Gary Scott recently was successful in obtaining summary judgment in a state court medical malpractice action filed against a nursing home client of Hirst Applegate. The case arose from an incident in which a resident of the nursing home was inadvertently administered the wrong medication, causing the resident to be hospitalized. Subsequently, after discharge from the hospital the resident passed away, with the immediate cause of death being cancer. However during discovery plaintiff`s expert witness testified that it was his opinion within a reasonable degree of medical probability that the medication error hastened the resident`s death to some extent. Based upon that testimony a motion for summary judgment was filed, which argued that under Wyoming law if a person`s death is caused by the alleged wrongful act of another, the sole remedy is an action for wrongful death. The plaintiff in this instance had not brought a wrongful death case, but instead had filed a survival action. The Court found that since the plaintiff`s proof was that the former resident`s death had been hastened by the medication error, the sole remedy was a wrongful death action. The Court dismissed the plaintiff`s complaint with prejudice. 

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