WILMINGTON, Del. (Legal Newsline) - A doctor’s attempt to “correct” her deposition after a plaintiff expert accused her of violating the standard of care was excessive and, if allowed, could undermine the legal process, a Delaware judge ruled.
Dr. Diane McCracken was deposed in a medical malpractice suit against her clinic and Christiana Hospital over complications plaintiff Jetta Alberts suffered after obstetrical surgery. Alberts, then 25, was forced to undergo an emergency hysterectomy after she hemorrhaged and lost two-thirds of her blood in the days after surgery.
Dr. McCracken was deposed in June and a plaintiff expert reviewed her testimony, concluding she had breached the standard of care by failing to recognize the “obvious signs” of internal bleeding including lab results showing dropping hemoglobin levels.
Several weeks later the doctor submitted an “errata sheet” changing some of the wording in her deposition and adding sentences she said made her answers clearer. Among the corrections she wanted to add to her deposition were a statement the plaintiff expert considered critical: When asked who had the clinical information needed to assess the patient, Dr. McCracken said “potentially any of us or potentially none of us.”
The doctor asked the court to add a lengthy statement to her answer, explaining how she meant no one knows everything but “we would all assess the clinical picture.” She also wanted to add “by the nurse” to her acknowledgment she wasn’t “made aware of the nausea” Alberts was suffering.
The plaintiff’s lawyers complained the suggested corrections were actually revisions designed to blunt some of their expert’s opinions. The defendants argued they could explore those questions during cross-examination, but Superior Court Judge Jan R. Jurden disagreed. The jury would be likely be confused about the doctor’s changing answers, she ruled.
“An errata sheet is not a license to change answers for damage control, or to add things the deponent wishes she had said,” the judge wrote. “To rule otherwise would be to turn depositions into practice quizzes and the errata sheets into group projects.”