SURGICAL ERRORS

Possible Verdicts a Coroner Might Consider At an Inquest

Possible Verdicts a Coroner Might Consider At an Inquest

Introduction

The main purpose of this paper is to make an analysis on the case study which is about the death of a patient a as a result of the surgical error. The paper makes discussion on the different legal aspects which could be imposed on different parties who are the verdicts of the death of the patient. The paper discusses the possible verdicts which a coroner might consider at the subsequent inquest. The possible verdicts are being discussed in this paper by making explanation on the different types of medical errors and mainly focusing on the surgical errors. The paper also discusses the patient safety programs which could be helpful in order to deal with these medical (surgical errors).

Case Summary

The case is about an 85 years old woman named Mrs. Smith who admitted into hospital because of pneumonia. Later on, the nurse has assisted her to get out of bed because she slipped on the wet floor and got the fractured neck of her right femur. Thus, a surgery had been conducted in order to treat her fracture after few days. After the eight days of the surgery, Mrs. Smith died of the pulmonary embolism following a deep vein thrombosis. The post-mortem had been conducted and as per the reports of post-mortem a swab was found in the thigh wound. Thus, the paper makes an analysis on the possible verdicts which a coroner might consider at the subsequent inquest.

Discussion

Coroners' inquests provide a unique vehicle by which to study justice in early modern England. All accidental deaths, suspected homicides, suicides, and deaths in prison required a coroner's inquest complete with a jury of no fewer than twelve men drawn not only from the parish where the death occurred, but also from three or four surrounding parishes. Coroners' inquests linked people and institutions at all levels of society: the local community, the county gentry who served as coroners, and the central government in the persons of the justices of Assize and Gaol Delivery, the Court of King's Bench, and (sometimes) the Privy Council in its guise as Court of Star Chamber. Coroners' juries had a different agenda, though: the pursuit of justice. Broadly speaking, justice invoked a notion of the greater good, balancing the impact of the verdict on survivors and the local community with the jury's sense of responsibility or duty towards the victim . It was an ideal that encompassed equity, conscience, and morality. Financial concerns often played a role in determining “justice” too, but these concerns were bound up with a sense that the laws surrounding deodands22 and forfeitures often punished innocent parties (widows and children, especially) rather than those who were really at fault. It is difficult, if not impossible, to separate the jurors' fear of having to put a fpmily on a parish's poor rates with their belief that the law that deprived such families of ...