavari, an on-call radiologist working remotely, among others. The plaintiffs alleged medical malpractice in the failure to diagnose what later became recognized as a bowel obstruction at another hospital, according to case details in the January 2 filing. The patient had been in and out of hospitals for conditions related to a malrotated bowel he had at birth.
PIH Health, Presbyterian Health Physicians, and others were also named in the case, but those parties were not at issue on the appeal, according to the filing.