Ah, but Rowley has made an important point. Liability is judged by what the
average casualty officer would reasonably be expected to do in an average
department in the middle of the night, where he has no advance warning that
this is going to end up being an "interesting case discussion", or a
coroner's case for that matter. Hence my rather caustic original reply along
the lines, "he might be lucky to get some NSAIDs". You mustn't be tempted to
judge liability using the retrospectoscope, no matter how awful the eventual
outcome is. Patients and relatives love to do that; doctors and lawyers must
never do so.
Put another way, if I was the independent medical expert in this case, and
given the - admittedly truncated - evidence that we have, I would find it
difficult to reach the conclusion that the casualty officer was negligent.
AF
----- Original Message -----
From: "Adrian Kerner" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 11:49 PM
Subject: Re: A sore leg
>
> Or contact the MDU?
>
> LOL.
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