A bizarre case. After a hospital loses the remains of a stillborn fetus, the mother sues the OB and hospital for emotional distress:
During depositions, the mother explained how her grief had been intensified because of the unknown fate of her baby’s remains. She was followed by Dr. R, who explained that he had no official responsibility for the disposition of remains and that such matters were the responsibility of the hospital.
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Although I deeply sympathize with the parents, this is not something worth $450,000.
All of us are going to pay half a million because a corpse was lost. And the lawyers will take half of it. Awesome!
if this lady was indigent, as the article states, that $450k was a windfall lottery for her & her lawyer.
and how emotionally attached could she have been to an 18-week fetus?
And some wonder why there are places that cannot hire obstetricians. This is an outrageous finding by the jury. I hope this indigent woman is presented with a bill for her care now that she has the means to pay.
the bill would undoubtedly go to medicaid since the services in question were provided when she didn’t have means.
when i take service call at a ny hospital, i get $7.50 per hospital day for caring for a medicaid patient.
Yeah, what a windfall – the remains of her child are lost! She really won big there.
In this interesting world we live in, there are people who would sell their living children for considerably less than that.
and there are undoubtedly lots of people who would sell their already-deceased 18-week fetus for a lot less than that.
how many parents who deliver stillborns, preterm or not, do not even inquire about the disposition of the remains? that’d be an interesting question for a hospital, i think.
Happyman, hospitals that I have worked in always inform parents where the remains are sent or they must sign a release form authorizing what the hospital does with the POC’s or dead fetus. The hospital I currently work at also gives the option of sending the remains (16 week gestation and up) to a local funeral home that has a great support system for parents that lost a pregnancy. And in my experience, most do question what happens to the remains.
Happyman must not have any children or he is so blinded by lawsuit phobia that he no longetr sees reality. Of course, since he is happyMAN, he will never carry a child inside him to even have an idea of what losing one is like.
So what’s this have to do with sueing the OB?
“Happyman must not have any children…since he is happyMAN, he will never carry a child inside him to even have an idea of what losing one is like”
to anon 7:41-
1-i do in fact have 3 kids, and almost lost one in a preterm emergent c-section; and my wife did miscarry once
2-i have never been sued, and as far as i know, i’m extremely well-liked by my patients & colleagues
3-by your logic, why not award her like $50 million in damages???
4-i twisted my ankle this morning – can you give me that ob’s name & number so i can sue & collect?
Was the OB in charge of helping your ankle off the curb?
How does the patient know who has responsibility for the body? I doubt anyone at the hospital is volunteering that info.
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