Federal Judiciary

NO DOCTOR NEEDED
By Mark Thompson
markthomp@yahoo.com
Posted 05-28-08

Kings County Justice Bruce Balter summarily kicked a lawsuit out of court simply because the plaintiffs didn’t bother to obtain a medical opinion asserting that a nursing home should have taken steps to assure that a 91-year-old patient wouldn’t keep clambering out of bed on her own.

An Appellate Division panel reversed Balter in part, reinstating those parts of the complaint that alleged ordinary negligence by nursing home personnel, who failed to use any restraints or other safety devices, even though they knew the patient had previously gotten out of bed by herself and fallen. The second time she did that, she broke her hip, leading to complications that allegedly contributed to her death later that day. 

Full post as published by Judicial Reports on May 28, 2008 (boomark / email).