Brown v. St. John's Hospital of Hospital Sisters of Third Order of St. Francis

Malpractice action.

Plaintiff consulted defendant Doctor Azeris in March 1970 for correction of a hammer toe deformity in the fourth and fifth right toes. The surgery, he advised her, would be painful and she opted for the hospital in lieu of his office with a local anesthetic.

The surgical procedure — known as Arthrodesis — was performed the next day at St. John’s Hospital. Briefly, this surgical procedure fuses the joints by removing bone and stabilizes the toes with a Kirschner Wire which goes through the center of the bone and connects the phalanges. To be able, post-operatively, to test…