Kayllaira wrote:
Why? It's called negligence. We learned that first semester, even. It's fucking terrifying, but it's real and it's necessary. They tell us doing nothing is the same as doing something wrong. He was definitely negligent in using an anesthetic agent not intended for use outside of a hospital much less outside of a surgical procedure with no resuscitation equipment nearby. Pretty much all anesthetics have a risk of inducing respiratory depression and/or cardiac effects (arrhythmias, hypotension, etc) - he should have been prepared for this. He wasn't, so he was negligent. If a physician put you under anesthesia in a hospital, had no equipment nearby to resuscitate you, and left you alone on the table, what would you call it?
I'd call it negligence. Negligence is a tort, which is in turn civil. The estate could have brought a civil suit under negligence and a malpractice suit against his insurance carrier.
There's criminal negligence also, which is a bit squishier. I'm okay with criminal negligence existing, because it's a good deterrent to things like child neglect. I take issue with criminal negligence applying to doctors, because they already have the entire concept of malpractice looming over their heads, and the added problem of patient conflict. I remember a case by some Jehovah's Witnesses where a wife was undergoing difficult childbirth but could have easily been saved by a blood transfusion, which both she and her husband had explicitly disallowed as contrary to their religion. The doctor, after pointing out how retarded this was, acquiesced. The wife died (status of baby not mentioned in case), due to no blood transfusion.
The motherfucking husband had the gall to sue the doctor for malpractice. Doctor won, but that's actually not the point. Under criminal negligence, non-action (nonfeasance) satisfies the
mens rea requirement. Tell me you think that doctor should be in criminal court.
If you checked yes, good thing the local prosecutor disagreed.
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