STANDARD OF CARE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 126, 1 June 1927, Page 13

STANDARD OF CARE

MATERNITY HOSPITALS

CLAIM BEFORE COURT

(By Telegraph.)

(Speel«r to "The Evening Pert,")

AUCKLAND, This Day. "Early in tho hearing I was surprised tp learn that the standard of car* required of a nurse on the admission of a patient to a maternity' hospital was apparently not very high," said the Magistrate, Mr. W. E. M'Kean, in the Magistrate's Court yesterday at the conclusion of the adjourned hearing of a. claim and counterclaim arising out of a maternity case in which a baby died from malignant jaundice twenty-six hours after birth. The plaintiff was Blanche Donald, a nurse, of Herbert road, Auckland, and the defendant T. Clarke, a mill hand; of Msraaku, Tho plaintiff claimed £9 11« for nursing and professional services, end the defendant counter-claimed for £25 gem eral, and £38 12s 8d special damages in connection with a serious illness as the result of alleged negligence. Dr. Hilda Northcroft, in pursuance of leave granted last week, was called for Clarke before Nurse Donald's re* maining witnesses (Doctors Tracy, Inglis, W. H. Farkes, C. H. Tewsley, and W.E.Williams). The Magistrate said he would give a written^ decision, The evidence, a.l. though it disclosed circumstances which were particularly distressing to Mrs; Clarke, did not show that she suffered any physical injury, although it was possible that the thought that she received no attention, combined with the death of the phjld, might have brought" about her present condition (acute neurasthenia). He had to decide whether Nurse Donald's conduct reached the common standard of care such as might be expected of a nurse in tße circumstances, he must base his decision on the evidence, and not on his own vie,ws. There was only one conclusion he could draw. . Mr. Dickson: "Then I take it that the Judgment will not go against Nurse Donald."; . . Mr. M'Kean:.«'She will find that out ' when she hears the judgment."