Bakal v. University Heights Sanitarium, Inc.

The issue is whether defendant, a private hospital operated for profit, is responsible for its nurse’s negligent acts, not administrative or clerical, but performed in relation to a patient’s medical care in connection with an operation performed in the hospital by the patient’s own surgeon.

Plaintiff was a paying patient in defendant’s private hospital concededly operated for profit. On October 25, 1947, an anal fistula was removed by defendant, Dr. Eisenstat, a surgeon engaged by plaintiff. During the operation • that was had under a general anesthetic, plaintiff, the patient, was severely…