Medical Malpractice Case Digest

1. Describe the facts of the legal case: The plaintiff, an administrator, alleged that the death of his son was caused by medical malpractice commencing the action against the emergency department physician, the nurse on duty, and the hospital. On December 1, 1987, an ambulance team of the Boston Department of Health and Hospitals found 26-year-old Mr. Feeney, intoxicated sitting on the corner of the street. Mr. Feeney admitted to alcohol abuse but denied that he used drugs. He was physically and verbally combative and had trouble walking/ speaking, his vital signs were not taken. The autopsy report showed an ethyl alcohol level of 0.39%, a very dangerous level. A physician or nurse could readily recognize a grave risk to the patient through …show more content…
Describe the issues of the legal case: Was the offer of proof made by the administrator sufficient to support a medical malpractice action against the hospital and the emergency department physician and the nurse. The nurse did not come check on the patient for a very insignificant time. He was found on the street with alcohol abuse and was taken immediately to the hospital but was not put on fluids right away. Then, he was left alone leaving him to relapse and eventually die. When the ambulance found him, he could not walk and his speaking was intelligible. Why did the ambulance team not put an IV in Mr. Feeney if they knew he was intoxicated? What did the nurses and physicians do to help him besides take him to get examined and then he lost respiration and his pupils fixed and dilated? Why was there not a nurse monitoring him the whole time? When the autopsy showed his alcohol level at a 0.39%, then the nurse and physician took Mr. Feeney to the examining room, where he already lost respiration, what were they doing in between when they saw his alcohol level was so high, till he no longer had respiration? The patient was pronounced dead 30 minutes into “code” which means which the physician and nurse were not monitoring him he had already died. The issue with him being called dead within 30 minutes leave the nurse and physician in line for a

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