The patient was in surgery to remove moles from her back and left…

Question Answered step-by-step The patient was in surgery to remove moles from her back and left… The patient was in surgery to remove moles from her back and left eyebrow. She was lightly sedated and was receiving oxygen. When the surgeon activated the Bovie instrument to remove the mole near her eyebrow, the spark caused a flash fire that was aug-mented by the supplemental oxygen that the patient was receiv-ing. The surgical team responded immediately and the fire was quickly extinguished. The patient, however, incurred second-degree burns to the left side of her face, leaving permanent scars and reducing her vision in the left eye. She filed a lawsuit for negligence and fraudulent con-cealment against the surgeon, nurse anesthetist, and hospital. The initial trial court found in favor of the plaintiff, awarding damages for malpractice and an additional $425,000 in dam-ages for fraudulently concealing facts about the incident from the patient. At the appellate level, the defendants argued that there was no concealment of the incident in that they did what was required of them; namely that they informed the patient that there had been a fire, detailed the injuries that were caused by the fire, and recommended appropriate treat-ment options to her. QUESTIONS 1. Were there damages that should be paid to this patient for negligence? 2. Who should be the individuals responsible for these dam-ages? For example, is the surgeon the individual most liable for the damages owed to the patient? 3. Should the Bovie manufacturer also have been included in the lawsuit? 4. Are there any defenses that the defendants could cite that would mitigate their liability to this patient? 5. How should the court decide the damage awards in this instance? Health Science Science Nursing NUR 342 Share QuestionEmailCopy link Comments (0)