Matsuyama v. Birnbaum

We are asked to determine whether Massachusetts law permits recovery for a “loss of chance” in a medical malpractice wrongful death action, where a jury found that the defendant physician’s negligence deprived the plaintiff’s decedent of a less than even chance of surviving cancer. We answer in the affirmative.3 As we later explain more fully, the loss of chance doctrine views a person’s prospects for surviving a serious medical condition as something of value, even if the possibility of recovery was less than even prior to the physician’s tortious conduct. Where a physician’s negligence…