Ex-lawmaker this time sues NMI over infected knee, leg

Teregeyo

Former representative Ana S. Teregeyo is suing the CNMI government for negligence arising from the same allegations in her second amended complaint when her left knee and leg became infected, necessitating five more surgeries and an artificial knee replacement.

Teregeyo named the CNMI as the only defendant in her new complaint that she filed in the Superior Court on Monday pro se or without a lawyer.

Teregeyo asked the court to hold the government liable to pay her damages and court costs. She did not specify the amount.

The former lawmaker said that last Feb. 5 she sent a demand to the Office of the Attorney General, presenting her claim and providing the government 90 days to respond.

She said the government has failed to respond that’s why she’s filing the lawsuit.

Teregeyo said the care that she received from the government fell below the applicable standard of care.

Teregeyo said the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. allowed an unqualified and unsupervised physician’s assistant to manage her post-operative care.

She said when an infection developed she was not properly treated.

She said CHCC did not properly advise her of the need to obtain specialty treatment outside of the CNMI once the infection that CHCC had negligently failed to properly treat became serious.

She argued that as a direct result of the government’s failure to provide care meeting the applicable standard of care to her, she needed to undergo six additional surgeries; suffered mental and emotional distress; physical pain and suffering; and permanent injury to her leg.

Teregeyo’s original lawsuit named the CHCC, CHCC chief executive officer Esther L. Muna, and some medical staff officers as defendants.

In the first amended complaint, the former lawmaker named as defendants CHCC, Muna, Dr. Greg Kotheimer, and Dr. Sherleen Osmand.

Teregeyo said Kotheimer is the acting chief of staff for CHCC, while Osmand is the acting director of Medical Affairs for CHCC.

In her second amended complaint, Teregeyo added Benjamin J. Hochhalter as co-defendant with CHCC, Muna, Kotheimer, and Osman. She also corrected Osman’s name.

Teregeyo said Hochhalter is the physician assistant and Principle Clinic Care provider.

In her complaint, Teregeyo said that on Nov. 2, 2013, she was admitted to the Commonwealth Health Center because of a shattered tibia bone.

She was treated by Dr. Grant Walker, a board certified orthopedic surgeon licensed by the CNMI to practice medicine.

Teregeyo was released on Nov. 27, 2013, and told to follow up in the orthopedic clinic of the hospital.

On Dec. 19, 2013, she had an orthopedic clinic follow up appointment, in which she saw Hochhalter.

In subsequent visits, Teregeyo said Hochhalter, acting as CHCC employee, remained unsupervised by an orthopedic surgeon.

Teregeyo said Hochhalter took out the post-operative sutures too early, resulting on the gap in the incision to go untreated.

Hochhalter allegedly failed to take an x-ray of her leg for three months, while she was complaining that her leg was starting to angulate as an infection continued eating away at the bone below and including her left knee.

Teregeyo said the infection of her knee necessitated six surgeries, including a full artificial replacement of her knee.

Teregeyo said she had to be treated for 10 months on the U.S. mainland, where she received five additional surgeries at the University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Assistant attorney general David Lochabay said Teregeyo’s amended complaint should be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, insufficiency of service, and failure to state a cause of action.

In her reply to the motion, Teregeyo stated that she filed her complaint based on her understanding of Public Law 16-51, which states in part that CHCC can sue and be sued without any reference to a 90-day requirement.

Teregeyo said if it is indeed a requirement, then she is willing to agree to the dismissal of her complaint, but without prejudice, which means she can re-file it.

Lochabay said CHCC, a public corporation, cannot be sued in tort without first having presented any claim to the Office of Attorney General.

Lochabay said Teregeyo has not pled she presented her claim to the AG at least 90 days prior to filing suit and that the claim was subsequently denied in writing or by the passage of time.