ACTION AGAINST DOCTOR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20721, 14 November 1930, Page 13

ACTION AGAINST DOCTOR

LACK OP CARE ALLEGED. BOY'S FRACTURED ARM. CLAIM FOR £2OO DAMAGES* I [BV TELEGRAPH. OWN CORRESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON, Thursday. Tho treatment of a, boy's fractured arm in (lie Wellington Public Hospital formed the basis of a claim heard by Mr. E. Page, S.M., in I ho Magistrate's Court today. Arthur Oswald Richardson, his wife, Rebecca, Margaret, and tho boy, Malcolm Richardson, claimed from Dr. William Bracewell Mercer, of Dunedin, £IOO special and £IOO general damages. The statement of claim set out that in December last, while the defendant was the senior house surgeon at Wellington Hospital, Malcolm Richardson, suffering from a fractured arm, was admitted to tho hospital and was operated on and treated by the defendant. It was alleged that tho operation and treatment were so negligently and unskilfully performed by the defendant that they seriously aggravated the effects of the fracture, delayed tho recovery of tho 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 expense for surgical and other charges. The evidence for the plaintiff showed that the boy had developed ischaemic paralysis (paralysis due to local anaemia), which had not yet completely disappeared. For the defence it wa3 submitted that tho liability of a doctor acting in his professional capacity had been well settled in law. To render a. medical man liable even civilly for negligence or want of duo earn or skill, it was not enough to show that there had been a less degree of skill than some other medical men might havo shown, or a less degree of caro than even ho himself might have bestowed, nor was it enough that he himself should acknowledge some degree of want of care. There must havo 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 further submitted that the treatment given to the boy v.as in accordance with tho most modern medical practice. Tho next day tho child was ppifectly well, and two doctors, Dr. Mercer and Dr. McNicol, saw him and were quito satisfied that he. was fit 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 ischaemic 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 wa3, there had been absolutely no sign of paralysis before tho boy left, and this was one of the things especially looked for in cases of fracture. The rase was adjourned till December J.