[Download] "Tort Law. (Duty of Care to Third Parties) (Massachusetts)" by Suffolk University Law Review # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Tort Law. (Duty of Care to Third Parties) (Massachusetts)
- Author : Suffolk University Law Review
- Release Date : January 22, 2008
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 255 KB
Description
Extending Physician's Duty of Care to Third Parties for Breach of Duty Owed to Patient-Coombes v. Florio, 877 N.E.2d 567 (Mass. 2007) A successful negligence action requires a plaintiff to prove that the defendant owed a duty of care and then breached that duty by creating an unreasonable risk of harm. (1) Physicians owe patients a duty to inform them of the consequences of proposed medical treatment due to the nature of the physician-patient relationship. (2) In Coombes v. Florio, (3) the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) examined whether a physician's duty of care extends to third parties harmed by the physician's failure to warn a patient of a prescribed medication's side effects. (4) The court concluded that a physician owes a duty of reasonable care to any individual foreseeably put at risk by the physician's failure to warn his or her patients. (5) On March 22, 2002, seventy-five-year-old David Sacca lost consciousness while driving his car, causing him to veer off of the road and kill ten-year-old bystander Kevin Coombes. (6) Shortly after the accident, Sacca regained consciousness in a nearby hospital; doctors could not determine the precise cause of his blackout. (7) At the time of the accident, Sacca suffered from serious illnesses including asbestosis, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, high blood pressure, and metastatic lung cancer. (8) As part of his treatment, Sacca's primary-care physician, Dr. Roland Florio, prescribed a number of medications including Oxycodone, Zar.oxolyn, Prednisone, Flomax, Potassium, Paxil, Oxazepam, and Furosemide. (9) The drugs' potential side effects include lightheadedness, drowsiness, dizziness, fainting, altered consciousness, and sedation. (10) At trial, Sacca's medical expert contended that the aggregate effect of these medications, combined with Sacca's old age, exacerbated the drugs' side effects and caused him to lose consciousness. (11)