The Supreme Court has overturned a not guilty verdict handed down in a medical malpractice case brought by retired High Court justice Chen Yi-nan (陳貽男) against the doctors who treated his late wife for a brain injury 10 years ago.
Chen’s wife, Wang Yuan-chiu (王苑楸), died after being in a coma for 10 months following an accident at a gym.
Wang was taken to National Taiwan University Hospital at 8:36pm on Feb. 19, 2007, after she slipped and fell in the gym’s sauna, hitting her head.
Doctors Lin Lin (林麟) and Pan Wei-yuan (潘為元) X-rayed Wang, revealing that her skull was fractured, she had suffered a brain hemorrhage and that there were signs of internal bleeding and lesions on her brain.
At about 9:30pm, Wang said she felt dizzy, and then she began vomiting.
When she went to the bathroom at about midnight she again fell and lost consciousness. She never recovered.
Doctors performed emergency surgery at 12:35am, but were unable to restore consciousness.
Wang died in the hospital on Dec. 15, 2007.
Ten months after her death, Chen brought a lawsuit the three doctors who had treated her.
To compensate for medical expenses and emotional trauma, the suit asked for NT$7.38 million (US$245,264 at the current exchange rate), as well as NT$1.66 million for each of Chen’s three children, making a total of NT$12.36 million, but the Taipei District Court ruled in favor of the defendants.
Following an appeal, the High Court ruled in favor of the defendants, arguing that Chen could not prove that Wang’s coma was the result of malpractice.
Chen subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the case should by tried again by the High Court.
The Supreme Court ruled that the burden of proof was with the defendants, saying that they must prove that no malpractice occurred.
The Supreme Court said that on the basis of Article 277 of the Code of Civil Procedure (民事訴訟法), the defendants should be responsible for disproving malpractice since Chen’s attorney lacks the specialized medical knowledge needed to prove his position.
The court said that while Lin and Pan acknowledged Wang’s dizziness and vomiting, they failed to assess the need for a computerized tomography (CT) scan in a timely manner, adding that emergency department director Wu Min-hsun (吳明勳) failed in his responsibilities by not guiding the doctors on proper procedure.
The Supreme Court argued that the High Court failed to hold doctors accountable for disproving malpractice despite its acknowledgment that information was missing from Wang’s medical chart for the time she was in a coma.
In a separate civil lawsuit, the Taipei District Court ruled that doctors should pay Chen and each of his children NT$150,000 each.
Linkou Chang Gung Hospital Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Medicine head physician Lin Pin-jhang (林萍章) said he fears the ruling will have the effect of increasing medical costs for patients.
Additional reporting by Lin Yan-tung
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