Ethical and Legal Considerations Essay.
Solution
Ethical and Legal Considerations
In this paper, the student aims at analyzing the possibility of negligence in the case study provided. The elements of a negligence claim are well discussed against the possible scenarios in the case study in-order to determine the possible outcomes of the lawsuit.
If death was the result of overdose
In this circumstance, it was clear that the defendant owed the plaintiff a legal of duty since after the accident; the plaintiff was brought to the hospital seeking medical attention after an automobile accident. There was no evident breach of duty by the defendant since all the physician’s actions were based according to the information given by the plaintiff and there was no way he could have discovered that the plaintiff had an overdose of heroin and alcohol at the moment since the patient had been brought due to an automobile accident which is non-related. It is then quite clear that the plaintiff’s death was not caused by the defendant’s action whatsoever therefore the damage which in this case is the death of the plaintiff was not in any way due to the actions by the defendant. Therefore no negligence claims could be made.
If death was the result of failure to administer blood
The defendant clearly owes the plaintiff a legal of duty since the plaintiff was brought to the medical center seeking health services which was the defendant’s responsibility to administer. However, there was no breach of legal duty by the defendant since the physician did their best to advise the patient who is the plaintiff that they needed a blood transfusion. The plaintiff clearly declined the transfusion which should be done only after the patient’s consent. The physician did their best to save the life of the patient by placing them under special care. Therefore it is quite clear that the damage to the plaintiff was not caused in any way by the actions of the defendant rather by his own actions by failing to consent to the blood transfusion. No negligence claims can be made in this case.
If death was the result of subdural hematoma
In this case, the defendant definitely owed the plaintiff a legal of duty due to his obligation as a health practitioner. However, the defendant clearly breached a legal of duty. This is because, the patient was well able to communicate their condition therefore the physician should have clearly done a diagnosis on any possibility of the condition. The fact that the plaintiff had suffered a car accident necessitated a diagnosis on the same. This leaves the defendant clearly responsible for the damage caused to the plaintiff and was clearly negligent.
References
Care, D. L. T. (2005). ELEMENTS OF A NEGLIGENCE CLAIM. Ethics, Law, and Aging Review, Volume 11: Deinstitutionalizing Long Term Care: Making Legal Strides, Avoiding Policy Errors, 11, 75.
Paterick, T. J., Carson, G. V., Allen, M. C., & Paterick, T. E. (2008, March). Medical informed consent: general considerations for physicians. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 83, No. 3, pp. 313-319). Elsevier.
Morgenstern, L. B., Hemphill, J. C., Anderson, C., Becker, K., Broderick, J. P., Connolly, E. S., … & Mitchell, P. H. (2010). Guidelines for the management of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage. Stroke, 41(9), 2108-2129.