Cleared of medical malpractice last summer, a Southwest Health Systems emergency room physician has had a third civil rights complaint against him dismissed.
Filed Feb. 25, 2014, the latest lawsuit accused Dr. Mark Turpen and the private hospital in Cortez of negligence. In court documents, plaintiff Marion Harper claimed his civil rights were violated when he was denied emergency care on July 30, 2013. The complaint demanded $99,000.
District Court Judge Todd Plewe dismissed the case on April 8, ruling that Harper didn’t file a certificate of review as ordered last December.
At that hearing, Plewe explained the certificate of review – a document from an outside physician validating the plaintiff’s claims – was a safeguard to protect against frivolous lawsuits.
Last week, Harper told The Cortez Journal that he might consider refiling his civil rights complaint in federal court.
In court documents, the defense in part argued that Harper had failed to provide any fact that supports a claim for discrimination, and instead only provided speculative, generalized allegations.
Court records show that Harper filed two previous civil rights complaints against Turpen and the hospital, alleging he was denied care both on New Year’s Eve 2012, and again on June 28, 2013. Both cases were subsequently dismissed.
Last summer, a jury cleared Turpen in a lawsuit that alleged that Turpen didn’t provide adequate care for a mentally disturbed man who took his own life after being discharged from the hospital.