Court Opinion

ID: 9679643
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:01:14.183116+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:17.293192
License: Public Domain

LEIBSON, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the Majority Opinion insofar as it goes. However, I believe that we should clarify why KRS 413.140(2) does not apply to this case.
The statute provides “the cause of action [for medical negligence or malpractice] shall be deemed to accrue at the time the injury is first discovered or in the exercise of reasonable care should have been discovered.” Discovery/accrual time means the point where the patient discovers that the condition (in this case a stillborn child) was not a natural event but an untoward event caused by human intervention. In this case if the facts were as claimed, the doctor’s silence in failing to tell the mother that this was a normal, healthy fetus when he delayed delivery to take care of another patient, would toll the statute of limitations, but for the fact that the mother was suspicious from the beginning that the stillbirth was caused by the doctor’s misconduct rather than by natural occurrence.
We should make it clear that a physician has an affirmative duty, born of the physician-patient relationship, a fiduciary relationship, to disclose to his patient medical information bearing on the cause of an occurrence such as this. The patient is dependent upon the physician for information necessary to discover whether an injury has occurred. The discovery rule in KRS 413.140(2) extends time for commencement of the running of the statute of limitations until appropriate information is provided.
I agree with the results in this case because, without being told by the doctor, from the beginning the mother suspected the doctor caused the stillbirth. The fact that the mother suspected from the beginning that an injury may have occurred forecloses the fact question under the statute of whether she should have been aware.
LAMBERT, J., joins in this concurring opinion.