Amputation

Amputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventative surgery for such problems. A special case is the congenital amputation, a congenital disorder, where foetal limbs have been cut off by constrictive bands. In some countries, amputation of the hands or feet was or is used as a form of punishment for criminals. Amputation has also been used as a tactic in war and acts of terrorism. In some cultures and religions, minor amputations or mutilations are considered a ritual accomplishment. Unlike many non-mammalian animals, (such as lizards which shed their tails), once removed, human extremities do not grow back. A transplant or a prosthesis are the only options for recovering the loss. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amputation Medical Malpractice cases are complicated matters. If your have been seriously and permanently injured as a result of negligence, consult a personal injury attorney. If an injury case is not the type we can handle, we will try to refer you to another competent trial attorney. The following legal information is used in Medical malpractice trials in New Jersey: Duty and Negligence Negligence is conduct which deviates from a standard of care required by law for the protection of persons from harm. Negligence may result from the performance of an act or the failure to act. The determination of whether a defendant was negligent requires a comparison of the defendant's conduct against a standard of care. If the defendant's conduct is found to have fallen below an accepted standard of care, then he or she was negligent. Common Knowledge May Furnish Standard of Care Negligence is the failure to comply with the standard of care to protect a person from harm. Negligence in a doctor's medical practice, which is called malpractice, is the doctor's failure to comply with the standard of care in the care and treatment of his/her patient. Usually it is necessary to establish the standard of care by expert testimony, that is, by testimony of persons who are qualified by their training, study and experience to give their opinions on subjects not generally understood by persons, such as jurors, who lack such special training or experience. In the usual case the standard of care by which to judge the defendant's conduct cannot be determined by the jury without the assistance of expert medical testimony. However, in some cases, such as the case at hand, the jury may determine from its common knowledge and experience the standard of care by which to judge the defendant's conduct. In this case plaintiff contends that the defendant violated the duty of care he/she owed to the plaintiff by doing ____________________________ [ or by failing to do the following ____________________]. In this case, therefore, it is for you, as jurors, to determine, based upon common knowledge and experience, what skill and care the average physician practicing in the defendant's field would have exercised in the same or similar circumstances. It is for you as jurors to say from your common knowledge and experience whether the defendant deviated from the standard of care in the circumstances of this case. Where there has been expert medical testimony as to the standard of care, but the standard is one which can also be determined by the jury from its common knowledge and experience, the jury should determine the standard of care after considering all the evidence in the case, including the expert medical testimony, as well as its own common knowledge and experience. After determining the standard of care required in the circumstances of this case, you should then consider the evidence to determine whether the defendant has complied with or departed from that standard of care. If you find that defendant has complied with that standard of care he/she is not liable to the plaintiff, regardless of the result. If you find that defendant has not complied with that standard of care, resulting in injury or damage to the plaintiff, then you should find defendant negligent and return a verdict for plaintiff. Cases and Notes: a) Common Knowledge The common knowledge doctrine was applied in Martin v. Perth Amboy General Hospital, 104 N.J. Super. 335 (App. Div. 1969), where a laparotomy pad was left in plaintiff's body during an operation, Tramutola v. Bortone, 63 N.J. 9 (1973), where plaintiff discovered that a needle had been left in her chest during surgery; Steinke v. Bell, 32 N.J. Super. 67 (App. Div. 1954), where a dentist removed the wrong tooth; Becker v. Eisenstodt, 60 N.J. Super. 240 (App. Div. 1960), where the defendant used a caustic substance instead of an anesthetic; and Terhune v. Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital, 63 N.J. Super. 106 (App. Div. 1960), where plaintiff was burned as a result of the improper administration of an anesthetic during childbirth, Nowacki v. Community Medical Center , 279 N.J. Super. 276 (App. Div. 1995), where plaintiff alleged that she fell while attempting to lift herself onto a treatment table, Tierney v. St. Michael's, 214 N.J. Super. 27 (App. Div. 1986), certif. den. 107 N.J. 114 (1987), where plaintiff's infant crawled out of a crib while hospitalized at the defendant hospital, Winters v. Jersey City Medical Center , 120 N.J. Super. 129 (App. Div. 1972), where the court held that one does not need an expert witness to testify that the bed rails should have been in the up position for an elderly person who fell out of bed. The common knowledge doctrine was applied to a failure to communicate an abnormal finding and the signing of an incorrect discharge summary in Jenoff v. Gleason, 215 N.J. Super. 349 (App. Div. 1987). In Rosenberg by Rosenberg v. Cahill, 99 N.J. 318 (1985), the common knowledge doctrine was not applied to the failure to observe a tumor in an x-ray.