Arterburn v. St. Joseph Hospital & Rehabilitation Center

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Harman, C.:

This is a negligence action against a hospital for damages allegedly incurred when a hospital bed malfunctioned and ruptured a patient’s spleen. Jury trial resulted in a verdict for the hospital. The patient’s appeal involves the correctness of an instruction on circumstantial evidence and the refusal to instruct on res ipsa loquitur. A third party appeal, if reached, involves the propriety of summary judgment dismissing from the proceeding a third party defendant which manufactured a component part of the bed.

The evidence revealed the…