February 2004 Horace Collier was admitted to Caritas Medical Center with abdomin

February 2004 Horace Collier was admitted to Caritas Medical Center with abdominal pain. The following day after undergoing tests and being diagnosed by Dr. Robert Blankenship as having appendicitis Collier had an appendectomy. One year later Collier sued Blankenship and Caritas Health Services in a Kentucky state court contending that they had been negligent because they had failed to evaluate and treat him in a timely manner. Specifically Collier claimed that he had been ignored for several hours while awaiting treatment and had suffered severe abdominal pain and that the X-ray of his abdomen had not been stored properly causing further delay in his diagnosis and treatment.