ALLEGED NEGLIGENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18876, 31 May 1923, Page 7

ALLEGED NEGLIGENCE

CLAIM AGAINST A DOCTOR. FORCEPS LEFT IN ABDOMEN. Press Association —13 y Telegraph—Copyright BRISBANE, May 30. The Supreme Court is hearing a case n which Annie Corcoran is claiming £2500 as damages and £933 as expenses from Lillian Cooper,* a qualified medical practitioner, for alleged negligence and unskilfulness during an operation which was performed at Mater Misericordia Hospital in 1918, by allowing to remain in the abdomen a pair (or portion of a pair) of forceps. According to the evidence, owing to continued ill-health, the plaintiff underwent a second operation in Newcastle Hospital in July, 1922, when Dr Nickson removed a pair of artery forceps from Corcoran’s bowels. Portion of the handle of one flange was missing, which might have fretted away, or the instrument might have been damaged before it was used. Dr Nickson stated that no one could find fault with the operation performed by tho defendant, according to the hospital records, which showed that every care had been taken.

The defence was a general denial of negligence or unskilfulness. Dr Cooper, who lias had oO years operating experience, gave evidence to the effect that the nurses who assisted in the operation were capable and exceedingly careful, and she declared that it was impossible that the forceps could have been left in the cavity at the time of the operation. Counsel for the defence stated that evidence would be forthcoming that the forceps produced had never been in the Mater Misericordia Hospital.