text
stringlengths
1
3.04k
Ed Concannon.
Frank Galvin. We've met before.
Objection, we've...
...to get her heartbeat back...?
We've touched on this, his own witness has said...
...almost nine minutes... causing brain damage.
Your Honor...! Your Honor...
Objection!
And you would come here, and on a slip of memory four years ago, you'd ruin their lives.
No, actually, she was referred to me. She was Dr. Hagman's patient...
Don't equivocate. Be positive. Just tell the truth.
Whatever the `truth' is, let's hear that. You were her doctor.
Yes.
Say it.
I was her doctor.
You were the anesthesiologist at her delivery May twelfth, nineteen seventy...
...I was one of a group of...
Answer affirmatively. Simply. Keep those answers to three words. You weren't `part of a group,' you were her anesthesiologist. Isn't that right?
Yes.
You were there to help Dr. Marx deliver her baby. Were you not?
Yes.
Anything special about the case?
When she...
Thank you. When Debby...
Dr. Towler, who was in the operating room with you?
Ms. Nevins, nurseanesthetist; Dr.Marx, of course...
Mary Rooney, the obstetrical nurse...
What did these people do when her heart stopped?
We went to Code Blue...
`Code Blue,' what does that mean...?
It's a common medical expression, it's a crash program to restore the heartbeat. Dr. Marx cut an airway in her trachea, to get her oxygen, her and the baby...Ms.Nevins...
Why wasn't she getting oxygen...?
Well, many reasons, actually...
Tell me one?
She'd aspirated vomitus into her mask...
She THREW UP IN HER MASK. Let's cut the bullshit. Say it: She THREW UP IN HER MASK.
...and her heart stopped and she wasn't getting oxygen.
That's right.
And what did your team do...
Well, we...
...You brought thirty years of medical experience to bear. Isn't that what you did?
Yes.
...A patient riddled with complications, questionable information on her, on her admitting form...
...We did everything we could...
...to save her and to save the baby. Is that...
Yes!
You reached down into death. Now, isn't that right?
My God, we tried to save her...You can't know...You can't know...
Tell us.
What are you doing here?
Mickey told me to come back to work.
... here's your mail, call Mrs. Doneghy ...
... yes. Get her on the phone ...
... that was a Dr. David Gruber's office ...
Gruber...
Mickey told him to call. 'He's some very hotshot surgeon at Mass. Commonwealth. He wants to meet with you at seven tonight re testimony in the case of Deborah Ann Kaye. You meet him at the hospital.'
... he wants to testify ...?
It looks that way.
You know what that would mean? To get somebody from a Boston hospital to say he'll testify?
... a Mrs. Doneghy called ... I told you that.
This is going to drive the ante up.
Frank Galvin's ... who's calling please? Bishop Brophy's office ...
That's the call that I'm waiting for.
What does it mean?
They want to settle. It means a lot of money.
Does that mean I'm back for awhile?
It's a generous offer, Mr. Galvin... ...nothing can make the woman well...but we try to compensate...to make a gesture...
How did you settle on the amount?
We thought it was just.
You thought it was just.
Yes.
Because it struck me how neatly 'three' went into the amount. Two Hundred Ten Thousand. That would mean I keep seventy.
That was our insurance company's recommendation.
Yes. It would be.
Nothing that we can do can make that woman well.
And no one will know the truth.
What is the truth?
That that poor girl put her trust in the hands of two men who took her life, she's in a coma, her life is gone. She has no family, she has no home, she's tied to a machine, she has no friends and the people who should care for her: her Doctors, and you, and me, have been bought off to look the other way. We have been paid to look the other way. I came in here to take your money. I brought snapshots to show you. So I could get your money. I can't take it. If I take it. If I take that money I'm lost. I'm just going to be a rich ambulance chaser. I can't do it. I can't take it.
He was accused of jury tampering.
Accused. Not indicted. He resigned the firm. Divorced nineteen seventy. Galvin worked with Michael Morrissey until Morrissey retired in 'seventyeight. Since then he's been on his own. Four cases before the Circuit Court. He lost them all. He drinks.
Four cases in three years ...
The man's an ambulance chaser ...
... tell me about this case.
This is a nuisance suit. He's looking for small change. He's asking for six hundred thousand and betting we don't want to go to court.
No we don't want this case in court.
Neither does he. That's where he loses. This man's scared to death to go to court. We only have to call his bluff.
I want to settle this thing and be done with it. I don't want the Archdiocese exposed.
No. Absolutely, and we're going to see that it is not.
So what I want to do is stop it here. I'm going to make him an offer. I want to do it myself. I want it to come from me.
All right. But let's keep the price down. I've called Ed Concannon. He recommends that we continue to respond as if we're going to trial.
If we were to go to trial, would we win the case?
Well, of course, it's always dangerous ...
I know that answer. If we went to trial would we win?
Yes.
Why did he go to see Mary Rooney?
She's the only nurse who isn't testifying for the Doctors.
What did he find?
Nothing.
How good's your intelligence?
Very good.