1 State of Ohio, 1-7 0

SS:

2 County of Cuyahoga.)

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4 IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS

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6 MICHELLE S. RUTHERFORD,

7 Plain tiff,

8 vs. Case No. 198,757

9 KAISER FOUNDATION
HOSPITALS, et al., Judge Patricia Cleary
10
Defendants.
11

12
DEPOSITION OF WAYNE K. KAWALEK, M.D.

13 Thursday, March 19, 1992

14

15 The deposition of WAYNE K. KAWALEK, M.D., a

16 witness, called for examination by the Plaintiff

17 under the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure, taken

18 before me, Diane M. Stevenson, a Registered

19 Professional Reporter and Notary Public in and

20 for the state of Ohio, by agreement of counsel,

21 at the offices of Weisman, Goldberg & Weisman

22 Co., LPA, 1600 Midland Building, Cleveland,

23 Ohio, commencing at 10:20 a.m., the day and date

24 above set forth.

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Diane M. Stevenson, RPR, CM
Morse, Gantverg & Hodge

I

I

2

1 APPEARANCES:

2 On behalf of the Plaintiff:

3 R. Eric Kennedy, Esq.
Weisman, Goldberg & Weisman Co., LPA
4 1600 Midland Building
Cleveland, Ohio 44115
5

6 On behalf of the Defendants:

7 Leslie J. Spisak, Esq.
Reminger & Reminger Co., LPA
8 The 113 Building
Cleveland, Ohio 44114
9

10 ALSO PRESENT:

11 Fred Palcho, Videographer

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Diane M. Stevenson, RPR, CM
Morse, Gantverg & Hodge

3

1 MR. KENNEDY: What do you want

2 to waive here?

3 MR. SPISAK: What do you want

4 me to waive?

5 MR. KENNEDY: Everything, the

6 filing of the transcript, the filing of the

7 video, service, notice, technical requirements.

8 I think there are technical requirements

9 written into video depositions that nobody ever

10 pays any attention to.

11 MR. SPISAK: I don't think

12 there is any problem with any of those things.

13 If something should come up in the video, but

14 other than that, I will waive all the technical

15 requirements and the filing and notice

16 requirements, that type of thing.

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Diane M. Stevenson, RPR, CM
Morse, Gantverg & Hodge

4

1 WAYNE K. KAWALEK, M.D.

2 A witness, called for examination by the

3 Plaintiff, under the Rules, having been first

4 duly sworn, as hereinafter certified, was

5 examined and testified as follows:

6 DIRECT EXAMINATION

7 BY MR. KENNEDY:

8 Q. Doctor, my name is Eric Kennedy, and I represent

9 Michelle Rutherford in this case.

10 Have you ever had your video deposition

11 taken before?

12 A. No, sir, I have not.

13 Q. Okay. Well, I would ask that, to the best of

14 your ability, if you would focus your attention

15 to the camera, because the jury will be watching

16 the film of this.

17 Would you please state your name and give

18 us your professional address.

19 A. Wayne Kawalek, K A W A L E K. I am an M.D. I

20 work at Parma Hospital in Parma, Ohio as a

21 full-time emergency physician.

22 Q. You are a medical doctor, then?

23 A. That's correct.

24 Q. Your specialty is what?

25 A. Emergency medicine.

Diane M. Stevenson, RPR, CM
Morse, Gantverg & Hodge

5

1 Q. At my request, did you evaluate the quality of

2 care provided to Michelle Rutherford at Kaiser

3 emergency room?

4 A T did.

5 Q. Before I ask you about Michelle Rutherford,

6 let's talk a little bit about your background

7 arid training.

8 Where did you go to medical school?

9 A. State University of New York, Downstate medical

10 Center in Brooklyn, New York.

11 Q. what year did you complete your medical

12 education?

13 A. 1 9 8 0 .

14 Q. Tell us about your training after medical

15 school.

16 A. I did an internship and residency in internal

17 medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Hospital for

18 three years, and went on to an emergency

19 medicine residency in Jacksonville, Florida.

20 Q. The emergency room residency, how long of a

21 residency program was that?

22 A. At the time I completed it, it was a two-year

23 requirement.

24 Q. What was the focus of that?

25 A. Full-time emergency medicine training towards

Diane M. Stevenson, RPR, CM
Morse, Gantverg & Hodge

6

1 practice.

2 Q. This was done after a three-year residency at

3 the Cleveland Clinic?

4 A. That's correct. Five years of postgraduate

5 training, in total.

6 Q. After you finished your residency training,

7 then, both in internal medicine and in emergency

8 room medicine, what did you do next?

9 A. I became full-time staff for one year at Huron

10 Road Hospital in East Cleveland, Ohio, and then

11 went on to full-time practice in emergency

12 medicine.

13 I am in five and a half years of full-time

14 practice at Parma Hospital in Parma, Ohio.

15 Q. Can yo