Emotional Distress Claim By Aunt: Case Dismissed.
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
January 2017
A person other than the patient can sue for emotional distress stemming from medical malpractice, if the person was a spouse or intimate family member of the patient, witnessed the malpractice and suffered emotional distress as a result. However, this cannot be extended to friends and family in general. It only applies to persons in a cohabiting family unit, parents, children and spouses.
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NEW JERSEY December 7, 2016The patient’s sister was nearby when the patient’s baby was delivered by cesarean section with a heart rate of 10 to 20 and died within 25 minutes. The fetus had failed to descend. The attending obstetrician ordered the cesarean when abnormal monitor tracings were seen. The fetal heart rate continued to decline as the cesarean was started. The sister had dressed in surgical scrubs for the delivery but was not allowed to go into the room for the cesarean. Nevertheless she was present for the general panic and pandemonium on the unit as the baby was delivered, coded and then died. Afterward the sister sued the hospital over her own emotional distress.
The US District Court for the District of New Jersey ruled that an aunt is not within the category of persons who can sue for their own emotional distress from being involved in or witnessing a distressing healthcare outcome. The Court recognized it is a very special and limited circumstance when someone other than the patient can sue for malpractice.
Mendez v. US, 2016 WL 7130909 (D.N.J., December 7, 2016).More references from nursinglaw.com
http://www.nursinglaw.com/emotional-distress-family.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/family-member-IV-insertion.pdf
http://www.nursinglaw.com/faint.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/faint2.htm