Carpenter v. Daar

Citations

• 346 Conn. 80

Syllabus

Pursuant to statute (§ 52-190a (a)), a complaint sounding in medical malprac- tice must be accompanied by a good faith certificate and ''a written and signed opinion of a similar health care provider, as defined in section 52-184c . . . that there appears to be evidence of medical negligence and includes a detailed basis for the formation of such opinion.'' The plaintiff sought to recover damages from the named defendant, D, a dentist, and D's practice, P Co., for malpractice in connection with a root canal surgery D performed on the plaintiff. The plaintiff alleged that, during the surgery, D negligently failed to diagnose and treat an infection in the plaintiff's tooth and that, as a result, the plaintiff suffered a serious infection that required additional medical care, surgery, and dental treatment. The plaintiff attached to his complaint a good faith certificate and an opinion letter from S, an endodontist, along with a description of S's credentials in endodontics. In his complaint, the plain- tiff alleged that S was a ''similar health care provider,'' as defined by statute (§ 52-184c (c)), to D, who the plaintiff alleged had held himself out as a specialist in endodontics. In support of that allegation, the plaintiff quoted text from P Co.'s website indicating that D had completed hundreds of hours in training in endodontics, which the website described as dealing with tissues and structures inside the tooth. The defendants moved to dismiss the action on the ground that the opinion letter did not comply with §§ 52-190a (a) and 52-184c insofar as it failed to establish that S was a ''similar health care provider'' to D, who was a general dentist and not a specialist in endodontics. The defendants asserted that S was not a ''similar health care provider'' under the 346 Conn. 80 FEBRUARY, 2023 81 Carpenter v. Daar definition of that term in § 52-184c (c) because D was not a specialist in endodontics and did not hold himself out to be one, or the definition of t