Lorenz v. Booth

Citations

• 84 Wash. 550
• 147 P. 31
• 1915 Wash. LEXIS 1321

Syllabus

<p>Physicians and Surgeons — Negligence — What Constitutes. Where there is more than one method of treating a fractured bone, the attending surgeon is not liable for an honest mistake of judgment in selecting a method recognized as proper by a respectable minority of the medical profession.</p> <p>Physicians and Surgeons — -Malpractice—Actions — Evidence — • Sufficiency. In an action to recover damages for malpractice in the treatment of a broken leg, on the ground of resulting infection to the limb, the evidence is insufficient to sustain a recovery, where it appears that the surgeon adopted the Lane, or plate, method for uniting the fracture and that the bone united properly, leaving the leg straight and of normal length; that infection set in, requiring prolonged treatment and the calling in of another physician to eradicate it; that infection may occur in any surgical case though carefully guarded against; but there was no evidence that the infection was caused by the method of setting the leg, or that every precaution looking to the prevention of infection was not exercised at the hospital where the leg was set.</p>