posted by admin on Jun 5
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1 Q Do you use the KK stationery
2 when you write your reports?
3 A Yeah.
4 Q Who types up your reports, sir?
5 A I generally do. It depends if — if I’ve
6 seen a patient, and it’s, you know, an official — part
7 of the official seeing a patient, then it’s typed up by
8 the medical records department; otherwise, I type them.
9 I type most –
10 Q Where do you type your reports?
11 A I type them in — on my computer in my
12 office or sometimes at home.
13 Q Where did you type this report?
14 A I’m not sure.
15 Q So when you sometimes type your reports at
16 your computer at your office, are you using
17 KK resources then?
18 A Yeah, but the electricity it consumes
19 probably is minuscule. And I work long hours, so it’s
20 not as if I’m detracting from the workday. I pretty
21 much work seven days a week.
22
1 Q And during the workday, you’re working on
2 your medical-legal cases, correct?
3 A No. Generally I would do it at night or
4 weekends.
5 Q You work on your medical-legal cases at
6 night or on weekends?
7 A Yeah, generally.
8 Q Are those conference rooms at
9 KK available to use at night or weekends
10 if you’d want to schedule something, sir?
11 A Very seldom. You mean depositions? Would
12 you like to — you mean you’d like to schedule them at
13 night or weekends?
14 Q Sir, isn’t it a fact you’re embarrassed to
15 hold a deposition at KK even on a night or
16 a weekend?
17 A No, I’m not embarrassed at all. The –
18 it’s inconvenient, and it inconveniences other people.
19 And I say the main — if attorneys could work within a
20 definite time frame, like in a normal business day,
21 then it would be no problem, but generally — for
23
1 example, I have no idea as I sit here today how many
2 hours you’ll want to continue this. And if — you
3 know, it’s a way of exerting pressure. So you might
4 say, well, we’ll still be here at ten o’clock tonight,
5 and if that’s the case, then I can accommodate you, but
6 if I were at KK, there would be people
7 knocking at the door wanting to know why I was keeping
8 the conference room occupied.
9 MR. J: Okay. I want a continuing
10 objection. Z, you know, the rules in Ohio say that
11 the purpose of this deposition is really to discover
12 the facts that he’s aware of, and the opinions that he
13 holds. This hardly has anything to do with it. It’s
14 more appropriate for cross-examination at court, if at
15 all. So you’re sort of out of the bounds of what the
16 nature of this discovery process is in the state of
17 Ohio. I know you’re in Israel, and that you practice
18 also out of Baltimore, but maybe the rules are a little
19 different.
20 MR. G: Well, we’re about to wrap
21 this up, but I do have a couple other questions based
24
1 on what the doctor said.
2 Q Doctor, you just announced you don’t know
3 how long this deposition is going to be, correct?
4 A Right. You could — you could go on
5 forever, and you might well as far as I know.
6 Q Sir, I have deposed you over a dozen times.
7 Isn’t it fair you know the deposition has never gone
8 beyond two hours?
9 A Yeah, it could be, I think, but you have a
10 certain –
11 MR. J: Okay. You don’t have to
12 argue with this. That’s a rhetorical question. Let’s
13 just get to the meat of the case if we could, please.
14 Q Okay. Sir, did you tell defense counsel
15 when you sent them the articles in the December 27th
16 letter and by fax in February 2001 not to forward those
17 articles to p’ counsel?
18 A No.
19 MR. J: Let the record show I’m not
20 required to turn over articles I get to you. I’m
21 required to turn over the report that I get. In Ohio,
25
1 I don’t know what the rule is here.
2 MR. G: Well, we’re going to have to
3 debate that, because if he sent the articles the same
4 time as the report, I think you have an obligation to
5 send it over. And certainly we were taken by surprise
6 by those two articles.
7 MR. J: Oh, baloney. You know those
8 articles, number one. Number 2, they weren’t sent at
9 the same time as it appears now that we look at the
10 fax, and they were sent to my nurse for informational
11 purposes. So, you know, let’s get on with this.
12 Q Sir, from your report, it appears that
13 Mr. J had asked you a question concerning the
14 contribution of the interval when Dr. P was involved
15 in the case to the child’s neurological condition,
16 correct?
17 A Yes.
18 Q Now, you mentioned in your report you’ve
19 given some thought to the question. How much time of
20 these six hours that you reviewed all the material in
21 this case you told me about did you give some thought
26
1 to that question?
2 A I would say — I would say that most of
3 those six hours were occupied with thought about this
4 general question.
5 Q Okay. I’d like to test your understanding
6 of the facts of this case since you’re giving an
7 opinion about Dr. P’s involvement. When did
8 Dr. P first get involved with this child, what time?
9 A I’m not sure of the exact time, but I know
10 that the — I think the patient went to ultrasound
11 around 11:33, and I think the ultrasound itself took
12 from about 11:38 to 12:06. And then Dr. P then I
13 know gave a wet reading and wrote that down and sent
14 that back to the floor with the patient, and I think
15 the patient reached the floor about 12:51.
16 Q Are you finished your answer?
17 A Yes.
18 Q Okay. So would it be fair to say you do
19 not know exactly the time Dr. P was involved with
20 this patient?
21 A Right. You mean the exact time he was
27
1 involved? No. I just know the time that the
2 ultrasound was being done in the radiology department.
3 Q Okay. So as best you can say, Dr. P
4 first became involved with the patient sometime after
5 12:06, and ended his involvement sometime before 12:51,
6 correct?
7 A Well, I don’t know that — I don’t know if
8 he was involved before the ultrasound was being done,
9 but I know that certainly after it was done, he was
10 involved with interpreting it. And, presumably, he was
11 over — he was finished by 12:51.
12 Q Okay. So you don’t even know a range of
13 time when Dr. P was first involved, whether it was
14 before 12:06 or first after 12:06, correct?
15 A Right.
16 Q Okay. Concerning the time of the placenta
17 previa and slow heart rate, what time was the placenta
18 previa and slow heart rate documented on the
19 ultrasound, in your opinion?
20 A That was between 11:38 and 12:06.
21 Q And you can’t do any better than that, can
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1 you?
2 A That’s as good as I can do, yeah.
3 Q Okay. Tell me, sir, based upon your
4 understanding of the facts, how long was the slow heart
5 rate present?
6 A I’m not sure exactly how long it was.
7 Q Well, you know you don’t have to be sure
8 about anything, but I’m sure going to pin you down
9 anyways. How about with a reasonable degree of medical
10 probability, how long was that slow heart rate low?
11 MR. K: I just want to object and move
12 to strike some of the comments that are made before the
13 questions.
14 Q You can answer.
15 (Discussion was held off the record.)
16 Q Sir, the question is, in your opinion, to a
17 reasonable degree of medical probability, how long was
18 that slow heart rate?
19 A Well, I’m not sure exactly how long it was.
20 I wouldn’t want to — want to guess.
21 Q And you don’t want to give an answer with a
29
1 reasonable degree of medical probability either,
2 correct?
3 A Yeah. I mean, if I’m not sure, I don’t
4 think I should. I know it was documented that the
5 heart rate was very low.
6 Q Okay. You do understand, though, when you
7 give medical-legal depositions, you don’t have to be
8 sure about anything; you just have to hold opinions to
9 a reasonable degree of medical probability, correct?
10 A Right. Well, we know through a reasonable
11 degree of medical probability that the heart rate was
12 very slow, was documented to be slow.
13 Q Okay. Even though you have no idea how
14 long a period of time the heart rate was low, do you at
15 least know the number of the low heart rate?
16 A It was between 68 and 87.
17 Q Do you know, sir, within a reasonable
18 degree of medical probability, how many times was the
19 heart rate documented to be low?
20 A No, I’m not sure.
21 Q And, again, you don’t have — know even
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