Exclude Alternative Causes

Among other expert-testimony issues in Smith v. Nexion Health, the Fifth Court reminded about the importance of excluding alternative causes:

There also was some evidence of other plausible causes of Smith’s death, and Dr. Gupta made no attempt to exclude those causes with reasonable certainty.  Smith’s attending physician at the hospital, in addition to attributing her death to cardiac arrest, made diagnoses of unspecified dementia without behavioral disturbance, essential hypertension, hypotension, hypolipidemia, unspecified, anemia, unspecified, and a personal history of TIA. Irwin Korngut, M.D., an expert witness designated by appellees, testified that the emergency physicians found no evidence to suggest that Smith was septic at the time of her death and did not list sepsis as a diagnosis. Dr. Korngut further testified that Smith’s anemia, her known coronary disease, or internal bleeding could have caused cardiac arrest.

No. 05-22-01140-CV (Aug. 11, 2023) (mem. op.) (citations omitted).