Raniola v. Montefiore Medical Center

Mazzarelli, J.P., and Saxe, J.,

dissent in a memorandum by Saxe, J. as follows: Eight hours after plaintiffs 63-year-old decedent, Osvaldo Quinones, had his right leg amputated below the knee, he fell out of his hospital bed, fracturing his hip. The jury’s finding of liability against defendant hospital was based on the failure of a nurse to raise the bed’s side rail after removing a bedpan, leaving Quinones unprotected from the fall, which occurred when he tried to push himself up in the bed so that he could reach the call button. The hip fracture required the internal fixation of screws,…