Court Opinion

ID: 9643571
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:33:08.380227+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:01.481801
License: Public Domain

STEWART, Judge
(dissenting).
I dissent from the opinion because it has the effect of making the physician in the case at bar an insurer of the correctness of his judgment.
Previous to consulting Dr. Harting, Marie Jarboe had consulted another physician in connection with her condition, and he had made a tentative diagnosis of uterine tumor. She did not return to this physician but three days later consulted Dr. Harting. The latter took her history, made a physical examination, and concluded therefrom that she was suffering from a fibroid tumor of the uterus.
Dr. Harting performed an exploratory laparotomy and discovered Marie Jarboe was six to eight weeks pregnant. She had an uneventful recovery and returned to her home where, two weeks later, she miscarried.
At the trial no expert evidence was presented to show that Dr. Harting was negligent or that he failed to exercise the required care and skill in making his diagnosis or that there was any connection between the operation and the miscarriage.
The opinion holds that the miscarriage could not be said to be attributable to the operation. Then, in the next breath, it holds that Dr. Harting could be considered negligent by a jury if they, in effect, believed the operation was unnecessary. Of course, after the operation was completed it was found to have been uncalled for, as it was based upon a mistake of judgment.
The crucial question .in this case is whether Dr. Harting had an honest belief that an operation was proper.
It is a well-grounded principle of law that a physician is not liable to his patient for damages resulting from a bona fide error of judgment of which he may be guilty; and, when his decision depends upon an exercise of judgment, the law requires only that the judgment be bona fide. A physician is not an insurer of the correctness of his judgment. Especially is this true in cases of doubt or where competent medical authority is divided. ' See 41 Am. Jur., Physicians and Surgeons, sec. 82, pp. 200, 201.
*780In the case at bar it is uncontradicted that Dr. Harting made nothing more than an honest error of judgment. Another doctor also diagnosed Marie Jarboe as having a uterine tumor.
I would affirm the judgment.