Denton v. Big Spring Hospital Corp.

OPINION

W.G. ARNOT, III, Chief Justice.

On September 14, 1994, Willard Denton, Jr. was throwing a watermelon over a fence when he developed a burning pain in the base of his neck and shoulders. Den-ton’s wife took him to the emergency room of Scenic Mountain Medical Center shortly thereafter. While in the emergency room, Denton complained of numbness in his right leg and hand. Dr. Roderick Stone-dale, the emergency room physician, diagnosed Denton with chest pain and coronary insufficiency but could not exclude acute myocardial infarction. Dr. Stone-dale believed Denton required hospitalization…