A Connecticut jury has rejected a bizarre case against a hospital where an employee stole painkillers from an epidural pump attached to an expectant mother, finding that her claims of emotional trauma — and a ruined marriage — were not credible.

Saima Loglisci and her husband alleged that the negligence of Stamford Hospital turned the birth of their first child into a source of anxiety and guilt. A physician's assistant pretending to be part of her medical team removed the pump, which contained the painkiller Fentanyl, from her epidural catheter while she was in forced labor.

“Dreams into nightmares — that's what this case is about, folks,” the Logliscis' attorney, Stephen Seeger of Stamford, told the jury.

But dashing any dreams of damages, a Stamford Superior Court jury last week awarded nothing against either the hospital or the physician's assistant, Preston Goldsmith. The Logliscis, who live in Norwalk, may well have overplayed their hand by making extravagant injury allegations.

“If they'd said, 'OK, Preston Goldsmith took the epidural pump,' it tarnished their special day ... they might have been much more sympathetic, more credible,” says the hospital's attorney, Eric J. Stockman (Neubert Pepe & Monteith, New Haven). “Instead, the Logliscis tried to turn this into their retirement fund.”

Among other things, Andrew Loglisci testified that his marriage had been even-keeled, without major arguments but full of intimacy and honesty. But because the drugs were stolen after he left the hospital to go home for a while, Saima turned against him, kicking him out of the marital bed and questioning his judgment.

Expressing his opinion of the couple's credibility, jury foreman Robert Cacioppo told the Stamford Advocate, “Every time we got to a particular count, it was like Swiss cheese. I almost felt bad for their attorney. I felt he did the best with what he had.”

Saima Loglisci, a realtor, was admitted to the hospital's maternity ward on Oct. 2, 2006. When her water broke the following morning, she requested an epidural. Andrew, who had been advised that it would be hours before labor intensified, went home to eat and rest.

According to the lawsuit, Goldsmith removed the epidural while Saima “lay unsuspecting in her hospital bed.” She experienced “excruciating pain” and had to wait for relief while “hospital security staff posed questions to her regarding the stolen epidural.” When she finally got a replacement epidural, it made her so numb it delayed birth.

Seeger has described the suit, which was filed in November 2008, as a perfect example of the mismanagement of narcotics in hospitals by medical professionals. “The hospital did not have proper procedures in place for securing the drug Fentanyl,” he said.

Judge Alfred J. Jennings allowed the Logliscis to go to trial on claims including negligent supervision, recklessness and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Saima was “in the particularly vulnerable and stressful situation of a woman in a hospital about to give birth to a child,” he noted in a February 2011 ruling.

The jury found no liability on all six causes of action against the hospital. “There was never any claim against the hospital,” insists Stockman. “It handled the case in an absolutely textbook fashion.”

But he concedes that the Logliscis might have won some damages if they had limited their alleged injuries to the immediate pain from the epidural theft, the aggravation of the “interrogation” by hospital security, and the birthing complications.

Testifying about the marital complications, Andrew Loglisci said that “Our social life went from 100 percent to five percent” and their intimacy ended. But whereas Saima said in her deposition that he was out of the marital bed for 10 months straight, he said it only happened a couple of days every few weeks.

“They couldn't get their story straight,” Stockman says.

Goldsmith was sentenced to three years of probation after pleading guilty to stealing the painkiller. He told hospital officials he took the Fentanyl to treat a sick dog but Stockman says that was never corroborated.

By Matthew Heller
5/4/11