Ted Nobles v. Memorial Hospital of Laramie County, d/b/a United Medical Center and d/b/a Cheyenne Regional Medical Center and the Board of Trustees of Memorial Hospital of Laramie County, d/b/a United Medical Center and d/b/a Cheyenne Regional Medical Center

Summary

The Wyoming Supreme Court reviewed a summary judgment ruling in a medical malpractice action involving an alleged brachial plexus injury sustained while the plaintiff was hospitalized. The court held that evidence raised a factual question about whether Wyoming’s continuous treatment rule applied, including whether treatment continued until the plaintiff’s discharge. It reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment for the hospital.

Holdings

1. Wyoming's continuous treatment rule applies beyond misdiagnosis cases and encompasses continuing treatment for the same or related injury. Where the Hospital continued treating Nobles's shoulder and arm condition, the act, error, or omission was not complete until termination of that treatment.
2. Wyoming declines to adopt the single-act exception to the continuous treatment rule.
3. Summary judgment for the Hospital was improper because evidence viewed in Nobles's favor established a genuine issue regarding whether his course of treatment ended upon discharge on March 15, 2008; his March 11, 2010 claim was therefore timely under the continuous treatment rule.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the continuous treatment rule applied to determine when the medical-malpractice statute of limitations began to run.
2. Whether Wyoming should recognize a single-act exception to the continuous treatment rule and, if so, whether it applied to Nobles's claim.
3. Whether summary judgment for the Hospital was proper.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded