Patient’s Fall: Court Says Patient Needs No Expert.
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
May 2018
If a patient arrives in a wheelchair and hospital caregivers are told that the patient is unable to stand unassisted, the jury does not need to hear testimony from a qualified medical expert that it was not reasonable for a caregiver to have the patient stand up on his own without assistance. This patient can sue for ordinary negligence. COURT OF APPEALS OF MICHIGAN March 29, 2018
The patient’s wife took him to the medical center for a previously scheduled chest x-ray. She wheeled him in in his wheelchair and told the center’s staff that he was un-able to stand on his own. Nevertheless a staff member told him to stand up after wheeling him into the x-ray room. Right after he stood up, as the staff member was pushing the wheelchair away, the patient collapsed to the floor.
When his wife took him to the emergency department the next day his apparent ankle sprain from the day before was diagnosed as a fractured ankle that had led to a deep vein thrombosis in the peroneal vein.
The Court of Appeals of Michigan had to agree with the hospital that the patient’s proposed expert was not qualified to testify in a malpractice case. She spent ninety-eight percent of her time in the office overseeing the scheduling of radiology patients. She had only minimal direct personal involvement in hands-on patient care.
However, the patient did not need an expert to prove it was ordinary negligence, as opposed to professional malpractice, to have him stand up from his wheelchair after his caregivers were told he could not stand on his own without assistance. The patient’s lawsuit will go forward.
McDonald v. Med. Ctr., 2018 WL 1542425 (Mich. App., March 29, 2018).More references from nursinglaw.com
http://www.nursinglaw.com/patient-fall-nursing-negligence.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/patient-fall-standard-of-care.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/patient-fall-nurses-charting.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/patient-fall-care-plan.htm