A 46-year-old Bend woman who filed an $8.75 million lawsuit against her doctors -- claiming that for months they misread telltale signs that she was about to suffer cardiac arrest -- has dropped her 2016 lawsuit.
Attorney Gordon Welborn said cardiac arrest victim Shelley Harding decided to withdraw her lawsuit against doctors Dana Rhode and Jeffrey Scott after it became clear she didn't have the evidence to prove her case. Welborn, who represented the doctors, said they both testified in pretrial depositions that they never heard Harding tell them, "I feel like I'm having a heart attack."
Harding’s lawsuit said she uttered that statement to Rhode during an office visit about three weeks before her heart stopped beating in August 2014.
According to her lawsuit, Harding alleged the doctors and other medical staff at Bend Memorial Clinic also didn’t take her other complaints seriously during office visits she made in the five months leading up to her cardiac arrest. Among those complaints: chest tightness, left shoulder pain and blue fingers, her suit said.
Harding was revived at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend and flown by helicopter to Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. Harding and her husband, Brent Harding, sought damages because of lingering and extreme fatigue that left her unable to work or carry on with the normal activities of her life, according to her suit.
The lawsuit's dismissal comes about a month before a scheduled November trial.
The doctors -- who at the time both worked for Bend Memorial Clinic -- disagreed with many of the claims in the lawsuit, Welborn said. But Welborn said he couldn't talk in detail because of patient privacy laws.
“It was a horrible situation for Mr. and Mrs. Harding,” Welborn said. “But it was also horrible for the doctors involved for having to face the claims that they weren’t listening to their patient and weren’t doing the right things. It’s tough to face those allegations.”
Welborn added, of Rhode and Scott: “They thought they were doing everything they could.”
Harding’s attorney, Shawna Meyer, offered this statement:
“Cases are dismissed for a variety of reasons. Often those reasons are due to the very high costs of going to trial in cases that require expert witnesses and/or because the burden of proof can be difficult to overcome in certain circumstances,” Meyer wrote.
“Additionally, the standard of care that one would desire for their loved ones and the standard that the law requires may be different," Meyer wrote. "One can simply hope that their physician understands them and goes the extra mile in treating them and those they love.”
-- Aimee Green