Brief Fact Summary. Washington Hospital Center was found negligent for not providing an end-tidal carbon monoxide during surgery on Thompson (Plaintiff).
Synopsis of Rule of Law. The applicable standard of care is established in a medical malpractice action when a party provides sufficient expert testimony to avoid jury findings based on conjecture or speculation.
Expert testimony is usually required to establish each of these elements, except where proof is so obvious as to lie within the ken of the average lay juror.
View Full Point of LawIssue. Is the applicable standard of care established in a medical malpractice action when a party provides sufficient expert testimony to avoid jury findings based on conjecture or speculation?
Held. (Farrell, J.) Yes. The applicable standard of care is established in a medical malpractice action when a party provides sufficient expert testimony to avoid jury findings based on conjecture or speculation. A patient is required, in a medical malpractice negligence action, to establish: (1) the applicable standard of care, (2) a deviation from that standard, and (3) that the injury was caused by the deviation. Expert testimony is required unless the proof is so obvious it would be known to the average lay juror. The standard of care is the course of action a reasonably prudent institution or professional with the same specialty would have taken under circumstances that were similar. The standard of care is national, not local. The standard of care may call for more than mandatory procedures or precautions. Based on testimony here, a reasonable jury could have found that the standard of care in this case required Defendant to provide a monitor. Affirmed.
Discussion. In medical malpractice cases against health care institutions, courts have rarely applied negligence one its own for statutory violations. In some jurisdictions, evidence of violation of specific statutes or accreditation standards, supported by expert testimony, may create a permissive inference of violation of the standard of care. This inference allows a plaintiff’s case to get to the jury, which may or may not accept the inference of negligence.