DOCTOR SUED.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20085, 14 November 1930, Page 9

DOCTOR SUED.

NEGLIGENT TREATMENT

ALLEGED.

[THE PRESS Special Service.]

WELLINGTON, November 13.

Ih® treatment of a boy's fractured arm in the Wellington Public Hospital forms the basis of a claim being heard by My E. Page, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court.

Arthur Oswald Richardson, his wife, Rebecca Margaret, and the boy Malcolm Richardson, are claiming from Dr. William Bracewell Mercer, of Dunedin, &100 special and £IOO general damages.

The statement of claim sets out that in December last, while the defendant was the senior houso surgeon at Wellington Hospital, Malcolm Eichardson, suffering from a fractured arm, was admitted to the Hospital and was operatod on and treated by the defendant. It was alleged that the operation and treatment were so negligently and unskilfully performed by the defendant that «hey seriously aggravated the effects of the fracture, delayed recovery of the boy, caused him a great deal of pain, and suffering, and compelled him to submit to a long course of treatment as well as putting the adult plaintiffs to cx Pense for surgical and other charges. Counsel for plaintiff said the boy had developed ischaemle paralysis, which had not yet completely disappeared. The liability of a doctor acting in his professional capacity had been well settled and counsel quoted authority to show that to render a medical man liable even civilly for negligence or want of due care or skill, it was not enough to show that there had been a less degree of skill than some other medical men might have shown, or a less degree of care than even he himself might have bestowed; nor was It enough that he himself shoiild acknowledge some degree of want of care. There must have been a want of competent and ordinary care and skill, and to such a degree as to have led to a bad result. It was submitted for the defencq that the treatment given to the boy was in accordance with the most modern medical practice. The next day the child was perfectly well, and two doctors, Dr. Mereer and Dr. MeNicol, saw him, and wero quite satisfied that he was lit for discharge. If the boy had been discharged without his condition being apparent it could not be held that the doctors were negligent, for the ischaemie condition could have developed in numerous ways after tho boy left, as, for instance, by lowering his arm or by receiving a knock in the tram. As it was, there had been absolutely no sign of paralysis before the boy left, and this was one of the things especially looked for in cases of fracture. The ease was adjourned until Decomber Ist.