• Mr Bolam was a voluntary patient at a mental health institution run by the Friern Hospital Management Committee in United Kingdom. He agreed to undergo electroconvulsive therapy. He was not given any relaxant drugs, and his body was not restrained during the procedure.
• He flailed about violently before the procedure was stopped, and he suffered some nasty injuries, including fractures of the hip bone. He sued the Committee for compensation. He argued they were negligent for not issuing relaxants/not restraining him/ not warning him about the risks involved.
• The Judge noted that medical opinion was opposed to the use of relaxant drugs, and that manual restraints could sometimes increase the risk of fracture and it was the common practice of the profession to not warn patients of the risk of treatment when it is small unless they are asked.
• In this case, the jury delivered a verdict in favor of the defendant hospital. Given the general medical opinions about what was acceptable electro-shock practice, they had not been negligent in the way they carried out the treatment.
• That passage is quoted very frequently, and has served as the basic rule for professional negligence over the last fifty years.
(Contributed by Dr Sudhir Gupta)
No comments:
Post a Comment