On July 9, 2014, plaintiff Francis Konopelko, 53, a master plumber, underwent bilateral inguinal hernia repair at Kaiser Permanente Ontario Medical Center, in Ontario, Calif. Konopelko complained of pain following the surgery, but the Kaiser staff believed it was post-operative pain. Five days later, on July 14, 2014, Konopelko suffered a massive heart attack. It was ultimately determined that he had multivessel disease with 90 percent stenosis. He was also found to have an acute right coronary artery occlusion with ischemic cardiomyopathy. Konopelko sued the believed operators of the medical center, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc., Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Southern California Permanente Medical Group; and a general surgeon, Dr. Siu-Keung Chung. Konopelko alleged that the defendants failed to diagnose and treat his cardiac condition prior to performing the hernia surgery and that the defendants failed to timely diagnose and treat his condition following the surgery. Chung was dismissed from the case early on, and it was ultimately determined that Kaiser Foundation Health Plan was erroneously named. The remaining parties then agreed to a binding arbitration. Plaintiff’s counsel contended that despite Konopelko being 53 years old and having all of the risk factors for cardiac disease, including uncontrolled high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes, the Kaiser medical staff performed only a minimal pre-operative exam, which did not include any bloodwork or cardiac clearance. Counsel also contended that after the surgery, Konopelko suffered significant cardiac complications, but that Kaiser’s staff dismissed Konopelko’s complaints as post-operative pain and provided no treatment other than giving Konopelko water and a sandwich. According to plaintiff’s counsel, a review of Konopelko’s medical records showed that no cardiac testing of any kind was performed by Kaiser’s staff to determine whether Konopelko’s heart was the source of his symptoms and that the lone exception was a single line in the emergency room physician’s notes, which stated that a normal EKG had been reviewed. However, counsel contended that despite the doctor’s entry, no EKG order or waveform could be found in the medical records even though Kaiser had multiple systems in place to ensure that all EKG results were stored in the electronic medical record, as well as had a separate system that was designed specifically to store EKG results. Plaintiff’s counsel also noted other errors also in Konopelko’s medical records, such as a note from the same emergency room physician, which stated that a normal chest X-ray had been reviewed even though there was no record of a chest X-ray being ordered and there was no chest X-ray result included in the file. Counsel further contended that other errors included incorrect time stamps, incorrect severity index classifications, and undocumented symptoms. Plaintiff’s counsel asserted that the errors made by the staff of Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Southern California Permanente Medical Group ultimately caused Konopelko to suffer a massive heart attack. According to plaintiff’s counsel, Kaiser could not offer any explanation as to why the EKG results were missing, other than concluding that they were "somehow lost in the shuffle," and that Kaiser later admitted that the entry in Konopelko’s medical file regarding the chest X-ray was made in error due to the emergency room physician’s use of "smart phrases." However, throughout litigation, defense counsel maintained that despite the erroneous records, an EKG had been performed. Defense counsel asserted that the physicians from Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Southern California Permanente Medical Group followed the standard of care and that there was no way the medical staff could have predicted Konopelko’s heart attack or underlying multivessel disease. Kaiser’s counsel contended that the standard of care required the emergency room staff to perform an EKG and that if the EKG result was normal, no further testing was required. As a result, counsel asserted that the Kaiser physicians did, in fact, perform an EKG, that the EKG was normal and that the emergency room staff met the standard of care.  , Konopelko suffered a massive heart attack on July 14, 2014. Due to the lack of oxygen he received during this cardiac arrest, Konopelko suffered anoxic encephalopathy, which resulted in permanent and profound cognitive impairments related to memory, attention, information processing and impulse control. Konopelko claimed that he is unable to return to work as a result of his condition and that he will need assistive care for the rest of his life. Konopelko sought recovery of past and future medical costs, past and future loss of earnings, and damages for his past and future pain and suffering. His wife, Evelyn Konopelko, presented a derivative claim seeking recovery for her loss of consortium.