Gerald P. VanPatten v. State of Indiana

DAVID, Justice.

When a competent adult patient visits a doctor and provides the physician with a medical history intending to aid in then-diagnosis or treatment, we presume those statements are made truthfully because adults know that lying to one’s doctor risks misdiagnosis or mistreatment. Accordingly, the Rules of Evidence generally allow medical professionals to provide substantive testimony as to the statements then-patients make in the course of providing their medical history — even though that testimony would ordinarily be excluded as hearsay. When the patient is a young child,…