103 A.D. 246 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1905
The defendants are physicians, and treated the plaintiff for a fracture of the bone of the arm about an inch above the wrist. Splints were applied to the arm to hold the broken bone in place, and when these splints were removed two black spots appeared on the surface of the wrist, which subsequently developed into ulcers and resulted in a permanent injury to the plaintiff’s arm, for which she sought by this action to hold the defendants jointly liable. The case was submitted to the jury, who found a verdict against both defendants, and from the judgment entered upon that verdict the defendant Carman appeals.
It appeared that on January 14, 1901, the plaintiff, twenty-three years of age, fell on the sidewalk and fractured her arm ; that she went to the office of the defendant Carman, who was not in, but was referred by somebody in the office to the defendant Cooke, who set the fracture and applied splints; that the next morning both defendants saw the plaintiff at her residence, took off the splints, examined the arm and put on other splints, placing under the splints small pads of cotton to keep the broken bones in place; that the
The appellant claims that as to him the complaint should have been dismissed, as the evidence is not sufficient to sustain a finding that he failed to treat the plaintiff with the skill which the law imposes upon a physician who undertakes to attend a patient, and that there is no evidence that he was negligent in the treatment of the plaintiff. The liability of a physician and surgeon to a patient
There is no evidence to show, as I read this record, that up to the time the appellant was taken sick, he was guilty of any want of reasonable care of or attention to the plaintiff’s case. There is nothing to show that his visits were not as frequent as the situation required. His first call was on the morning of January fifteenth, the day after
I think that the evidence is undisputed that up to the time that appellant was taken sick and turned the case over to Dr. Cooke his treatment was just what is here described by the plaintiff’s expert as “ good surgery by good surgeons.” lie adjusted the splints with the amount of pressure that, he considered necessary to hold the broken bone in place. The result was “a splendid union.” There is nothing to show that, if there had been less pressure, there would not have been a faulty union or that there was more pressure applied than was necessary to hold the broken bone in place. That was a matter which depended upon the judgment of the physician.
I think, therefore, that the evidence was insufficient to justify a verdict against tlie appellant, and that the judgment against him and the order appealed from must be reversed and a new trial ordered, with costs to the appellant to abide the event.
Van Brunt, P. J., Patterson, McLaughlin and Laughlin, JJ., concurred.
Judgment and order reversed, new trial ordered, costs to appellant to abide event.