Hurtt v. Goleburn

DUFFY, Justice:

This is an appeal from an order of the Superior Court granting summary judgment for defendant-physician in a medical malpractice (wrongful death) action.

I

Briefly stated, defendant diagnosed and prescribed treatment for viral gastroenteritis in an eleven-year-old patient and it is alleged that the death was caused by a perforated appendix. The relevant time period of the physician-patient relationship extended from examination and diagnosis by defendant to the child’s death some forty hours later. The morning after the diagnosis the child’s parent called defendant and, in…