In normal medical malpractice cases, the “guilt” of a medical practitioner is defended in court by an obvious argument that someone else in the same situation might also have done it. Thus most medical errors wind up in civil courts in the form of malpractice charges.
In normal medical malpractice cases, the “guilt” of a medical practitioner is defended in court by an obvious argument that someone else in the same situation might also have done it. Thus most medical errors wind up in civil courts in the form of malpractice charges.
On rare occasions, when a medical practitioner can be charged with “grossly negligent and reckless behavior,” then the legal argument will revolve around “the act of intentionally endangering the patient.” This recklessness is easy to prove when doctors report to work in drunken states, abuse their co-workers, or willfully deviate from standard of care, fully knowing the consequences of such actions.
Nonetheless, the law often finds it difficult to determine exactly at which point the medical practitioner’s reckless conduct can turn into a crime! This post attempts to describe a criminal conduct exercised by a medical practitioner.
Some law review articles claim that between 1981 and 2005, 30 criminal cases were registered against medical practitioners in the US. Recently, there has been a growing concern around applying criminal laws to medical negligence situations.
The broad understanding is that for a medical malpractice case to turn into a case of criminal negligence there must be “grossly negligent and reckless behavior.” Criminal law also questions the medical practitioner’s state of mind during the act, in which the practitioner “should have been aware” of a “substantial risk” to the patient’s health but was not.
The case of Conrad Murray
In 2014, the trial of Conrad Murray, the attending doctor to pop star but controversial and social deviant Michael Jackson, brings out the question of “grossly negligent and reckless behavior,” where Murray allegedly administered risky doses of an anesthetic called propofol, which led to the untimely death of the pop star. In this case, the act of administering propofol outside the hospital environment without proper monitoring facilities served as direct evidence of willful reckless conduct.
In this example, a health practitioner like Dr. Conrad Murray should have been fully aware of the risks associated with administering Propofol outside the hospital environment. This conduct, under the eyes of criminal law, can be deemed reckless and a gross deviation from the standard of care.
Following a harrowed six-week trial, the Los Angeles jury found Murray guilty of involuntary manslaughter on November 7th, 2011. Dr. Murray was awarded four years’ prison sentence but served two years in prison before getting released in October 2013 for further appeals against his conviction.
This high-profile case establishes that recklessness in medical practice must be criminally prosecuted. In a medical malpractice case involving gross negligence, deviation from standard of care, and reckless behavior, the victim’s family needs the best legal help from a medical malpractice attorney in New York. To get the best advice, the client should contact the Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff, & Wolff of RMFW Law at 212-344-1000. We do not quit until the medical malpractice victim, you, attains full justice.
We are not paid until you are paid. We keep you informed every step of the way. If your case is legitimate, give us call, we would like to hear your side of the story.
