Dementia: Patient's Cigarette Lighter Should Have Been Confiscated, Court Rules

Dementia: Patient's Cigarette Lighter Should Have Been Confiscated, Court Rules

Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession

July 1997

Quick Summary: A diagnosis of dementia requires caregivers to assess correctly whether possession of a lighter poses a potential danger to the patient and to others.

A diagnosis of some degree of dementia does not automatically mean caregivers must take away a patient’s cigarette lighter.

A patient with impaired decision-making could foreseeably cause a fire and sustain serious burn injuries as a result.

Caregivers owe their patients the legal duty to evaluate this safety issue correctly. NEW YORK SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, 1997.

The family of a hospital patient obtained a $1.4 million verdict against the hospital where the patient sustained fatal burn injuries in a fire apparently started by the patient. The size of the verdict reflected the jury’s assessment of the pain and suffering endured by the patient during the two and one-half weeks between the fire and the patient lapsing into a coma shortly before dying.

The New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, upheld the verdict and overruled the hospital’s appeal. The court did not consider in detail the extent of the patient’s dementia. The court did not want to try to make an arbitrary ruling at what stage in the progression of dementia it is no longer appropriate to let a patient keep a cigarette lighter. Instead, the court ruled that a diagnosis of some degree of dementia places the legal responsibility upon the patient’s caregivers to assess correctly the safety issues posed by the patient’s continued unrestricted possession of a cigarette lighter, and to take appropriate action. Nelson vs. Hospital, 654 N.Y.S. 2d 378 (N.Y. App., 1997).