Testimony continued for a third day in the Paula Parker malpractice case, as jurors heard Thursday from the doctors and nurses who treated Mrs. Parker before her death.

Mrs. Parker, a 1976 Hickory High School graduate, died in the hospital of Sharon Regional Health System of a blood clot in her lung, caused by complications from the Caesarean-section birth of her son three weeks earlier at Washington Hospital in Washington County.

Dr. Malay C. Sheth, an obstetrician/gynecologist and one of the doctors named in the suit, said he was familiar with deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, the condition that caused the blood clot to form.

He said the symptoms were pain, redness and swelling on one side of the body.

Mrs. Parker, he said, had swelling in both of her legs.

"I don't know of any pregnant women who didn't have swelling," he said.

Earlier in the trial, witnesses called by attorney John Miller, counsel for the plaintiff, testified that Mrs. Parker should have received blood thinners and should have worn pressure stockings to prevent blood clots from forming.

Sheth said Mrs. Parker was walking around, so she didn't need the pressure stockings. In his notes and in nurses' notes taken during her hospital stay, Sheth pointed out several references to Mrs. Parker walking around.

As to the blood thinners, "that wasn't common procedure then," he said.

The suit was filed by the administrators of Mrs. Parker's estate, former Shenango Valley residents Margaret and Ronald Tonnessen. Mrs. Tonnessen is Mrs. Parker's sister. The Tonnessens, who adopted Mrs. Parker's son, are seeking compensation for medical and funeral expenses plus unspecified damages.

Testimony in Judge Michael Wherry's courtroom against the Washington County doctors who treated Mrs. Parker will continue well into next week. The case is being heard in Mercer County because Mrs. Parker died here, and Sharon Regional's Home Health Agency was originally named as a defendant in the suit.

Sharon Regional has since settled the wrongful-death complaint against it for $82,000.