307 Mass. 562 | Mass. | 1940
The plaintiff, suffering from a skin disease on her chest and arms, saw the defendant, a physician, at a hospital with which he was connected. The defendant examined her and thought she had a condition similar to
It could have been found that the defendant had specialized for nearly all his professional fife of thirty-three years in the treatment of skin diseases by electric and light treatments; that for nearly ten years he had been the general medical superintendent of a hospital, having six assistants, all of whom, together with himself, prescribed physiotherapy for patients who sought relief and who numbered eight or nine thousand persons a year. At the trial he expressly disclaimed that the nurses who administered the treatment did not comply with his instructions. He testified that he prescribed a series of ten actinic light treatments by an Alpine sun lamp; that he did not contemplate that anything should occur that might prevent her from completing
During the course of the examination of one of the defendant’s experts, after he had answered that he had not heard or observed in the testimony anything that indicated that this was not a proper case for the application of light treatment, counsel for the plaintiff said that he contended not that the treatment was improper but that the exposure was too long. Nothing further was said on this subject, but the subsequent course of the trial indicates that this was not
There was no direct testimony that the plaintiff at the time of her second treatment was exposed to the actinic rays for more than three and one-half minutes, or that an exposure for that period was unusual or improper if light treatment should have been administered. An exposure for that period with the use of mechanical equipment that could be found to be proper would not inflict second degree burns upon a patient not abnormally susceptible to light, unless the patient was suffering from a skin disease that ought not to have been treated by the rays, or unless the burns were caused by some medication applied to the skin. The defendant did not prescribe any medication and, according to his testimony, medication can be eliminated as far as his treatment is concerned. Moreover, the plaintiff testified that she did not use any salves or ointments after the second treatment until she was treated by a physician, who prescribed oils and greases. The judge could find that her condition following the second treatment was not caused by the application of any medication, but that it was due to the burns received at the time of the treatment. Marangian v. Apelian, 286 Mass. 429, 437. Zimmerman v. Litvich, 297 Mass. 91, 93. Deward v. Whitney, 298 Mass. 41, 46.
The issue then is narrowed to the inquiry whether the evidence was sufficient to warrant a finding that the plaintiff’s injury was due to negligence in prescribing light treatment for her skin disease. The defendant did not intend to
The negligence of the defendant in examining the plaintiff, in diagnosing her condition, and in prescribing treatment, was a question of fact upon the testimony, and there was no error in the refusal of requests that the plaintiff was not entitled to recover or that there was not sufficient evidence of negligence in the particulars just mentioned. The judge found, as shown by his dealing with the defendant’s requests, that the defendant was negligent in the examination, diagnosis and prescription. His special finding to the same effect was supported by the evidence and cannot be disturbed. Moss v. Old Colony Trust Co. 246 Mass. 139. Ashapa v. Reed, 280 Mass. 514. MacDonald v. Adamian, 294 Mass. 187.
Exceptions overruled.