Published On:Saturday, October 09, 2010

By ALISON LOWE

Tribune Staff Reporter

alowe@tribunemedia.net

DOCTORS Hospital and a private physician who operates within it have admitted liability in a civil suit stemming from the case of a 42-year-old man who died at the institution after being admitted with what experts said was a very high chance of surviving burn injuries he had sustained.

Five years after the civil action was first initiated by Lisa Esfakis, wife of the deceased, Christopher Esfakis, Supreme Court Justice Rhonda Bain ordered that judgement be entered in favour of Mrs Esfakis and against Doctor's Hospital and Dr James Iferenta.

The civil suit alleged that negligence on the part of the hospital and the doctor, among others, resulted in the death of Christopher Esfakis.

Justice Bain made her order on September 30, 2010. The order included a demand that the costs of the action on behalf of Mrs Esfakis be shared between the private hospital and Dr Iferenta. The amount of damages to be paid to Mr Esfakis' wife have yet to be determined.

According to evidence given at the 2007/2008 Coroner's Inquest into his death, Christopher Esfakis walked into the hospital in the early hours of Saturday April 20, 2002, having sustained burns to his chest at a party.

Dr Iferenta was his primary care physician, having the final say in his treatment. According to witnesses at the inquest, the doctor ordered that Mr Esfakis be put on what turned out to be an incorrect fluid replacement regime.

It was also stated by the Coroner, William Campbell, that there was a "gross failure" on behalf of Dr Iferenta in deciding not to intubate Mr Esfakis, which involved taking steps to secure his airway so he could breathe in case of swelling of his throat.

Weight

Mr Esfakis died at the hospital two days after he was admitted, weighing 55 pounds more than he did when he entered - a weight gain attributed in the inquest to the amount of fluid administered to him. Doctors testified that based on the burns he had sustained, he should have had a 95 per cent or higher chance of surviving those injuries upon admission.

The Coroner said that Mr Esfakis' chance of survival was "frittered away by cumulative errors in his medical care."

He left one verdict to the jurors - that Mr Esfakis died "of natural causes, with a substantial and significant contribution made by neglect" - saying that his decision to do so was because

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