WOMAN’S DEATH

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 257, 17 August 1950, Page 6

WOMAN’S DEATH

DAMAGES AWARDED CLAIM IN SUPREME COURT (P.A.) HAMILTON, Aug. 16. Judgment for £3037 was entered in the Supreme Court to-day against the Taumarunui Hospital Board and James Marshall Stewart, a doctor. The plaintiff, Vivian Frank Smith, a farm worker, claimed £5537 because of the death of his wife after an opera- ' tion. After a retirement of nearly two hours, the jury found that Dr. Stewart had been negligent. It found that other members of the hospital staff had not been negligent. The jury awarded £37 as special damages and £3OOO as general damages. Mr Justice Finlay entered judgment against both defendants for the amount awarded, with costs and witnesses’ expenses. In evidence to-day Dr. Stewart said that he had no knowledge or suspicions at any time that anything untoward had happened. If he had known of the symptoms which developed inwardly he would have arranged for a blood transfusion and the opening of the abdomen at once. Cross-examined by counsel for the plaintiff, Dr. Stewart said he considered he was competent to deal with the operation and any complications which might arise. He agreed that he was the person who caused the injuries, but at no time, he said, was he aware that he had caused them. The reactions were no different from those experienced in other operations of the same type, and he was forced to the conclusion that there was in this case a factor quite unusual, and it still puzzled him. He never at any time had thought he had caused such injuries. He did not agree that packing was a bad technique.