DOI: 10.1097/PEC.0b013e31820b61b3

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PMID: 21293230

Issn Print: 0749-5161

Publication Date: 2011/02/01


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Pediatric Emergency Medicine: Legal Briefs

Steven M. Selbst

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Excerpt

An 11-year-old boy was taken to a New Jersey hospital by his mother in July 2005. He had acute abdominal pain.1 The child was examined and tested by a pediatrician and a pediatric surgeon. Radiological studies were obtained (details of this are not known). He was diagnosed with a gastrointestinal condition, and he was discharged. The next day, the patient was brought to his own pediatrician, who did not make a specific diagnosis. The patient's abdominal pain continued, and the next evening, he was brought to another hospital where an emergency appendectomy was performed. A ruptured appendix was found at surgery.
The patient sued and alleged negligence by the physicians in the failure to diagnose appendicitis. The physicians claimed that the diagnosis made was reasonable based on the symptoms presented.
A jury found in favor of the physicians.
Bergen County, NJ Superior Court, case no. BER-L-2291-07.
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